The Digital Education Manifesto

The Digital Education Manifesto is the result of a two-day gathering in January 2017 held under the auspices of Malta’s EU Presidency. The speakers in the Digital Education Conference2 included global policy-makers, thought- leaders, education practitioners and activists from organisations including MIT Media Lab, Creative Commons, UNESCO, Open Society Foundations, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Learning Machine and the Commonwealth of Learning. Their task was to map the state and future of digital education in six key areas. For each of these areas, they presented the priorities for moving towards a desired future.

The background for this Manifesto states that:

Multiple surveys show skills gaps between what is taught and what is needed – both in terms of life skills and skills for employment. Uneven uptake of competences for a digital society are creating a new digital-divide. The Internet, the emergence of smart, personal technologies and the mass uptake of the social web are further challenging long-standing power relations between education institutions and those they prepare for their lifelong learning and employment journey. Our educational systems are faltering in their ability to deliver on their core promise - leading to broader social questioning of the value of education, expertise or even the scienti c method as a whole. 

For education to influence these trends, it needs to lead rather than react to technological change, and, in particular by proposing a vision for the digital revolution to enrich rather than replace traditions of humanism. The group argues that just as in every other industry which has been disrupted, the disruption comes not from technology, but from those new business/ operational models which best manage to take advantage of technologies to address people’s needs.

The key question for the future of digital education is not how to adapt education to digital technologies and a digital world, but how to leverage digital technologies to fundamentally change educational systems so that they may again ful l their promise of continually expanding human potential. 

This Manifesto especially focus on the five following areas:

• BEST PRACTICES IN POLICY DESIGN FOR DIGITAL EDUCATION
• OPENNESS & EQUITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION
• SYSTEMS FOR ACCREDITATION AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF ONLINE LEARNING
• INNOVATION & DIGITAL PEDAGOGIES
• TEACHERS, LEARNERS AND DIGITAL EDUCATION 

Read the Manifesto here

Several research studies as well as leading international organisations, as UNESCO, OECD, Commonwealth of Learning (COL), and in Europe the European Commission (EC) have for long time emphasized that  digital success, and capability extended far beyond technology adoption, and encompasses the entire institutional  leadership and community. In  a paper from EducauseReview by Grajek(2016) it is emphasized the importance of an ecosystem for a change, but not at least for sustainability  within an organization, that following is required

• A sufficient and sustainable funding model
• A sufficient and sustainable staffing model
• Active support from institutional leadership
• Active support from the faculty
• Engagement of the entire institutional community
• Adequate training for the institutional community
• Alignment with institutional strategy
• Dedicated leadership of the area
• Support for policies that are appropriate and clear

To be successful, with quality development  in an organization it all boils down to leadership, and to both work on embracing bottom up initiatives, but also  to have clear, and understandable visions, mission, and strategies for the organization.  As the saying is:

Nothing is stronger than the weakest link in an organization