A study by the Vodafone Foundation says that parents in Portugal “are the most optimistic” about the potential use of digital technologies in a study of 10 countries, including Spain and Germany.
This is one of the conclusions of the “21st Century Parents” survey conducted by Ipsos Germany for the Vodafone Foundation among 10,000 people in 10 countries: Germany, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom, Romania and Turkey.
“Parents in Portugal are the most optimistic about the potential use of digital technologies in schools, those who most defend the responsibility of educational institutions in the dissemination of digital skills and those who most believe that digital literacy should be a key goal of education in schools,” reads the statement.
Portuguese parents are also “the ones who most advocate a standardization of ‘standards0 in Europe for the use and teaching of digital technologies in education.
According to the study, which surveyed 1,000 Portuguese, they “are among those who most recognize the potential of digital technology in teaching and are among the biggest advocates of more funding for schools to this end, as well as more training for teachers to use digital tools in teaching.
The survey also concludes that, despite the fact that the Portuguese are the ones who “most recognize that schools make equipment available that allows them to have online learning, the parents “are also the ones who most consider that the offer of this type of education in their country is low.
At home, “and although they consider themselves advanced users of technology and are the most concerned about children when they are ‘online’ and with the exposure that digital technologies can provide to misinformation or ‘bullying’, parents in Portugal are also the ones who most recognize not having any ‘app’ or program to control the consumption of content by their children and the ones who most denounce the lack of commitment of schools in this fight.
The survey, which was conducted online between February 23 and March 16, concludes overall that “the parents interviewed in these countries consider digital skills to be very important for their children’s future and are optimistic about the role that technology can play in education.
They consider that “schools have a responsibility in teaching these skills, but that there are improvements to be made both in the quality of digital tools in schools and in the specific knowledge of teachers in this area – tasks that, they argue, fall to governments.”
However, many of the respondents express “concern about the well-being of their children while they are ‘online’, as well as their exposure to misinformation phenomena.”
The Vodafone Portugal Foundation has been promoting the teaching of human and digital skills in primary schools for three years through the DigitALL program, part of the SkillsUpLoadJr initiative, which covers seven European markets.
“This school year, the program covered about 7,000 students from 58 schools from north to south of continental Portugal, involving more than 1,300 teachers and 25 monitors” and “in the next school year it is planned to extend the program to another 120,000 students, 100 schools and 1800 teachers”.