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THE EUROPEAN EDTECH POLICY MAP

GOAL 3
EdTech adoption across Europe’s educational institutions is guided by intentional and evidence-based decisions.

Across Europe, many educational institutions lack a clear digital vision and the necessary skills to integrate technology meaningfully into teaching and learning. Educators and institutions often face challenges in critically evaluating EdTech tools and services against pedagogical goals and European values. The absence of coherent frameworks, incentives, and support structures further hinders purposeful experimentation and responsible adoption. As a result, infrastructure investments sometimes stand alone — unaccompanied by sufficient training, guidance, or safeguards for data protection, equity, and pedagogical quality.

If this goal is achieved:

  • Only EdTech tools that genuinely support teaching and learning and that are aligned with the educational visions of educators, schools, and national education strategies are deployed in classrooms and other learning environments.
     

  • Educators and institutions can critically evaluate EdTech against pedagogical goals and European values rather than marketing claims, choosing tools that genuinely serve their purposes and rejecting those that undermine them, preventing adoption of harmful or ineffective tools and services simply because they're new or heavily marketed.
     

  • Clear frameworks, incentives, and requirements that guide EdTech adoption, removing institutional barriers to meaningful innovation while preventing reckless implementation or commercial exploitation of education.
     

  • Educators and institutions know how to purposefully experiment while protecting learner data, equity, and pedagogical quality.

For further reading and context on this topic, see the following sources:

  • Council of the European Union (2023). Council recommendation on the key enabling factors for successful digital education and training. 15741/23. Official Journal of the European Union. 
     

  • EmpowerED project (2024). State of Play of EdTech & the European EdTech Ecosystem, December 2024, European EdTech Alliance, Germany. 
     

  • EmpowerED project (2025, unpublished report). State of Play of EdTech & the EdTech Ecosystem in Europe 2025, European EdTech Alliance, Germany.
    Havinga, B. & Clary, A. (2024). The European EdTech Ecosystem Roadmap: Towards Excellence in Educational Innovation. European EdTech Alliance. Bielefeld, Germany. 
     

  • Lindroos Cermakova, A., Clary, A., Havinga, B., & Cormier, C. (2025). Building Trust in EdTech: Exploring evidence-based approaches. European EdTech Alliance. 
     

  • OECD (2023). OECD Digital Education Outlook 2023: Towards an Effective Digital Education Ecosystem. OECD Publishing, Paris. 
     

  • Vlachou, E. & Gras-Velazquez, A. (2024). Empowering educators: Leading Digital Transformation as Pedagogical Mentors in EdTech, December 2024, European Schoolnet, Brussels. 

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