Abstract:

After two and a half years of extensive cooperation among twelve Language Centres around Finland, the 2digi2 project has concluded in December 2023 with the launch of its website. There, language and communication teachers from all around the world can find open resources to assist them in navigating the rapidly changing digital teaching environment.

Our presentation will first provide an overview of the webpages and summarise the results obtained by our teams in the four main points of interest of the project, namely learning objectives for the digital age, generic skills needed in a digital environment, special needs, and relationship building online.

We will then focus more specifically on the first point: learning objectives. Those are divided into five categories: online tools, exposure to the target language outside the classroom, digital literacy, the changing nature of communication, and health related issues. We will describe the methodology employed to determine which objectives seem the most relevant and show examples of ready-to-use learning objectives as shown on our website.

The presentation will finally focus further onto the last category: Health. Interviews conducted with students participating in the 2Digi2 project revealed that they are worried about how constant studying in a digital environment affects their health. On the website, brain researcher and professor of education Minna Huotilainen gives teachers recommendations on how to help students take care of their brain health.

Keywords:

Digitalisation, teacher support, language teaching, learning objectives, brain health.