About us
Digital Food Education aims to help teachers use digital technology to deliver food education, and also enable them to use food education to develop digital and ICT skills with their pupils.
Following the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, lockdown and social distancing measures, our project partners in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia and the UK had to respond quickly to develop new digital approaches to food education, and offer support to schools and teachers in this transition. Digital technology such as filming and livestreams can enhance the learning experience, enabling teachers and pupils to connect with potentially anywhere in the world. We are supporting them to develop digital competences and access inclusive online and blended learning.
Our project aims to
Support teachers in adapting to online training and education
We aim to give useful advice on how to best use the technology available. Our Top-Tips section gives useful guidance for beginners on using digital tools. A particular focus is on how to create user-generated films for website and social media content, together with others on livestreams, webinars and online lessons.
Provide digital food education training resources
We have developed online training modules for teachers to provide a springboard into a blended learning approach. Our ‘Foodie-Film makers’ challenge pupils to be the TV producers and create content around farming, growing and cooking. The projects combine practical classroom activities with digital learning opportunities to help deliver quality and inclusive food education through online/virtual means. Our online-training modules will spark ideas from teachers for films, webinars, podcasts, and 121 livestream sessions with food professionals to enhance pupil engagement.
Demonstrate what works well
Working closely with Washingborough Academy, we have developed example activities to demonstrate good practice case studies in using digital technology for student learning in class - for example a virtual farm visit via FaceTiming a farmer, or virtual cookalong sessions to help with food education sessions.
Project background
Our Digital Food Education project was developed following the challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic across Europe. As a response to COVID-19, most governments around the world locked down their populations and closed their schools in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus. There was a quick transition to online learning and teaching over the internet, and some schools were better prepared to meet these challenges than others.
We have summarised some of the issues, challenges and barriers faced in schools as a background to our digital food project. Although we hope that coronavirus will not force future lockdowns, there are many benefits that have some from the fast adoption of digital competences that we believe can support a blended learning approach for schools in the future.
Evidence from various OECD education surveys have been useful references in examining the preparedness of schools to this digital future.
Our partners
The Erasmus+ funded ‘Digital Food Education’ project is an international partnership that comprises five partners from four European countries. The partners bring together a range of specialism in food education, teaching and training. You can read more about each of the project partners below.
