COVIDEA (COVID Education Alliance)
Rethinking education for the digital age at a time of overlapping crises
Overview
COVID-19 school closures exposed structural weaknesses: limited digital readiness, unequal access, and gaps in remote learning capacity. Simultaneously, accelerating digital technologies, AI, and robotics raised questions about whether education systems were equipping learners for a tech-driven world. Launched during the pandemic, COVIDEA convened education specialists, technology experts, and policy practitioners to explore digital tools, curricula, and options that strengthen resilience and advance SDG 4.
Activities
- Outlined a platform to identify and showcase digital learning tools, curricula, and technologies relevant to modern education systems.
- Explored criteria for assessing educational technologies to guide decision-makers in diverse contexts.
- Promoted approaches that pair digital literacy with critical thinking, judgment, resilience, and responsible citizenship.
- Encouraged collaboration among education communities and technology experts on innovative pedagogies and tools, including AI, VR/AR, simulation, and personalized learning.
Collaboration with GeSI | Digital with Purpose
Members of COVIDEA were invited to form a group in support of the Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and partners’ initiative to co-develop the Digital with Purpose (DwP) metrics framework, as it relates to SDG 4.
Routed in the idea that digital technologies could have a transformational impact on our ability to meet the 2030 Agenda and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the framework was developed to monitor performance in both delivering digital solutions to societal and environmental challenges, as well as in minimising the negative impacts arising from the deployment of digital products and services. The framework assesses how a company has embedded the SDGs into its core purpose, the targets it has set and the outcomes it delivers.
See more on the Digital with Purpose website. (digitalwithpurpose.org/our-movement)
Online Event
Enterprising Education for Fit-for-Future Results | COVIDEA and Parents International — 26 January 2022
Plenary session on entrepreneurial thinking in re-imagining education systems. Veerle Vandeweerd and Georgios Kostakos introduced the COVIDEA approach; Eszter Salamon presented the “ParENTrepreneurial” model highlighting parents as equal partners in education system renewal.
About LearningPlanet Festival: learning-planet.org
COVIDEA Members (October 2020)
| António Camara | Professor, New University of Lisbon; Chairman, YDreams |
| Arturo Biglia | Junior Policy and Advocacy Officer, FOGGS |
| Bart Van Looy | Professor, KU Leuven |
| Donovan Guttieres | Focal Point Youth Science-Policy Interface, UN MGCY |
| Daniella Tilbury | Commissioner for Sustainable Development and Future Generations, HM Government of Gibraltar |
| Eyüp Artvinli | Specialist of distance education, Eskisehir Osmangazi University Faculty of Education, Turkey |
| Georgios Kostakos | Executive Director, FOGGS |
| Janette M. Hughes | Canadian Research Chair in Technology and Pedagogy, Tier 2, University of Ontario Institute of Technology |
| Koji Ohnishi | Councillor, University of Toyama, Japan |
| Luis Neves | Managing Director, GeSI (Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative) |
| Maggie Hartnett | Senior Lecturer, Institute of Education, Massey University, New Zealand |
| Marco van der Ree | Chief Development Officer, Global Reporting Initiative |
| Mathieu Denis | Science Director, International Science Council |
| Neil Selwyn | Research Professor, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia |
| Nicole De Smyter | Manager, Leuven Inc. Foundation |
| Nuria Oliver | Chief Data Scientist, Data-Pop Alliance; Chief Scientific Advisor, Vodafone Institute |
| Padmanabhan Seshaiyer | Professor of Mathematical Sciences; Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Director, COMPLETE Center; Director, STEM Accelerator Center; George Mason University, Fairfax, VA |
| Paola Bettelli | Senior Policy Advisor, FOGGS |
| Risto Linturi | “Societal Transformation 2018-2037” Co-author, Finnish Parliament's Committee for the Future |
| Stephen Downes | Senior Research Officer, Digital Technologies Research Centre, National Research Council, Canada |
| Veerle Vandeweerd | Former Director Environment and Energy, UNDP; Executive Board Member, FOGGS; Co-Founder, P4TT and G-STIC (2017-2019) |
| Wei Liu | UN DESA |
Publications
Partners
- Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS)
- Platform for Transformative Technologies (P4TT)
- Support from the International Science Council (ISC)
- Contributions from experts across universities, research institutions, international organizations, and civil society