EU offers guidelines for schools to boost digital literacy

The European Commission has this week released its guidelines for educators on promoting digital skills and tackling disinformation for use in primary and secondary schools across the EU.

The guidelines provide teachers with the background, best practices and resources for teaching youth how to think critically, evaluate and identify false information and were developed by an expert group of representatives from academia and education, civil society and the media, brought together by the Commission last year.

“Eight in 10 Europeans think that the existence of fake news is a problem in their country and for democracy in general…and only 53% of 15-year-olds in the EU reported having been told how to detect whether the information is subjective or biased”, said Commissioner for culture, education and youth, Mariya Gabriel at the guidelines’ launch on Tuesday (11 October). 

“We know that this is not a new phenomenon. It is a complex matter that creates divisions and even causes harm, and, truth be told, it is not going away”, she added. “Therefore, the need to strengthen education and training and provide teachers with the skills and competencies to teach digital literacy and inform on disinformation is clear.”

EU Commission gathers expert group on disinformation and digital literacy 

The European Commission launched on Tuesday (12 October) an expert group on disinformation and digital literacy to develop common guidelines for educators when it comes to combating the former and training citizens in the latter.

The guidelines have been introduced amidst a broader push for better digital education and greater efforts to combat disinformation and fall under the EU executive’s Digital Education Action Plan, adopted in 2020.  

Almost a year after its launch, the expert group on disinformation and digital literacy published its toolkit, spanning three key focus areas: assessing and strengthening digital literacy and combatting disinformation.

The guidelines include tips and definitions for educators, as well as concrete plans for teaching, and covering areas including distinguishing between fact and opinion, understanding the background to, as well as the economics and emotional components of disinformation and approaches to fact-checking.

The toolkit is also accompanied by a report that looks more broadly at the role of education in fighting disinformation and potential policy responses at both EU and national levels.

Gabriel announced on Tuesday that this training focus will similarly be embedded into the Erasmus+ 2023 work programme, with projects examining teaching methods and curricula designed for the same ends.

Digital Education Action Plan

The toolkit comes as part of the Commission’s Digital Education Action Plan, which runs until 2027 and sets out a vision of high-standard and inclusive education and supports member states in ensuring that their school systems are equipped for the digital age.

Digital skills as a whole have also been an area of increasing Commission attention, given their centrality to the EU executive’s Digital Decade targets, which aim to ensure the possession of basic digital skills by 80% of the EU’s population by 2030.

The idea is to prevent the deepening of a digital divide in disadvantaged areas, where the education system is less equipped to deal with the challenges raised by new technologies.

Gabriel outlines key areas for EU digital education action plan

Developing digital competencies across the EU as well as promoting gender equality in the bloc’s digital economy are two key areas that the European Commission will seek to foster as part of the forthcoming revamped Digital Education Action Plan, the EU’s Innovation and Research Commissioner Mariya Gabriel has said.

The guidelines are also embedded into Brussels’ broader focus on tackling disinformation.

Earlier this year, the Commission released its updated Code of Practice on Disinformation, a set of voluntary measures intended to tackle the issue to which organisations can sign up as a demonstration of their commitment. 

The tool, intended to evolve into a co-regulatory instrument for the most prominent online platforms under the recently approved Digital Services Act (DSA), spans areas such as advertising, content manipulation, transparency and fact-checking. 

Its list of signatories, which included mainly major platforms in its first incarnation, expanded during the update process to include players such as messaging services, advertisers, research institutes and civil society organisations. 

Platforms prepare for new anti-disinformation commitments in revamped code of practice

The new Code of Practice on Disinformation, seen by EURACTIV before its publication on Thursday (16 June), contains a set of commitments related to online advertising, tacking manipulative practices, transparency and access to data.

[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Alice Taylor]

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