Learning from Extremes (LfE)
Main funder
Funder's project number: LC-01760255/101022266LfE
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 82 500,00
Funding program
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/02/2022
Project end date: 31/01/2024
Summary
In rural towns and communities the necessity of telecommunications services cannot be overstated: Where growth and economic development is desired, telecommunications infrastructure and high-speed communications to attract new business and industry are essential. Everybody in a rural community - schools, hospitals, businesses, city and county governments, community groups and individuals – benefit from access to improved communications, commerce and information. Underdeveloped communications infrastructure has a direct impact to the economic and social welfare of rural communities: schools can provide limited access to internet resources, remote tele-workers are unable to transfer large data-files between office and home, the local commercial or civic web-sites cannot be accessed rapidly, discouraging a potential customer or visitor from within or outside the community.
The rural-urban divide has a direct impact not only on the access but also on the creation of knowledge. Without access to broadband for example, a researcher has no access to data-intensive applications that are only available to colleagues connected by urban local area network, and a rural automotive designer needs to relocate to the company headquarters to participate in interactive, real-time, computer-aided modeling of a new vehicle. The remoteness of a rural area leads to massive set-up costs. With poor career training and low literacy rates, it is unlikely that a poor rural individual, who values access to the internet and other technologies, will be able to afford the access costs. Thus, large-scale technology initiatives have little hope of success unless at least a basic level of community capacity is in place. “The social structure of creativity relies on the existence of a milieu open to all forms of creativity – artistic and cultural, as well as technological and economic. This milieu provides the underlying ecosystem or habitat in which the multidimensional forms of creativity take root and flourish” (P. Cohendet (2019), Report for ESA: “The Digital Divide in the European Enlarged Economic Scenario: An Assessment of the Socio-economic Effects”). Thus, it is paramount to offer stimulating and creative environments to support vibrant communities – educational (teachers and students in schools, universities and training centers), scientific (research and science centers), medical (doctors, nurses, emergency units), artistic, local government, business –. This in turn will help to attract those who create in business and technology and to facilitate the rapid transmission of knowledge and ideas.
The Learning from the Extremes proposal aims at contributing to the reduction of the digital gap suffered by pupils from remote areas and communities with low connectivity, limited or no access to devices and digital educational tools and content. It focuses on addressing inequalities of access to digital education by enhancing inclusion and by reducing the digital gap suffered by pupils from remote areas and communities with low connectivity, limited or no access to devices and digital educational tools and content. The mail output of Learning from the Extremes is a proposed strategy designed to increase access to digital education in the EU remote areas and communities that mostly need such support.
The mail objectives of Learning from the Extremes are:
1. to gain insights and understanding related to the access and use of, and attitudes and needs towards the use of digital technologies in education by surveying head teachers, teachers, ICT coordinators, pupils and parents.
2. to exchange and analyse best practices and successful applications of how to increase access to digital educational solutions with a focus on schools located in remote areas.
3. to support schools with targeted educational consultation and training services
4. to run deployment pilots to allow primary, secondary and vocational schools to benefit from the most suitable technical solutions to reduce the digital gap
5. to run training programmes to enhance teachers’ digital competences
6. to develop a strategy with regard to how to increase access to digital education in remote areas and communities with low connectivity, limited or no access to devices and digital educational tools and content throughout the EU.
The rural-urban divide has a direct impact not only on the access but also on the creation of knowledge. Without access to broadband for example, a researcher has no access to data-intensive applications that are only available to colleagues connected by urban local area network, and a rural automotive designer needs to relocate to the company headquarters to participate in interactive, real-time, computer-aided modeling of a new vehicle. The remoteness of a rural area leads to massive set-up costs. With poor career training and low literacy rates, it is unlikely that a poor rural individual, who values access to the internet and other technologies, will be able to afford the access costs. Thus, large-scale technology initiatives have little hope of success unless at least a basic level of community capacity is in place. “The social structure of creativity relies on the existence of a milieu open to all forms of creativity – artistic and cultural, as well as technological and economic. This milieu provides the underlying ecosystem or habitat in which the multidimensional forms of creativity take root and flourish” (P. Cohendet (2019), Report for ESA: “The Digital Divide in the European Enlarged Economic Scenario: An Assessment of the Socio-economic Effects”). Thus, it is paramount to offer stimulating and creative environments to support vibrant communities – educational (teachers and students in schools, universities and training centers), scientific (research and science centers), medical (doctors, nurses, emergency units), artistic, local government, business –. This in turn will help to attract those who create in business and technology and to facilitate the rapid transmission of knowledge and ideas.
The Learning from the Extremes proposal aims at contributing to the reduction of the digital gap suffered by pupils from remote areas and communities with low connectivity, limited or no access to devices and digital educational tools and content. It focuses on addressing inequalities of access to digital education by enhancing inclusion and by reducing the digital gap suffered by pupils from remote areas and communities with low connectivity, limited or no access to devices and digital educational tools and content. The mail output of Learning from the Extremes is a proposed strategy designed to increase access to digital education in the EU remote areas and communities that mostly need such support.
The mail objectives of Learning from the Extremes are:
1. to gain insights and understanding related to the access and use of, and attitudes and needs towards the use of digital technologies in education by surveying head teachers, teachers, ICT coordinators, pupils and parents.
2. to exchange and analyse best practices and successful applications of how to increase access to digital educational solutions with a focus on schools located in remote areas.
3. to support schools with targeted educational consultation and training services
4. to run deployment pilots to allow primary, secondary and vocational schools to benefit from the most suitable technical solutions to reduce the digital gap
5. to run training programmes to enhance teachers’ digital competences
6. to develop a strategy with regard to how to increase access to digital education in remote areas and communities with low connectivity, limited or no access to devices and digital educational tools and content throughout the EU.
Principal Investigator
Other persons related to this project (JYU)
Contact person (yes/no): Yes | |
