ECODE – Ethical, Common and Open Digital in Education

WHAT IS THE PROJECT ABOUT?

ECODE (Ethical, Common and Open in Digital Education) is an Erasmus+ funded initiative running from December 2025 to December 2027, focused on promoting a critical approach to the use of digital tools among young people. ECODE aims to foster a critical approach to the use of digital tools and an awareness of the values of the digital commons among young people in Europe. By enabling youth workers to have conversations with young people and put forward arguments for ethics when engaging with digital tools, the ECODE project strives to contribute to a more principled and sustainable digitalisation. The project builds on the outputs and findings of the ECHO Network project. 

The project is carried out by a consortium of five project partners from across Europe: Ceméa France, CEMÉA Belgium, FITCEMEA, DAFNI KEK and SOLIDAR+. Together, these organisations will mobilise their networks of youth workers, civil society organisations and policymakers to roll out training modules as well as put forward policy recommendations. 

WHY?

Given the proliferation of digital tools in our everyday lives, including and especially in the lives of young people, there is a growing need to equip youth workers and civil society organisations to facilitate conversations with young people around how to use these tools in an ethical way, and to raise awareness of the values of the digital commons. ECODE hopes to respond to this need by enabling youth workers to encourage young people to think critically about digital tools and the digital transition broadly, and to put forward concrete recommendations to policymakers at national and EU levels. 

ECODE follows the ECHO Network project’s work to provide citizens and organisations with a clear understanding of how to use digital technology ethically and put forward recommendations around how EU institutions can address this matter to safeguard citizens. The ECHO Network gave rise to a plea for an ethical and sustainable digital transition; ECODE will put certain aspects of this plea into action, especially the recommendation on digital transition and digital education. 

HOW?

The consortium will execute the project by developing and piloting training modules for civil society organisations engaging with young people on topics relating to ethics in digitalisation, aiming to equip them with the tools and messages they need to foster critical discussion among youth. A roadmap will be developed encompassing recommendations both for civil society organisations and policymakers active in the areas of digital rights, youth, education and other related fields. A training will then be delivered at the EU level as well as a final dissemination event for EU policymakers.