Speeding-up Adoption of e-Learning Innovation in Europe: Mission Possible?

Abstract

The need to equip European citizens with the so-called 21st century skills2 is one of the central targets of the most recent EC documents in the field of education and training, and the role ofICT in acquiring these skills, both in terms of digital literacy and of other “literacies”, is recognized in all these policy communications (Bocconi et al., 2013; Brecko et al., 2014). The urgency of this can be perceived if we think that 15 million new jobs will be available inEurope by 2020 that require a total or partial new skills set, as estimated by the EuropeanCommissioner for Education and Culture in the March 2010 University-Business Forum.Furthermore, a number of recent studies3 show that ICT is increasingly used in learning settings throughout Europe form school education to higher education to vocational training and adult learning, with different degrees of “penetration” in different sectors of E&T and indifferent countries; and that some national ICT-for–learning policies, such as the Iniciativa Novas Oportunidades in Portugal4, are having an impact on the level of innovation that theLisbon strategy and the ET2020 strategy have set as one of the main targets for European society in 2020.