While ICT have long since become embedded in all spheres of human endeavours, education systems are struggling to keep up with the pace of changes associated with technological progress. Despite the fact that in most countries digital devices and applications are widely employed for teaching and learning purposes, education fails to respond to the emerging needs and foster 21st century skills due to domination of traditional pedagogical approaches and methods. To address these challenges, the reform of the educational paradigm and the revision of traditional pedagogy and curriculum are needed. This transformation should be based on critical analysis of the use of ICT tools and digital content in classroom, blended and online learning. New ‘digital’ pedagogy demands innovative tools and conceptual approaches. It is intended to support adaptive and personalized learning and contribute to the design of new creative modes of learning, enrichment of learning experiences and improvement of learning outcomes.
Digital pedagogy values open education, including open educational resources (OER). One of the Unit’s activities “Mainstreaming Open Educational Resources” is aimed at promoting OER in non-English-speaking countries. To this end, the Unit provides support for the development and contextualizing of OER policies, explores OER initiatives and best practices, facilitates the exchange of pedagogies and instruction methodologies in using OER, arranges capacity-building in the use of OER in non-English-speaking countries, and contributes to the development of indicators for monitoring of OER adoption and impact to provide comparative benchmarks around ICT in SDG4.
In order to benefit from digital pedagogy approaches educators and learners should master digital skills, including ICT competencies (ICT CFT), media and information literacy (MIL), etc. Unit’s programme activity “Promoting Media and Information Literacy” includes awareness raising about MIL advantages and advocacy of the value of MIL for education; contributing to the development of MIL-related policies and professional strategies at international, regional and national levels; conducting trainings on MIL for educators and university/school librarians, and developing relevant educational materials and tools; and facilitating cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration among stakeholders.
In promoting digital pedagogy, IITE works with policy-makers, civil society and various other stakeholders, drawing on its own research and existing research evidence, focusing on how pedagogical and technological innovations can enhance learning. IITE exerts efforts to facilitate the transfer of innovation research into educational practice and support effective learning through ICT-enabled pedagogy. The Institute promotes innovative approaches, methodology, tools and techniques of integrating ICT and pedagogy into different levels and sectors of education, in particular higher education and TVET.