General Assembly on Digital Education

Description

The Etats Généraux du Numérique pour l’Education is an initiative launched by the French Ministry of Education to reflect on the issues related to the use of digital technologies in education and to develop a vision and strategy for the school of tomorrow. The approach was based on a consultation process with education stakeholders, including teachers, students, parents, researchers, companies and associations. The contributions received were then used to develop a digital school action plan.

The interest of this approach is to allow a collective reflection on the issues related to the use of digital technologies in education, to develop a vision and a strategy for the school of tomorrow that takes into account the perspectives of all the actors in education and the latest advances in digital technologies, as well as the challenges of the digital society for students.

The Estates General were held following the first confinements in France during the COVID-19 health crisis. On this occasion, digital tools demonstrated their usefulness by allowing educational continuity, but at the same time their use raised many questions in terms of pedagogy, the digital divide and inclusion.

Points of interest

• Taking into account the perspectives of all education stakeholders, especially teachers who are at the heart of the implementation of digital technologies in the classroom;
• Defining a vision and strategy for the digital school that is consistent with the needs and realities of education;
• Leveraging the latest advances in digital technologies to improve learning and teaching

Points of vigilance

• The complexity of implementing this approach, which requires a high level of commitment and coordination from all education stakeholders;
• The difficulty of obtaining meaningful participation of all education stakeholders;
• The difficulty of implementing the actions and reforms that result from this approach because of the complexity and costs involved;
• Difficulty in assessing the real impact of this approach on education