Digital Education, Information and Communication Technology, and Education for Sustainable Development

Abstract

With reference to the various United Nations programmes, especially the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and, in particular, Goal 4, which aims to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and to promote lifelong learning for life, “Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)” aims to meet the present and future challenges of our societies. This challenge can only be met through a renewed education in response to profound pedagogical and organizational changes based on a transformation of approaches and methods thanks to the contribution of digital technology. These transformations are particularly important when it comes to sustainable development education in which digital technology, in its various forms, represents both a powerful, but also complex, lever action. Indeed, the theme “digital education, information and communication technology (ICT), and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)” is part of a three-pronged approach because it involves both teaching sustainable development, mobilizing digital technologies, including ICT, and changing teacher and learner behaviours based on an innovative and interactive pedagogy. Changes in behaviour or mentality specific to ESD must be adapted to progress the implementation of digital resources to develop a structuring and integrative framework to address issues of education, communication, and learning to bring the policy institutions of knowledge and its diffusion to the use of technologies at all levels. This book chapter presents these concepts and provides a few recommendations for their effective implementation.