New compulsory subject – curriculum for “digital basic education” is available

The article is not entirely new. ‘Digital primary education’ was already part of the curriculum as a so-called compulsory exercise – ie without grading. The schools also had a choice: they could set aside between two and four hours per week for compulsory practice during the entire four years of AHS primary or secondary school (so an average of between half an hour and an hour per class, note ) or they also integrate them into the specialist teaching of other subjects instead of their own lessons.

That is no longer possible: in principle, one hour a week must now be reserved for the subject in every class. The students also receive grades. The fact that the new subject “accompanies” the equipment with terminal equipment is also apparent from the fact that it will initially only be taught at those school levels that will already have these devices in the autumn. For the time being, these are the first, second and third grades of the AHS lower/secondary school (grades 5 to 7). Only from 2023/24 will the fourth grade (8th grade) be included.

“Historical Moment”
Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) called the conversion to a compulsory subject in a broadcast a “historic moment in Austrian schools”. “Basic digital education in this subject does not only mean operating a computer. Students must learn to move around in the digital world at an early age, to design it and to process information from it.” The subject is “the basis for a self-determined life with digitization in the private and professional field.”

Search engines, social media and malware
Topics include the use of search engines on the Internet (1st class), collecting, filtering, sorting, interpreting and presenting data (2nd class), explaining the concept of “social media” and understanding the interests of the respective offer company (also 2nd class) or the protection of devices and content against viruses or malicious software/malware (3rd class).

On the one hand, students must learn to use spreadsheet programs or to change the code of a computer program they have developed themselves so that it works faster and more stable. On the other hand, it must also be conveyed under what conditions photos or photos of other people can be sent or how fake news can be recognized.

critique of the curriculum
In the review process, there was criticism that the topic was overloaded with content. Depending on the perspective, criticism was expressed that the curriculum included too much computer science (which is later taught as a separate subject) and too little media education, or vice versa. Representatives of the business community and the Chamber of Commerce mainly argued that media education should be integrated into the curricula of other subjects and that “basic digital education” should mainly teach computer science skills.

From 2023/24 own teacher training course
Since May, teachers who have already taught in the compulsory exercise “Digital Primary Education” have been retrained in so-called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). A university course with 30 ECTS credits will start in the autumn for lecturers who are already on duty. A separate teacher training course is planned from 2023/24. As a next step, the computer science curricula of the upper secondary education will be revised to adapt the content of digital primary education accordingly.