DISTANCE-DIGITAL TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE POST-COVID-19 ERA

The unexpected pandemic of Covid-19 has caused a great alternation in the educational systems worldwide, whereas the health crisis had affected the school education of almost 1.6 billion children across 195 countries globally. In most countries, the pandemic brought about temporary closures of schools while digital learning became the new normality. These nationwide closures not only affect school learning but also impose new ways of teaching, bringing to light the importance of digital literacy, the use of technology tools, the resilience of educational procedures adn the readiness of educational bodies to offer constance high quality teaching, learning and assessmentThe target groups of the project are:-the direct target group is UPPER PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS whose profiles will be upgraded and strengthened through the professional development programme to be developed for up-skilling, re-skilling and upgrading their digital, pedagogical and methodological competences to be able to design, deliver and evaluate online training and learning activities.-The indirect target groups are PARENTS who will be provided with guidance in order to support their children in the distance learning process, especially the ones who are younger, as well as the STUDENTS who will be provided with support on how to organize their time, how to stay focused etc.Based on the above, the Di2Learn school sector project addresses 4 main priorities:HORIZONTAL: Supporting educators, youth workers, educational leaders and supporting staffSCHOOL: Strengthening the profiles of the teaching professionSCHOOL: Developing strong quality assurance systemsHORIZONTAL: Innovative practices in a digital eraThis will be achieved through the design, development, pilot-testing and evaluation of DISTANCE LEARNING TOOL KIT supported by a CLOUD-BASED PLATFORM and a MOBILE APP aiming to support SCHOOLS to develop their own DISTANCE LEARNING ACTION PLAN in order to introduce DISTANCE AND DIGITAL LEARNING in their formal schooling. More specifically the project aims:-To support schools to develop their own DISTANCE LEARNING ACTION PLAN which will lead to the modernisaiton and the digital transformation of their schools -To empower teachers through upskilling and re-skilling opportunities based on the provision of professional development courses to help them design and deliver distance teaching, while also supporting students to proceed with distance learning.-To develop a capacity building series of workshops both on and off line to support parents for their role especially with younger children during distance learning.-To support students with study, personal and organisational skills for remote learningBased on the above, the Di2LEARN project will include the following activities:- 4 Intellectual Outputs- 7 Multiplier Events - 3 Transnational Project Meetings- 1 Short Term Joint Staff TrainingThe expected results are:- The upgrade of the teaching, learning and assessment provision- The strengthening of teachers’ profiles to deal with the modernation and digital transformation of formal schooling- the empowerment of students during distance learning- the enhancement of tools/ resources/ material/ courses- The development and provision of a professional development course for teachers- the creation of a series of videos to support parents and also students- the provision of a platform which will include all digitalised material, but also host the distance learning school academy of the schools to be set up- the mobile app with frequent messages to boost teachers, parents and students' morale