German
Smart City Jena makes daycare centers fit for the digital future - brochure summarizes all offers
How a new training series enables professionals to guide children safely and creatively through the digital world
With a series of training courses on digital skills in nurseries, the city of Jena is providing a strong impetus for future-oriented early childhood education. All offers are listed in the recently published Brochure "Smarte Kitas - Digitale Kompetenzen in der Kita: sicher, kreativ und alltagsnah begleiten" summarized. The series of training courses was designed by the City of Jena's specialist advisor for daycare facilities and is aimed at educational staff at all daycare centers in Jena.
Children today grow up with digital media as a matter of course. The brochure makes it clear that educational professionals are in the midst of this change and need support to guide children safely, creatively and confidently through the digital world. This is exactly where the training program comes in - and shows ways to use digital media not as an end in itself, but as a meaningful addition to everyday educational work. The training courses offer space for a critical examination of digitalization in the early childhood sector and also focus on advising parents on how to deal with it.
Wide range of training courses: from beginners' courses to training media coaches
The program is broadly based and offers the right approach for every daycare centre:
- Training of media coaches to permanently anchor digital skills in the facilities
- Creative workshops and modules, including on audio work, robotics, animated film, coding, language development and media education for parents
- Modules on children's rights, prevention and safe media use
- Basic training courses that give digital beginners step-by-step confidence in using tablets, PCs and cloud technologies
What makes it special: The courses combine educational quality with low-threshold, practical everyday methods - making digital education possible even without expensive technology.
Strengthening networks - making knowledge visible
The establishment of a network of media experts is a key feature of this training series. In the long term, this should also connect specialists, media coaches and experts, pool experience and bring new developments to the city's daycare centers. This will be accompanied by the introduction of a "media box" with equipment that can be borrowed - a real benefit for all facilities that want to try out or test digital media.
A milestone on the way to a smart educational city
With this brochure, the Smart City Jena project makes it clear that digitalization in daycare centers is neither an end in itself nor a vision of the future - it is a tangible present. The model project "Smart Daycare Centers" shows how innovative approaches and practical know-how come together to empower children at an early age and accompany educational professionals on their way into the digital future.
Further information on the project and the training brochure can be found here.