Building on the previous Eurydice publications on information and communication technologies in schools in Europe, this report focuses on the evolution of ICT use in education and the changes it has brought about in national policies and practices concerning teaching methods, contents and evaluation processes. It examines the EU key competences as well as the promotion of transversal skills and the role of ICT in this process. It also sheds light on the strategies used in countries to train and support teachers in the use of ICT.

The 2011 edition provides a set of indicators and insights which can be used to strengthen the impact of ICT use to promote innovation in educational processes and to foster the creative development of students and their digital competences. The latter is one of the priority areas of the EU's Education and Training 2020 strategy. 

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NEW TRANSVERSAL AND DIGITAL COMPETENCES

ARE WIDELY INCLUDED IN NATIONAL CURRICULA

The development of qualification and assessment frameworks based on competences is strongly linked to the current demands of globalisation, modernisation and the knowledge society. In addition to helping students to enter the workforce, key skills or competences are also regarded as a basis for ‘community cohesion, based on democracy, mutual understanding, respect for diversity and active citizenship’ as well as for ‘personal fulfilment and happiness’ (European Commission 2010a, p. 11). These basic skills or competences are always defined as outcomes of the education process and therefore form part of the conceptual shift ‘from a content-based input approach to a competencebased output approach’ (Malan 2000, p. 27).

By transforming teaching and learning, ICT is considered to contribute to the acquisition of basic – or key – competences. Students need to achieve ‘digital fluency’ (European Commission/ICT Cluster 2010, p. 11). This is true whether these basic competences are subject-specific or crosscurricular/ transversal and must therefore be acquired through the whole education process.

· Almost all countries include EU key competences in their steering documents and often recommend using ICT to teach these competences (see Figure B1). Where the assessment of key competences is recommended, it often applies to only part of them and only six countries recommend assessing all key competencies (see Figure B2).

· Most central steering documents include various cross-curricular or transversal skills as desired outcomes of the education process but only a few countries evaluate this process (see Figures B3 and B4). Learning and innovation skills, including creativity, problem solving and communication, are mentioned in all the steering documents analysed, and the use of ICT is commonly proposed as method for developing these skills.

· General learning objectives for ICT are included in curricula especially at secondary level. However, specific knowledge of, for example, the ‘social media’ or ‘how to use mobile devices’ is still not generalised in most countries (see Figure B6).

· ICT remains a separate subject in a group of countries largely at secondary level, but ICT content is increasingly embedded in the curriculum as a means of developing general or specific skills in other subjects (see Figure B7).

· Safe online behaviour and other online safety content are commonly included in education programmes. Downloading and copyright issues' and 'cyber-bullying' are becoming two of the most important topics in this area (see Figure B8).