MCI | The Entrepreneurial School® Universitaetsstrasse 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
14 February 2023
Learners, educators and employees of different sectors and industries have made a considerable leap in their digital skills through increased remote learning and working during the last three years. Logging in to a meeting software, checking audio settings, writing emails, using online project management tools or sharing files via a cloud have become routine activities. In order to stay afloat during this emergency, the focus has been on hands-on and practical skills related to technology use. However, one of the biggest challenges may be the social, emotional, and interpersonal effects of using technology.
Do we use technology in a meaningful way? How does technology use impact our identity, wellbeing and social interaction? How can we harness digital technology to enhance collaboration, communication, and connections? How can we use technology to create a sustainable impact?
The Erasmus+ co-funded project DigitalSoftSkills@Ulysseus (D2S@Ulysseus), a collaborative initiative involving six Ulysseus partner universities, addresses precisely these questions. The D2S@Ulysseus project aims to modernise education, adapt pedagogies and upgrade the digital competencies of both learners and educators by harnessing digital technologies. The project seeks to equip all learners with digital transversal skills to live, work, learn and thrive in a digital world.
At the Multiplier Event on February 14, 2023 at MCI | The Entrepreneurial School in Innsbruck, you will have the opportunity to get to know the D2S project outputs, including the D2S Framework, a series of freely accessible MOOCs and online courses, and associated guidelines on Digital Soft Skills and Open Badges.
Get inspired by experts of digital education and take the opportunity to collaborate on current topics relating to digital competence in a variety of workshops.
Digital Skills are a topic that is high on your agenda?
The event provides up-to-date input on digital education and digital skills as well as a number of opportunities for participants to get actively involved and to expand and deepen their knowledge and network.
You cherish connecting with an international community?
As the event is part of an Erasmus+ project which was developed by six European partner universities within the European University Network “Ulysseus”, it will enable you to connect and exchange experiences with people from different countries.
You are interested in learning opportunities and resources on digital soft skills?
During the event you will get to know all project outputs like high-quality online courses, guidelines and the badge program. You will also learn how you can access and use them.
The Digital Soft Skills Forum will begin with arrival and registration at 13:00.
Unfold the schedule to discover the detailed program of the activities.
The host of the event, MCI | The Entrepreneurial School®, will open the event.
#MapTheGap: developing the skills of the future in the EU
The EU is undergoing a dual digital-green transition, yet it continues to experience significant digital skills gaps for ICT professionals, the overall workforce and the general population. Based on joint analysis carried out in 2022 by Huawei, All Digital and Ernest&Young, Giorgia Epicoco will discuss the key elements that characterise the digital skills gap in the EU, the resulting challenges for a range of areas, and strategies to overcome these.
Take the Digital Skills Gap quiz to learn what digital skill you could acquire or improve to fully embrace the digital era.
Giorgia Epicoco
Senior EU Public Affairs Manager
Social & Environmental Sustainability Lead
HUAWEI
Giorgia Epicoco is Senior EU Public Affairs Manager at Huawei, leading the company’s strategy and advocacy work on social and environmental sustainability in the European Union, focusing on technology for a nature positive agenda and digital skills for a digital Europe.
Creating a positive future: Skills for the digital and green twin-transition
The digital and green transitions go hand in hand and both rely on the development of relevant skills and competences. This panel discussion will include the perspective of different stakeholder groups and explore what these skills are and how we can accelerate their development in an inclusive manner.
Panellists:
Dietmar Killian, Founding Partner PDAgroup and MCI Professor for Digitalization
Claudia Mössenlechner, Head MCI Learning Solutions, Deputy Head Academic Council, MCI | The Entrepreneurial School
Julia Pichler, Project Lead EdTech Austria
Nicolas Soehlemann, Alumnus MCI | The Entrepreneurial School
Natalia Timus, Head of Academic Development and Researcher, University of Cote d’Azur
Moderator:
Regina Obexer
Refreshments will be served.
The D2S@Ulysseus team will present the Digital Soft Skills and the results of the European project.
WS1: Virtual reality in the language classroom
Facilitator: Djibril Dieng, Jonathan Marimon & Marion Polack, Université Cote d’Azur
Target group: People interested in technologies and education
Using a virtual reality platform, we will explore the advantages as well as the challenges of integrating VR in the language classroom. We will present people VR in general and its components and allow participants to explore this. This will be followed by discussions about its potentials and limits in education. Conclusions derived from the workshop will allow us to improve our vision about VR and education and its potential integration in the Ulysseus University.
You will:
WS2: Using Personal Response Systems for active learning
Facilitator: Fabrizio Bracco, Michele Masini & Tommaso Francesco Piccinno, Universitá di Genova
Target group: Teachers and everyone interested in active learning
The workshop is aimed at introducing the participants to the use of Personal Response Systems (PRS) as tools to promote active and interactive learning. The workshop will present the tool Wooclap, since it is versatile and easy to use, both for teachers and for students. The goal of the workshop is to share a pedagogically and psychologically sound approach to design activities based on PRSs. Several questions will be analyzed: How to choose the activities according to the learning objectives? How to build effective questions? How to conduct a debriefing after the responses are given?
You will:
Please bring your own laptops for active participation!
WS3: Digital Inclusion – Bridging the digital divide
Facilitator: Magdalena Posch, Susann Kruschel & Arno Rottensteiner, MCI | The Entrepreneurial School
Target group: Everyone is welcome
Digital inclusion and the topic of bridging the digital divide has gained importance over the last decade with technology taking an increasingly important role in our everyday lives. The need for equal access to digital resources and opportunities to develop competences using ICT is attracting major attention in our society. This workshop will aim to provide a sound understanding on the topic of digital inclusion and its entailed challenges and opportunities. We will discuss various ways technology can be used to foster inclusion in communities and the design of sustainable use cases for digital projects. In this interactive workshop you will be equipped with a hands-on toolkit to contribute in a valuable way to the future of digital inclusion. Join and help us to build a more inclusive digital society!
You will:
WS4: Deep-dive into D2S
Facilitator: Vivien Lake
Target group: Anybody interested in having a direct, hands-on experience of the D2S courses, with the bonus of having a D2S framework co-creator and course creator in the room.
This workshop is all about getting straight into the main deliverables of the D2S project. BYOD (Bring your own device), get set up on the Ulysseus online learning platform, and have the opportunity to spend time navigating and discovering the various courses, with a faculty developer and instructional designer from the D2S project. The facilitator of the workshop was heavily involved in the final iteration of the framework, as well as designing and creating some of the courses for educators, and thus is on-hand to facilitate navigation through the courses and to answer questions. The final part of the workshop will be an opportunity to reflect on the experience through discussion and feedback, in a relaxed, open environment.
You will:
Network and mingle with fellow attendees to conclude the event.
The D2S Forum will be organized as a green and sustainable event. To this end, the Organizing Team kindly asks participants to help them track the CO2 footprint of the conference by sharing information on travel and accommodation when filling in the registration form.
The Organizing Team encourages you to choose sustainable travel options and consider the many train connections between major European hubs and Innsbruck, including several night trains. We encourage you to compensate any CO2 costs and can recommend the climate mitigation project Atmosfair.
We also ask participants to help us keep the environmental impact of the event as low as possible by avoiding and recycling waste, travelling sustainably (public transport, on foot) while in Innsbruck, and choosing sustainable accommodation.
The event is certified as a Green Event Tyrol.
MCI | The Entrepreneurial School®
Universitaetsstrasse 15, 3rd floor | 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
The Entrepreneurial School® MCI is located in the heart of Europe in the Austrian Alps and in the immediate vicinity of European cosmopolitan cities such as Munich, Zurich and Milan.
We encourage you to choose sustainable travel options and consider the many train connections between major European hubs and Innsbruck, including several night trains. Should you have to fly, please consider CO2 compensation. Getting around in Innsbruck is easily doable on foot.
By train: Innsbruck’s central station is located at Südtiroler Platz, within easy walking distance of the city center. Get your ticket here: ÖBB-Austrian Railways.
By coach: the coach service of Flixbus provides you with a convenient and low-cost way to travel to Innsbruck within Europe.
By car: Innsbruck is connected to major European motorways arriving from the North (Western Europe and Germany via Munich), from the South (Italy via Verona), from the West (Switzerland via Zurich) and from the East (Hungary via Vienna). This means that Innsbruck can be reached by car within a couple of hours driving from Central, Western and Eastern Europe.
By plane: The airport of Innsbruck is located 10 minutes from the city center and has excellent coach and taxi connections. Short check-in times as well as a smooth and fast processing upon arrival are guaranteed. The airport handles regional flights around the Alps as well as international flights to European destinations. Further info can be found here. Other airports with international flights, reachable within 2 to 4 hours from Innsbruck: Munich Airport (Germany), Vienna International Airport (Austria), Verona Airport (Italy).
Innsbruck is a walkable city, so we encourage you to get around the city on foot. In case there is a need to drive, you can always rely on the city’s excellent public transport network. Please use the tool below for quick access to all public transport links https://smartride.vvt.at/
Accommodation options can be found here.
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
