Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
New research to tackle the digital divide
The project is led by the I.P.S. Istituto Professionale, Albe Steiner high school in Turin, Italy, with 12 partner institutions from five countries: Italy, France, Bulgaria, Spain and the UK. Dr Naeema Hann, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader of the MA English Language Teaching online programme, is leading a project team here at Leeds Beckett.
The project, Digital Skilled Teachers Acting for Higher and Inclusive Education - Teachers AHEAD, aims to strengthen and improve education and training systems, for teachers and learners, through inclusive and innovative practices.
The Leeds Beckett team will be leading on the development of an app and a board game to help people who are new to a country and getting to grips with the new language. The app will help learners to integrate socially in their new country and to feel included; while the board game will help pupils with English as an additional language to integrate into their new schools.
Dr Hann explained: “Only 30 per cent of EU students have digital skills and between 18 and 28 per cent of EU students have little chance of accessing the internet and using it at school and at home. So, it is very important to promote and share educational paths that reduce this digital divide.”
Our university will also host a week-long event next year for teachers in Italy, France, Bulgaria and Spain where they will work together on a project while sharing their skills and reflecting on their different cultures.
Over the course of the three-year project, the five partners will produce a free online tool to share people’s experiences of inclusion in different European countries and a variety of digital materials to promote the inclusion of new communities in school and society – such as the app and board game being developed here at Leeds Beckett.
The AHEAD project follows on from a recently-completed project, Promoting European Awareness and Key Competences, between our university and Albe Steiner high school. Both projects have been funded by the European Commission, with our university receiving €48,737 for the new AHEAD project.