The analytical review presents the results of analytical research by a group of experts based on a survey and activities on a wide range of important issues of improving learning processes to increase digital competencies and disseminate knowledge and experience in digitizing the cultural heritage of Ukraine. This activity was carried out within the initiative of public organizations and professionals in the field of IT and higher education. The aim of this initiative is to find solutions to the problem of lack of curricula and educational activities in the humanitarian and IT areas, including interdisciplinary, on the principles and technologies of digitalization in the cultural heritage sector. The results of the initiative are expected to bring the search for solutions to this problem to the level of professional awareness and intensify the process of state reflection, which will contribute to the systematic formation of educational / educational-practical component and sustainable digital development of the domestic cultural heritage sector in accordance with the pace and trends of global technological development.
The analytical document consists of 5 chapters of the main text and 6 appendices. For ease of use of the document in the electronic version, the main text includes only links to applications that can be downloaded or viewed separately from the main document. The main text of the document consists of 41 pages, and all applications together take up 90 pages.
Olga Barkova prepared Chapters 1 and 3, as well as Annexes “А”, “Д”, “Е”.
Olena Chaykovska prepared Chapters 2 and 4, as well as Annexes “Б”,”В”,”Г”,”Є”.
Chapter 5 was prepared jointly by all authors.
Ivan Kulchytskyy carried out the general editing of the final version and the summary of the analytical document. In the process of editing and discussing the materials, the members of the EaP CSF UNP WG4 provided significant assistance, and comments and remarks from Oksana Polivchak were especially useful.
The first section “Challenges of digital transformation of society and trends in new technologies for the cultural heritage sector” presents:
- world trends in the field of digitalization of culture;
- plans and projects in Ukraine supported by government agencies and donors;
- gaps between the current challenges and the status in education;
- technological trends and examples of the use of new digital technologies in the cultural sphere of Ukraine;
- justification of the need to provide modern knowledge and digital competencies to the management and professional staff of the cultural sector.
The second section “Analysis of the experience / state of educational processes in Ukraine on digitization practices in the cultural heritage sector” states that in training specialists in Ukraine, try to take into account information technology and socio-cultural changes, namely: rapid introduction of information technology in cultural institutions, development software for process automation, implementation of international standards for information exchange, creation of electronic collections. However, curricula and the content of student training do not keep up with modern needs and requirements, taking into account the development of technology, especially in digital skills. There are big challenges in formal education.
Standards of professional higher education and higher education in the field of knowledge “02 Culture and Arts” contain both general digital competencies and professional ones.
The section describes in more detail the requirements for the formation of digital skills for different levels of education: for professional pre-higher (025 Musical Arts, 028 Management of socio-cultural activities, 029 Information, library and archival affairs); and for higher education (029 Information, Library and Archival Affairs, 027 Museum Studies, Monument Studies).
Digital technologies, such as the use of databases and information systems, 2D and 3D, digitization, modeling, gaming and immersive technologies should be researched in the domestic cultural heritage sector and quickly included in educational programs in accordance with world experience and trends.
Humanities curricula should include theoretical and practical study of information systems, digital image processing tools as basic digital formats for digitized and digitally created objects, as well as other digital formats, provide principles of hypertext markup language, modeling, and knowledge on standards and cybersecurity in the digital environment.
The curricula of IT specialists directly provide general knowledge on the specifics and development of information systems, digital technologies and tools in the world cultural heritage sector, national standards and domestic software and technological solutions and digital cultural products.
Practice such as immersion in a professional context in partner institutions of various directions and dual education on the basis of information production of memory institutions should become mandatory.
Interdisciplinary training programs for humanities and IT professionals in the form of special departments and other units, including the study of digital technologies in the cultural heritage sector, are becoming effective.
The third section “Characteristics of the needs of the target audience” presents the needs of the target audience, which were studied through questionnaires and discussions in online activities with the participation of representatives of all regions of Ukraine.
The target audience survey aimed at three research goals:
- determining the general level of awareness in digital technologies of specialists working in the cultural heritage sector;
- determination of the state of digitalization of memory institutions;
- determining the needs of specialists of memory institutions in special knowledge of digital technologies and their needs for the development of professional digital competencies.
The survey was attended by 255 respondents: heads of departments and divisions, specialists of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, departments of culture of large cities and local communities, heads and specialists of memory institutions (libraries, museums, archives). faculty, students and graduates of Ukrainian universities, representatives of the IT sector who are interested in implementing projects in the field of cultural heritage.
In this section we present mostly 5 top answers to each question, summarized data obtained from the analysis of respondents’ answers and conclusions based on these data. Detailed information on all responses to the questionnaire is provided in Annex “Д”.
The fourth section “Digital Competence Framework in the Cultural Heritage Sector” states that the lack of a single standard and requirements for digital competence of socio-cultural workers makes it impossible to create an effective system for both training and retraining in digitalization at different levels of education and cultural institutions.
The need to develop a Digital Competence Framework for cultural heritage workers is justified.
Such development and approval of the Digital Competence Framework will contribute to the general increase of digital literacy of specialists in the cultural heritage sector, as well as students of specialized education, standardization of digital competence requirements in educational and professional standards and job responsibilities, as well as measurement methodology and introduction of independent certification of the level of digital skills in accordance with the needs of the labor market.
The fifth section provides recommendations for digital education, training and retraining of specialists in the cultural heritage sector.
Among the presented conclusions and recommendations, it is expedient to allocate the following offers:
- Develop a wide range of advanced training courses in the field of digital competence, as well as interdisciplinary educational and research programs;
- Introduce the organization of the dual form of education in higher education institutions on the basis of organizations, institutions, companies, enterprises of all forms of ownership, which deal with the digitization of cultural heritage;
- Provide state support for the development of professional standards in the fields of knowledge “Information Technology” and “Culture and Art”;
- Provide state support for the development of standards for the digitization of cultural heritage;
- Create a platform for interaction between the cultural heritage sector and IT to find common ground between stakeholders and identify practical ways to benefit each other;
- Support the establishment of a system of Digital Competence Centers in the cultural heritage sector;
- Develop a Digital Competence Framework for cultural heritage workers.
- Launch an annual exhibition-fair of digital technologies for culture and the cultural heritage sector
- Recommend the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation to analyze the experience of implemented digitization projects in order to make proposals on the technological basis of digitization and reuse of IT tools, as well as to identify groups of organizations and experts with experience in such projects. involvement of memory institutions in digitization processes.
This publication was produced within the project “Support activities of UNP EaP CSF in 2021-2023” implemented by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting.
The Ukrainian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (http://eap-csf.org.ua/) is a network of more than 140 non-governmental organizations in Ukraine that advocates Ukrainian interests within the framework of the Eastern Partnership. The platform is part of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF).
The Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum is unique multi-layered regional civil society platform aimed at promoting European integration, facilitating reforms and democratic transformations in the six Eastern Partnership countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Serving as the civil society and people-to-people dimension of the Eastern Partnership, the EaP CSF strives to strengthen civil society in the region, boost pluralism in public discourse and policy making by promoting participatory democracy and fundamental freedoms. The EaP CSF is a non-partisan bona fide non-governmental organisation.
Contacts
The Ukrainian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum
NGO Agency of European Innovations
