IDEAL Future Work Package 2 Report

10 mentors in schools. Schools use learning management systems from year 1999. There is also big effort on digital learning materials. In national curriculum for general education there is high expectations regarding digital competencies and coding therefore there are efforts to provide teachers with digital competencies to support students in reaching learning objectives set in curriculum. Ireland have focused on integrating into new curricula reforms such as that of the draft primary school curriculum. In addition national professional learning support provided via Oide technology in education division 4 , they also support national projects in the area of technology integration. To date there has been no universal or national guidelines or implementation plan for the integration of digital learning in schools. Funding for infrastructure has not been continuous and so the responsibility and autonomy to implement the digital strategy has been at the discretion of the school as has professional learning in the area of digital learning. It seems that although there have been attempts throughout Europe via the European Digital Education Action plan and Digcompedu framework, practice between countries in this area varies significantly. Despite the prevalence of the digital agenda across policies and educational reforms in Europe, the progression of their implementation has been slow with few actions to support their implementation, with little evidence of funding or initiatives 5 (OECD, 2023) Regarding the implementation of policy, there has been a dearth in research on the effective implementation digital learning in practice. The level of usage of digital learning schools was investigated in 2016 by the ICT in education survey, it found that that the majority of teachers use technology in a quarter of their lessons, with a third of teachers using these in more than 75% of their teaching 6 . The reports are largely based on self-reported measures and it is important to note that the use of technology in teaching does not equate to good practice and is highly contextual. In many schools a more critical and integrated approach to integrating digital learning is required. 7 Despite the reported widespread use there is disparity teachers self-reported confidence in their digital skills. In 2018 only 43 % of teachers felt well prepared to use digital learning in schools 8 . However in the 2019 EU ICT in education survey, the majority of teachers reported feeling confident in basic digital learning skills. In 2022 there was a survey of teachers who started the courses of digital mentors and it was found out that they feel that they have some skills in using digital technologies but they lack competence for ensuring technology enhanced learning. 9 . There has been little or no largescale research conducted with regard to the impact of digital learning on student learning. In OECD report (2022) the main risks of use of digital devices are mentioned but those risks are mostly associated with non-regulated use of them, no specific digital learning materials provided etc. It means that at this point there are research data which confirm that digital devices can be harmful for children but this is only one side of digitalization as we believe that digital learning space should be planned and organized according to students needs and learning objectives they should reach. 10 PISA have plans for 2025 to start the survey on Learning in the Digital World 11 4 Oide (2023) Oide Technology in Education 5 OECD (2023) Policies for the digital transformation of school education: State of play and key policy 6 EU (2016) 2nd Survey of Schools: ICT in Education: Shaping Europe’s digital future (europa.eu ) 7 Department of Education (2020) Digital Learning 2020: Reporting on practice in Early Learning and Care, Primary and Post-Primary Contexts 8 OECD (2018) Teachers and School Leaders as Lifelong Learners (TALIS Survey) 9 Sarva, E., Purina-Bieza, K. E., & Daniela, L. (2022). Self Evaluating Instrument for Measuring Educators’ Digital Competence. In INTED2022 proceedings (pp. 3568-3576). IATED. 10 OECD (2024), “Students, digital devices and success”, OECD Education Policy Perspectives , No. 102, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9e4c0624-en. 11 PISA 2025 Learning in the Digital World/ https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/sub-issues/learning-in-the-digital- world/pisa-2025-learning-in-the-digital-world.html