In the 2019/2020 academic year, the Vodafone Hungary Foundation will involve new schools in the Digital School Program, increasing the number of children participating in digital competence development and Internet security training to almost double.
The aim of the Program is to develop the digital skills of students studying in disadvantaged geographical areas and to make learning an experience.
The Vodafone Hungary Foundation established the Digital School Program in 2015 with the aim of eradicating digital illiteracy, increasing digital competences of teachers and students, and empowering students from underdeveloped regions to benefit from the opportunities offered by the digital world. In the first two years of its operation, 24 schools joined the Program to support the education of 6,500 children and the work of some 700 teachers, and 1,300 tablets were distributed, providing the monthly framework of data processing for educational use.
The Vodafone Digital School Program, in cooperation with the Szeged-Csanád Diocese, as the maintainer of the schools, expands its activities to new schools this year. Among other things, there are several schools that would have closed down without the financial support of the Diocese.
"It is an honorable task for me to announce that we will be extending the Vodafone Digital School Program to new schools, doubling the number of participants that have been involved so far. All in all, about 50 institutions, almost 13,000 students and 1,400 teachers will participate in our Digital School Program. To support the participation of the Digital School program, we provide approximately 1,000 new smart devices and the necessary connections to the students of the newly joined institutions. ”
- said Dr. Gergő J. Budai, member of the Board of Trustees of the Vodafone Hungary Foundation.
Online knowledge base for teachers
In recent years, the Foundation has focused on the deepening of the program. Initially, their goal was to make the kids feel like learning about digital devices, that is, to show that these tools are not only downloadable and are suited for community channels use, but that they can learn to play with them. As a next step, the Program focused on the digital competence development of teachers, which will play a major role this year as well.
The new element of the program this year is to extend its activities not only to the above mentioned school but also to secondary schools, the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Gál Ferenc College. In the latter case, Vodafone Hungary Foundation has included digital competence development in the pedagogical methodology, so that future teachers can acquire the necessary knowledge during their teaching practice.
