On the occasion of LUDOVIA#BE, which took place in Spa, Wallonia from October 22 to 24, 2024, we met a number of hidden gems. Over the coming weeks, you’ll discover a small selection of them through articles and short videos which, we hope, will inspire your current and future projects…
🎙️ Interview — Today, we hope to inspire you with Michaël Van Royen, an educational technologist.
He is supporting the implementation of the FMTTN framework in Wallonia: manual, technical, technological, and digital education.
“With the launch of the Pact for Excellence in Education and the rollout of a common core curriculum with a polytechnic approach, a new subject has emerged — FMTTN training,” he explains.
Michaël teaches at the HE2B university college, and he’s facing a rather unique situation, as this profession doesn’t yet exist in practice. The Pact is being rolled out gradually. In fact, these FMTTN courses are already being taught in primary school, but not yet in secondary education:
“So our students have to do internships, but there’s nowhere for them to really immerse themselves and understand the reality on the ground — because it doesn’t yet exist,” he notes.
These new teachers, trained under the Pact for Excellence, must master several areas: housing, gardening, sustainable development, digital education, education through digital tools, technological objects — and the list goes on!
These new students are curious, hands-on individuals — true Swiss Army knives!
“We can think of it as a subject, but also as a transversal approach that can be used alongside other subjects,” he says.
“For example, teaching media literacy through civic and philosophical education; or using content creation in French class to work on storytelling,” he adds.
This is the second year of this training program. So far, the results are mixed, as it’s still an emerging course and enrollment numbers are low.
“The issue is that students have a hard time envisioning the job,” he explains. “It’s an emerging profession. As a colleague put it: it’s easier to go into nursing when you already know what a nurse actually does!”
Currently, no teachers are officially teaching this course, so:
“When it comes to professional identity, it’s still complicated for students to identify with a teacher who doesn’t yet exist…”, he concludes.
More information about HE2B: he2b.be
