Transforming digital wellbeing from an abstract concept into sustainable school practice — through co-design, piloting and cross-country policy learning across six EU nations.
What is TechWell?
An Erasmus+ Policy Experimentation project running March 2025 – February 2027, focused on turning digital wellbeing into a practical, whole-school capability.
Digital wellbeing in education is the capacity of learners, educators, school organisations and communities to use digital technologies in ways that support health, learning, relationships, rights and participation — through balanced habits, safe and respectful digital environments, and humane governance.
- Shared Conceptual FrameworkWhat digital wellbeing means in education and why it matters
- School Strategy & Governance ToolkitRules, routines, responsibilities and accountability at school level
- Educator & Learner ResourcesOERs aligned to DigCompEdu A1–C2 progression
- Reflection & Monitoring ToolsHow schools know what's happening and whether it's changing
- Engagement ArchitectureHow stakeholders co-produce, adopt and sustain the model
Policy Context & Evidence Base
European digital education priorities are rapidly incorporating wellbeing. DWS sits at the intersection of multiple EU policy streams.
Digital Education Action Plan 2021–2027
Calls for high-quality, inclusive and accessible digital education — explicitly not “technology-first”. Council of EU has consolidated wellbeing as a priority concern for all learning environments.
Children's Online Safety (BIK+ & DSA)
Children online should be protected, respected and empowered. The Digital Services Act imposes obligations on platforms to protect minors from addictive design, harmful content and cyberbullying.
International Evidence (UNESCO & OECD)
Technology value depends on terms, context and governance. Wellbeing outcomes depend on how digital life is structured — not on “more/less screen time” debates alone.
The Harmony Framework & 5 Core Dimensions
DWS uses a dimension model that maps directly to school levers. Click each dimension to explore.
🧠 Cognitive & Learning Dimension
Focuses on attention, distraction, information overload and learning-focused digital pedagogy. Schools apply this through structured lesson design, device management protocols and attention-recovery breaks.
💙 Emotional Dimension
Addresses stress, anxiety, social comparison and self-regulation in digital contexts. Includes supportive teacher-student interactions, emotional regulation strategies and wellbeing check-ins.
🤝 Social & Relational Dimension
Cyberbullying prevention, empathy, digital ethics of care, peer norms and teacher-parent collaboration. Schools build communication charters and peer support mechanisms.
🏃 Physical & Behavioral Dimension
Covers sleep disruption, sedentary behavior, breaks, ergonomics and displacement of healthy offline activities. Schools set notification boundaries and model healthy digital routines.
🔒 Rights, Safety & Governance Dimension
Privacy, data protection, safeguarding, age-appropriate design and responsible use of AI-in-education tools. DWS aligns to GDPR, AI Act and EN 301 549 accessibility standards.
The Digital Wellbeing Suite
A layered tool ecosystem covering every actor in the school community — from individual students to ministry level.
Five-Layer Tool Ecosystem
DWS proposes a structured five-layer ecosystem where each layer addresses a different scope of action — from the individual student to the entire education system.
Reflection & Self-Monitoring Tools
Help students and educators become aware of their digital habits and patterns through structured self-assessment and evidence-based inquiry.
School Diagnostics & Planning
Whole-school tools for leaders and teams to assess readiness, set strategy and create accountability frameworks for digital wellbeing.
Attention & Learning Environment Management
Practical tools for managing the classroom digital environment in ways that support cognitive health and learning focus.
Engagement Strategy: 5 Mechanisms
DWS combines five complementary engagement mechanisms to ensure adoption at every level — from classroom to ministry.
Value for Every Stakeholder
DWS translates digital wellbeing into practical, role-specific value — ensuring alignment from classroom to European policy level.
Case Studies from 6 Countries
Six living laboratories generating transferable evidence for European policy. Select a country to explore.
Digital Citizenship & Communication
Lead Country · Policy Experimentation Hub
Key Challenges
- Class chats lack rules → misunderstandings & conflicts
- Students feel pressure to respond immediately → anxiety & distraction
- Rules imposed top-down → limited student agency & ownership
- Reactive approach: problems addressed after they occur
- Teachers lack structured tools for managing online conflicts
Solutions & Innovations
- Student-led inquiry into real communication challenges
- Co-created “Chat Code”: quiet hours, notification boundaries, peer support
- 4–6 week whole-school experimentation cycles
- Student ambassador model
- Real-time micro-polls and teacher reflection logs
Implementation Roadmap
Holistic Approach to Digital Wellbeing
Whole-Community Model · Social Media Ban Context
Key Challenges
- Teacher low self-confidence with ICT despite training
- Gap between Ministry ICT objectives and classroom reality
- No unified digital wellbeing strategy
- Approaching ban on social media for under-15s
- ICT integration uneven across school types and regions
Solutions & Innovations
- Experimental model for the entire school community
- Capacity building for teachers, students and families
- Harmony Framework through whole-school participatory actions
- Contribution to national social media regulation debate
- Teacher training on DWS material and classroom integration
Implementation Roadmap
Mental Health & Digital Disconnection
Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue · Post Phone-Ban Context
Key Challenges
- Heavy technology use but rarely for school purposes
- Aimless scrolling & information overload → burnout risk
- Sleep disruption, attention fatigue & digital strain
- Teacher technostress and blurred boundaries
- Lack of institutional digital disconnection practices
Solutions & Innovations
- Theory of Change framework with measurable indicators
- Multi-stakeholder dialogue
- Digital disconnection practice training
- SEL and critical thinking skills strengthening
- Continuous monitoring, evaluation and scalability planning
Implementation Roadmap
Balanced Technology Use in Education
Student Self-Awareness · Co-Responsibility Model
Key Challenges
- Digital wellbeing addressed inconsistently
- Prolonged screen time from homework, platforms and entertainment
- Students lack self-regulation tools
- Teacher uncertainty: pedagogy vs. cognitive load
- Inconsistent home-school technology expectations
Solutions & Innovations
- Student digital habit diaries and reflection activities
- Co-designed “Digital Balance” strategies
- Balanced digital/non-digital teaching methods
- Family engagement workshops
- Structured experimentation cycles with feedback
Implementation Roadmap
DCU Living Lab for Digital Wellbeing
Research-Shadowed Implementation · AI Policy Focus
Key Challenges
- The “Digital Goldilocks” dilemma
- Passive late-night scrolling displacing sleep and social time
- “Always-on” pressure via school platforms
- AI arrived faster than schools can write policies
- Initiative overload among teachers
Solutions & Innovations
- Discovery & co-design workshops
- Pedagogical capacity building and classroom toolkits
- Shadowed implementation by DCU team
- Sustainable annual wellbeing plan
- Agile real-time adjustment during pilots
Implementation Roadmap
Digital Citizenship & Responsible Communication
National Guidelines Alignment · Bottom-Up Strategy
Key Challenges
- Responsible communication across peer, teacher and partner levels
- Translating 2025 national Guidelines into school-level practice
- Preparing immediately usable materials for teachers
- Drafting school DW strategies aligned to national and EU frameworks
- Potential legislation change on phone bans for under-10s
Solutions & Innovations
- Bottom-up strategy drafting with management, teachers and students
- DWS learning materials adapted to Czech context
- Practical teacher support for communication
- Student self-awareness activities
- Adaptable roadmaps if legislation changes
Implementation Roadmap
Monitoring & Evaluation Framework
Structured to assess relevance, effectiveness, impact and scalability across all six countries — with comparable core metrics plus country-context modules.
🔒 GDPR
Data minimization by design · consent & assent · opt-out pathways · access controls · DPIAs.
♿ EN 301 549
Accessibility as a core equity issue, not a compliance afterthought.
🤖 EU AI Act
Risk awareness for AI tools in classrooms and protection of minors from harmful design patterns.
7 Policy Recommendations
From awareness campaigns to whole-school operating models — what education systems need to do next.
Embed Digital Wellbeing as a Quality Standard
Treat DW as a core quality pillar of digital education ecosystems.
Move from Campaigns to Whole-School Models
Broader wellbeing outcomes require sustained organizational change.
Support Teacher Wellbeing as Part of Student Wellbeing
Workload, boundary erosion and technostress are structural risks.
Invest in Capacity Aligned to Competence Frameworks
Use DigCompEdu as the actual structure for staged training.
Strengthen Links with Online Safety Ecosystems
BIK+ and Safer Internet Centres should be integrated into routine practice.
Adopt Rights-Based, Privacy-Preserving Monitoring
Policy must require transparency, proportionality and data minimization.
Treat Scaling as a Design Requirement from the Start
Pilots should produce replicable artefacts: governance templates, training packages and procurement checklists.
The Case for DWS in Five Points
A concise overview of the problem, the solution, the evidence base and the expected impact of the Digital Wellbeing Suite.
🚨 The Problem
Digital education has become an everyday reality for Europe's schools, accelerated by the pandemic and sustained by rapid AI innovation. Yet schools face a paradox: the same digital tools that enable powerful learning simultaneously generate attention fragmentation, digital overload, sleep disruption, cyberbullying, and the erosion of healthy boundaries between school and home life.
Across six partner countries, school communities report that existing approaches are fragmented, reactive and largely dependent on individual teacher initiative — with no coherent, sustainable whole-school model in place.
💡 The Solution
The Digital Wellbeing Suite (DWS) is a structured, modular framework that enables schools to move from ad hoc initiatives to a sustainable whole-school operating model. It integrates five evidence-based dimensions into one adoptable system.
DWS is built on the Harmony Framework for Digital Wellbeing, aligned to DigCompEdu A1–C2 professional progression, and designed to complement the EU's SELFIE school self-assessment tool.
📋 The Approach
TechWell uses the Erasmus+ Policy Experimentation methodology: hypothesis-driven design, systematic evidence generation, cross-country comparability with contextual variation, and a credible scaling pathway into policy and practice.
Six country pilots act as living laboratories. Students are positioned as co-researchers and co-designers. Each pilot generates both behavioral change evidence and policy-ready artefacts.
🌍 The Scope
The consortium spans Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Ireland and Italy — bringing together ministries of education, universities, research institutions and EdTech organizations.
Associated partners include school networks, parent organizations, international bodies and industry stakeholders contributing to validation and dissemination across all six systems.
✦ What Success Looks Like
EU Frameworks & Legislative Context
DWS is positioned within a rich ecosystem of EU frameworks, strategies and regulatory instruments. Click each to expand.
The EU Digital Education Action Plan is explicitly not technology-first — it calls for education that is high-quality, inclusive and accessible. Key actions relevant to DWS include promotion of digital wellbeing, cybersecurity awareness and AI literacy as cross-cutting priorities, alongside the scaling of SELFIE and DigCompEdu.
The EU Strategy for a Better Internet for Kids frames children’s online experience around three commitments: children should be protected from harm, respected as rights-holders, and empowered as active digital citizens.
The Digital Services Act establishes obligations for online platforms with specific protections for minors. For schools, this matters because student and teacher wellbeing is conditioned by design choices made in the broader digital environment.
The EU AI Act introduces a risk-based framework for AI systems. Education-related AI tools may be classified as high-risk applications requiring conformity assessments, human oversight and transparency obligations.
GDPR applies fully to schools’ use of digital tools, and wellbeing-oriented monitoring presents particular sensitivity when it involves minors. DWS builds GDPR compliance in from the start.
DWS treats accessibility not as a compliance afterthought but as a core equity issue: digital wellbeing tools that cannot be used by students with disabilities do not support wellbeing.
DigCompEdu Alignment: A1 → C2
TechWell aligns DWS resources to the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators — turning digital wellbeing from a one-off training into a staged professional learning pathway.
Area 1: Professional Engagement
- Organisational communication respecting digital boundaries
- Professional collaboration in digital environments
- Reflective practice on digital wellbeing in teaching
Area 2: Digital Resources
- Selecting wellbeing-positive digital resources
- Protecting student data in resource use
- Open licensing and OER development
Area 3: Teaching & Learning
- Managing digital devices and environments in class
- Healthy boundaries in collaborative digital learning
- Self-regulated learning in digital contexts
Area 4: Assessment
- Ethical digital assessment approaches
- Wellbeing-sensitive feedback
- Responsible analysis of engagement evidence
Area 5: Empowering Learners
- Accessibility and inclusion in digital learning
- Student agency in digital wellbeing decisions
- Differentiation for diverse digital needs
Area 6: Learners' Digital Competence
- Information and media literacy for wellbeing
- Digital communication with rights-based norms
- Safety, wellbeing and problem-solving online
Recommended Tools for Schools
A curated overview of tools available to schools — covering what already exists at scale, what DWS adds, and where compliance requirements apply.
| Tool / Resource | Category | Who Uses It | Purpose | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 📱 Layer 1 — Individual Self-Regulation | ||||
| Digital Usage Diary | Self-monitoring | Students, Teachers | Track screen time, apps used and associated feelings over 5–7 days | DWS Developed |
| Mood & Focus Micro-poll | Wellbeing check-in | Students | Quick daily pulse on attention quality, digital fatigue and emotional state | DWS Developed |
| Android Digital Wellbeing / Apple Screen Time | Device management | Students, Teachers | Built-in usage monitoring, app timers, downtime and focus tools | Already at Scale |
| 🏫 Layer 2 — Classroom & Learning Environment | ||||
| Focus Timer Protocols | Attention management | Teachers | Structured focus cycles and device-free moments adapted for classroom use | DWS Developed |
| Class “Chat Code” | Communication norms | Students, Teachers | Co-created rules for class messaging platforms including quiet hours and peer support | Co-Design Output |
| 📊 Layer 3 — School Diagnostics & Planning | ||||
| DWS Readiness Assessment | Self-assessment | School Leaders | Whole-school readiness audit across 5 DWS dimensions | DWS Developed |
| SELFIE (EU JRC) | Digital self-reflection | Leaders, Teachers, Students | EU school digital technology self-assessment integrated with DWS | Already at Scale |
| Digital Wellbeing Strategy Template | Governance | School Leaders | Framework for documenting and reviewing the school DW strategy annually | DWS Developed |
| 🏠 Layer 4 — Home–School Communication | ||||
| Parent Digital Wellbeing Guide | Family engagement | Parents, Caregivers | Accessible guidance for consistent digital practices at home | DWS Developed |
| Home-School Digital Norms Agreement | Communication | Parents, Students, Teachers | Shared expectations for homework, communication and healthy digital habits | Co-Design Output |
| ⚖️ Layer 5 — System, Compliance & Evaluation | ||||
| GDPR School Compliance Pack | Data protection | School Leaders, DPO | Consent forms, DPIA templates, retention schedules and privacy notices | DWS Developed |
| KIDSCREEN-10 / SDQ / WHO-5 | Measurement | Students, Teachers | Validated tools used with appropriate ethics, consent and referral pathways | Validated Tool |
| Accessibility Audit Checklist | Inclusion | IT, School Leaders | Checklist against EN 301 549 / WCAG requirements | DWS Developed |
TechWell Consortium
A complementary mix of ministries of education, universities, research institutions and EdTech organizations across six EU countries.
Open Access, Institutionalization & Long-Term Impact
DWS sustainability is achieved when it becomes embedded in school improvement planning, teacher education, national strategies and EdTech procurement — not when the Erasmus+ grant ends.
📖 Open Educational Resources
All TechWell modules, templates, training materials and assessment tools are published as Open Educational Resources under Creative Commons licences.
- CC BY 4.0 licence for DWS content
- Maintained online repository after project end
- Translations in all 6 partner country languages
- Implementation guides for self-directed school use
🏛️ Institutionalization Pathways
DWS is designed to be integrated into existing school systems and national frameworks.
- School improvement planning
- Teacher CPD frameworks aligned to DigCompEdu
- National digital education strategies
- Online safety ecosystems and BIK+ resources
- EdTech procurement standards
🗳️ Policy Integration Strategy
TechWell works with ministry-level partners to ensure DWS outcomes inform national policy and school-level practice.
- National policy dialogues and roundtables
- Country-specific policy briefs
- EU-level Digital Education Action Plan alignment
- Safer Internet Day and BIK+ strategy links
📈 Scaling by Design
Every pilot produces replicable artefacts that enable other schools and systems to adopt DWS.
- Governance templates
- Train-the-trainer materials
- Procurement checklists
- Implementation playbooks
- Cross-country evidence synthesis
Key Terms & Glossary
Essential vocabulary for navigating the TechWell White Paper and the broader EU digital education landscape.
