The six areas of DigCompEdu and the levels from Newcomer to Pioneer

Why educators have their own framework

DigComp describes the digital competences of every citizen. But teaching has a different requirement: knowing how to use a tool is not enough, you have to put it at the service of someone else's learning.

DigCompEdu, published by the Joint Research Centre in 2017, answers that with 22 competences across 6 areas and 274 descriptors.

The six areas

The areas follow the real cycle of an educator's work, not an abstract taxonomy of tools:

1. Professional engagement -- organisational communication, collaboration with colleagues, reflective practice, continuous professional development.
2. Digital resources -- selecting, creating and modifying resources, managing licensing and sharing.
3. Teaching and learning -- orchestrating digital use in class, guidance, collaboration, supporting self-regulated learning.
4. Assessment -- assessment strategies, analysing learning evidence, feedback and planning.
5. Empowering learners -- accessibility and inclusion, differentiation, active engagement.
6. Facilitating learners' digital competence -- this is where DigCompEdu hooks back into DigComp: the end goal is for students to become digitally competent.

The order is not arbitrary. The first two areas concern the teacher as a professional, the middle three their teaching practice, the last one the effect on students.

The six progression levels

DigCompEdu does not assign a grade: it describes a trajectory in six stages, with labels borrowed from the CEFR to make them immediately readable.

Progression is not uniform across areas: it is normal to be an Expert in assessment and an Explorer in inclusion. Making that asymmetry visible is precisely what the framework is for.

How it is used

Three uses that work in practice:

• Individual self-assessment, as a starting point for deciding where to invest your training time.
• Institutional planning: aggregating the profiles of a teaching staff shows which areas are uncovered at school level, not just personal level.
• Course design: a course anchored to specific DigCompEdu competences is assessable, one anchored to generic "digital skills" is not.

Browse the 6 areas, the 22 competences and the progression levels on the DigCompEdu portal at ExplorerHub.