Every year, the Directorate for Digital Literacy and Transversal Skills organizes Embed Awards to recognise those whose exemplary work provides a model for teaching and learning in the digital age. With schools closure in the present extraordinary Covid-19 circumstances, digital education has been taken to a new unprecedented level as many educators have shifted to remote lessons. This posed new challenges to educators to use online platforms and other tools in their teaching and learning. For this reason, the Directorate for Digital Literacy and Transversal Skills decided to celebrate the good pedagogical practices both before and after the school closure. Educators are invited to submit initiatives based on a number of experiences and activities related to technology-mediated teaching and learning, carried out over a period of time. There are 4 categories as below. Each category has 2 sub-categories to award the initiatives carried out before schools closure as well as the initiatives during home schooling period. All educators and school leaders are encouraged to participate, particularly those who have never participated in Embed before.

Categories

1. Early Years This category is for educators (teachers, kindergarten educators and learning support educators) of early years (Kindergarten, year 1 and year 2).

2. Primary Educators Four educators from Year 3-Year 6 will be awarded.

3. Secondary Four educators from Middle Schools and Secondary schools (Year 7 – Year 11) will be awarded.

4. School Leaders (Heads of Schools, Assistant Heads of Schools and Heads of Departments) Three School Leaders will be awarded.

Together with these awards as usual we will be awarding eTwinners for best projects 2019-2020 . eTwinning will also award outstanding projects initiated or continued during the schools closure period. More details will be given in a separate circular dedicated to the application for the National Quality Label. So kindly stay tuned to www.etwinningmalta.net for more updates.

Criteria for Educators – Award judges will use the following selection criteria:

1. Quality: The project should give clear evidence that the use of technology enhances learning. Without technology learning objectives would have been difficult to achieve. Technology is used to make learning more effective and offer experiences that cannot be achieved effectively by other means.

2. Pedagogical value: From a pedagogical standpoint, curricular objectives should meet different ways of learning. The use of technology can promote learning modes based on exploration, collaboration, creation and reflection.

3. Participation: Students have made extensive and relevant use of technology. 4. Collaboration: Collaboration between students (whether in class or online) should be rewarded.

Criteria for School Leaders

1. The initiatives should encourage pedagogical innovation

2. The initiative should encourage curricular integration or a digital literacy area e.g. communication, collaboration, internet safety, coding, digital literacy events

3. A substantial number of staff and/or students are involved and/or benefit from the initiative

4. The initiative should serve as a stepping stone for the upcoming school developments and/or improvement within the school community.

Submission Projects are to be submitted using the online form https://rebrand.ly/embed2020 by the 7th July 2020

Rules

1. The objective is to encourage and award educators and not educational institutions. Whilst DDLTS acknowledges that participants have the support of their respective schools and their administrators, only educators who submit their application can be awarded.

2. A project entry should cover a school’s activity, lesson idea, resources or project which has been developed and/or used during scholastic year 2019-2020. Previously submitted projects cannot be resubmitted, unless there have been significant developments.

3. Submissions must be supported by evidence that projects abide to the above criteria, as these will be evaluated by the judges.

4. Participants may participate in one category only.

5. Deadline for the submissions of entries for the Digital Literacy Embed Awards is Tuesday 7th July 2020. For further information please visit: https://digitalliteracy.skola.edu.mt/embed-digital-literacy-conference-and-awards-ceremony2020/

6. All participants will be presented a certificate of participation.

7. For any queries kindly contact Mr Omar Seguna, Education Officer, email: omar.seguna@ilearn.edu.mt or by phone on  tel: 25981565 / 25981569