Digital skills for safer, smarter classrooms

Erasmus+ and EU-funded projects are helping schools to adopt smarter digital practices, from understanding artificial intelligence (AI) and staying safe online to tackling cyberbullying and spotting fake news.  

These initiatives not only prepare pupils to navigate the digital world with confidence, but also empower teachers to lead this transformation effectively.  

Learning AI so you can teach AI 

To teach pupils how to use AI, teachers first need to understand it.  

The Generation AI project helps teachers build the skills they need to teach AI effectively. It offers a training guide and a toolkit with a framework for AI and science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM), as well as best practice examples, useful software tools and a checklist to assess teacher readiness to teach AI. 

The project’s learning space provides lesson plans tailored for two educational levels (ages 6−9 and 9−12 years). They contain useful teaching materials, such as videos, learning activities and discussion challenges on topics like responsible AI use, online safety and problem solving. 

Other Erasmus+ projects such as AI-teach and Edubot support teachers in the design, implementation and assessment of responsible, AI-based learning activities. They offer ready-to-use resources, including lesson plans and even a chatbot that provides live feedback to pupils and tracks their progress. 

Promoting online safety and wellbeing 

Many children now go online early in their lives, and creating safe digital spaces for them is important for their wellbeing. The VOICE project funded by Erasmus+ addressed online hate speech and cyberbullying in pre-primary settings by involving children, parents and teachers.  

Pupils took the lead in creating a documentary and a cartoon to help adults understand the emotional and social impact of cyberbullying from the perspective of a younger generation. 

The project also developed an interactive app, My Kind VOICE, that supports learning about kindness and empathy online. The materials and app are available in all partner languages (English, Lithuanian, Italian, Dutch, Romanian, Norwegian). 

Gaming and augmented reality for digital literacy 

Play-based learning and interactive technologies can help develop digital skills in fun and engaging ways. For example, the CyberAdventure project created a computer game (in English, Portuguese, Lithuanian and Spanish) to teach online safety through play. ` 

With help from their teachers, children explored internet risks, responsible choices and safe online behaviour. The project also developed a toolkit implementation action guide that shows teachers how to integrate the game into the curriculum. 

‘The CyberAdventure game, if duly contextualised in class with pre and/or post-discussions on the topic, is a very helpful tool, especially to raise awareness about the dangers of the Internet and to stress the need for responsible behaviours.’  

Sofia Sousa, Scholé school, Portugal 

Similarly, the EU-funded Escape Fake project uses an augmented reality (AR) escape room to teach pupils about disinformation. Through riddles and puzzles, players must save the future by distinguishing fake news from facts on the internet.  

The game blends artistic elements into a digital narrative. Teachers can find practical ideas and useful resources to use the game in a classroom or workshop setting in the online course and toolkit (available in English, German, Hungarian, Italian and Romanian).  

Whole-school strategies for digital competence 

To truly prepare pupils for the digital future, schools must go beyond individual lessons and adopt whole-school digital strategies.  

Schools across Europe are embedding digital competence development into their wider goals, promoting inclusion, better learning outcomes and community engagement.  

A good example is École Internationale Gaston Thorn (EIGT) in Luxembourg. This school combines digital skills with critical thinking, creativity and civic values.  

Their strategy includes:  

• Giving tablets to secondary pupils (to encourage mature and focused use of technology, boost learning and prepare them for the future) 
• Banning mobile phones (but not the provided tablets) 
• Appointing staff members for device management and troubleshooting 
• Involving school leaders in digital planning 
• Incorporating innovative practices (e.g. virtual reality and game-based learning) into humanities subjects such as history and languages 

Do you want to discover more ongoing and past EU-funded projects in school or vocational education? Go to the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform to find inspiring good practice examples and many more.