Bilkent University Faculty of Education is working to enhance the digital skills of teachers to ultimately benefit 18 million students in Turkey. The IPA-3 “Digital Ecosystem for Teacher Training” project is funded by the European Union and implemented by UNICEF and Bilkent University Faculty of Education, in collaboration with the Ministry of National Education.
Prof. Alipaşa Ayas, dean of the Faculty of Education and UNICEF project leader; Asst. Prof. Armağan Ateşkan and Asst. Prof. İlker Kalender from the Faculty of Education; Duygu Albayrak from the Faculty of Applied Sciences; and Assoc. Prof. Emel Özdora from the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture are part of the project team. This EU IPA-3 project also sets a good example for interfaculty collaboration at Bilkent University.
Prof. Ayas emphasized the significance of the project, saying, “The key personnel in the education system are teachers. Enhancing the digital competencies of teachers will help them to better train future generations in the increasingly competitive global ecosystem.”
The project will run until 2026 and develop an online teacher training platform offering 120 hours of interactive modules on digital skills. Teachers will participate in content development and collaborate in eight teacher training labs.
Under the project, an initial cohort of 200,000 teachers, school administrators and other education personnel across the eight provinces of İstanbul, Yalova, İzmir, Ankara, Rize, Mersin, Erzurum and Gaziantep will undertake online digital skills training. They will then help to train other teachers, benefitting more than one million teachers across Turkey.
The project is designed to equip teachers to enhance the digital skills of children, allowing students to reach their full potential. It will benefit students from grades K-12.
