1. Digital Competences:
Trends & Issues in Estonia
Mart Laanpere
Head of the Centre for Educational Technology
Tallinn University (TLU)

2. Estonia: an Internet country
• 79% of Estonians use Internet (in EU: 75%)
EuroStat, Dec 2012

3. ICT in national curriculum in Estonia
• 1987: unified Soviet curriculum, programming as
“the second literacy”
• 1996: pragmatic turn, informatics as an elective
subject, ICT as cross-curricular theme
• 2002: ICT & Media as cross-curricular theme, 11
competences, national test in 9th grade
• 2011: key competence; elective informatics
courses in 5th, 8th, 10th, 11th grade; cross-
curricular themes ‘Technology & Innovation’,
‘Information environment’, ‘Safety and security’

4. Digital competences of pupils
• The aims of informatics as elective subject in
grades 5 and 8: “is aware of and knows how to
avoid potential threats caused by ICT to
his/her health, privacy, and personal data”
• Cross-curricular theme ‘Technology &
Innovation’: understands and evaluates
critically positive and negative influence of ICT

5. Comparing e-safety strategies
of adults and children
Lorenz, B., Laanpere, M., Kikkas, K. (2012) Comparing Children’s E-safety Strategies
with Guidelines Offered by Adults, European Journal of E-Learning 10(3)

6. Teachers’ digital competences
• The new Professional Qualification Standard for
teachers is in public negotiation phase
• ECDL vs. ISTE NETS for Teachers as definition of
teachers’ digital competences
• Who needs it and for what?
• DigiMina: online tool for self- and peer-
assessment of teachers' digital competences
• E-safety in NETS: Promote and Model Digital
Citizenship and Responsibility
– Advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use
of digital information and technology
ISTE NETS for Teachers 2008: http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

7. E-safety research lab in TLU
• Will be established in 2013, 3 researchers
• Cyber security vs. behavioral e-safety: focus on
the weakest link in the e-safety chain (one
between the computer and the chair)
• Our research topics:
– bottom-up e-safety policy development in schools,
– analysing the real-life e-safety incidents,
– changes in schools' e-safety policies in the context
of 1-1 computing and BYOD
– e-safety awareness in digital competences