About the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education 2025
The digital environment and technologies provide unprecedented means and opportunities for people to express themselves in different ways, to discover, learn and create, and to communicate and socialise. But they also bring new challenges.
Amidst the challenges exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the advent of disruptive technologies like ChatGPT, the challenging issues that Digital Citizenship Education (DCE) seeks to address such as disinformation, cyberbullying, online hate speech and the misuse of personal data have become more prominent. This underlines the urgent need for increased efforts and investment in DCE to empower learners of all ages to face the challenges created or amplified by digital technologies and harness the benefits to thrive.
The Council of Europe is launching the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education 2025 (European Year 2025) to give a new impetus to the development and promotion of digital citizenship education in all member States.
The European Year 2025 stands as a unique opportunity to enhance the visibility and impact of digital citizenship education and reaffirm its value. This designated year should provide a strategic platform for key stakeholders from the public, private and civil sectors to work together, set common goals and share sense-making practices. It will provide a concise yet impactful space for measuring achievements and collectively defining a road map for the future of digital citizenship education. Through streamlined efforts, this initiative is expected to propel DCE forward, ensuring its resilience and effectiveness in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
Launch conference
The main objectives of the launch conference are:
- to promote the take-up of the European Year 2025 by all member states of the Council of Europe and other relevant stakeholders, and
- to set the scene for the development of a roadmap for the future of digital citizenship education.
The working languages of the conference will be English and French.
Download the Concept note.
Programme outline
Day 1
The European Year of Digital Citizenship Education 2025
This session will present concept and key objectives of the European Year 2025 and inform the participants about the planned activities and resources.
State of Digital Citizenship Education
This session will present the findings from the Review of the implementation of the CM Recommendation on Digital Citizenship Education in member states and examples of good practices.
Digital Citizenship Education: Sharing An Integrated Approach
This session will look into understanding of the digital citizenship education concept from the perspective of various target groups, such as parents and carers, youth, academia, policy makers, education sector, etc.
Digital Citizenship Education: Integration of DCE in Education and Training
This session will discuss the role of the education sector in ensuring safe learning environment as all as into ways of addressing challenges in integration of DCE in curricula.
Digital Citizenship Education: Stakeholders Roles and Perspectives
This session present various approaches to the concept of digital citizenship education presented by the partners of the Council of Europe.
Day 2
Addressing Challenges: Communication
This session will discuss the ways of addressing challenges in communication on DCE, specifically from cultural, political and practical perspectives.
Addressing Challenges: International Cooperation
This session will explore opportunities for improving lack of coordinated action between the main stakeholders of DCE (including global initiatives).
Frame for Action: Concept and the Strategic Objectives of the Road Map
Call for application
Please apply here (https://forms.office.com/e/qxFede27B4) before and no later than 4 December 2024 (midnight).
To ensure a balanced and diverse participation, the Conference organising committee will evaluate applicants based on their professional background and interest, relevant work outputs, their potential to meaningfully contribute to discussions on advancing the digital citizenship education.
The selected participants will be notified during the week of 9 December 2024.
N.B. The Council of Europe will only be able to cover the travel expenses of guest speakers and invited experts. Therefore, all the interested parties are requested to organise their own travel and accommodation in Strasbourg. However, it is strongly recommended to NOT engage in any financial commitments until receiving the confirmation of attendance from the Education Department of the Council of Europe.
Please follow the conference webpage for further information, including practical details, updates about the conference programme and background documents.
For more information:
European Year of Digital Citizenship Education 2025 - webpage