The Council of Europe is set to unveil its Planner - A Curriculum Framework for digital citizenship education - an essential tool for empowering young citizens in the digital era - at the upcoming first ever Digital Citizenship Education Forum taking place on 27-28 May in Strasbourg. Designed for educational professionals, this resource offers an easy and effective way to integrate digital citizenship education into the school curriculum.
The Digital Citizenship Education (DCE) Planner was developed by Council of Europe experts in close collaboration with over 40 education professionals from across Europe, reflecting the diversity of pedagogical approaches of member States.
What is the DCE Planner?
The DCE Planner features 320 exemplar learning outcomes for learners aged 5 to 18. Through accessible language and a simple structure, it enables teachers to create meaningful learning experiences for students. School leaders can draw on it to decide school priorities. Teachers can use it to plan professional development, and administrators to monitor educational outcomes. Policy makers can look to it for direction on addressing current educational challenges arising from the way digitalisation is impacting the acquisition of knowledge and skills by all leaners and prepare education systems to respond to new challenges that democracy is facing in Europe.
The DCE Planner is about creating an agreed vision of the issues all learners need to explore to successfully navigate the challenges of the digital age enabling them to take control of their online experiences and play their part in shaping the digital environment.
Key features of the DCE Planner:
- A structured framework for teaching digital citizenship across four age groups (5-18 years old)
- Age-appropriate learning outcomes designed to empower the next generation of responsible digital citizens
- A repository of diverse learning activities for classroom integration, online courses, and awareness-raising initiatives
What's next for the DCE Planner?
The Curriculum Framework and its learning outcomes are launched at the DCE Forum which will be followed by the full publication in September 2025 and the creation of the repository in 2026. Educators across the member states will be invited to use the learning outcomes from the 2025-2026 academic year and share their experiences with the Council of Europe.
