Osaava DigiOpe -kehittämistyö

Goals and results

The aim of the descriptions of digital competence for teaching and education personnel is to reduce disparities in digital competence among staff in the education sector. The descriptions are intended to ensure that personnel have sufficient understanding, as well as digital and digital pedagogical competence, to guide pupils in learning and participation in an increasingly digital society. Furthermore, the goal is to support pupils in the responsible use of digital technologies, critical media literacy, and understanding of artificial intelligence. Strengthening digital competence among teaching staff also supports the execution of work and helps to manage workload. Strong digital competence is a prerequisite for the flexible development of professional skills among education and teaching personnel.

As part of the development work, descriptions of digital competence for teaching and education personnel in pre-primary and basic education will be produced. These descriptions will outline the concrete digital and digital pedagogical skills, knowledge, and understanding required by staff when using digital tools, learning environments and materials, as well as artificial intelligence, in order to achieve the objectives set out in national steering documents and to support the development of learners’ competences.

Starting points

According to studies, digitalisation and digital competence are not progressing evenly across the Finnish education system. Variations in competence are evident among both staff and learners at different levels of education. This poses challenges to the equitable development of digital competence.

The increasing use of artificial intelligence accelerates the need for critical media literacy and sufficient AI competence. The Finnish Programme of Prime Minister (2023) sets the objective of strengthening teachers’ ability to guide pupils in developing critical media literacy and awareness of cyber risks, in order to reinforce broad societal resilience. Teaching personnel must systematically develop their own digital competence and understand its relevance to their work, so that disparities in pupils’ skills can be reduced and development can keep pace with rapid technological change. To create meaningful learning processes that incorporate digital elements, teaching and education personnel need both general skills in using digital devices and digital pedagogical competence.