The DRONE project (Teacher and school leaders training to promote Digital liteRacy and combat the spread of disinfOrmation among vulNerable groups of adolEscents) highlights that the one-size-fits-all approach to teacher and student digital literacy education cannot cope with the increasing diversity of learners and that more and different types of data are needed to complement teacher education, which is mainly based on the epistemological approach.

Based on the above premise, DRONE draws on a threefold ecosystem approach: an ecosystem approach to disinformation, which examines its viral spread as part of the interaction of broader digital and human ecosystems; an ecosystem approach to human development, which examines how specific ecosystem parameters of young people related to decision-making, such as, risk perception, time perception and resilience resources, interact with their digital literacy and ability to detect disinformation; a whole-school ecosystem approach that engages school leaders and parents in dialogue and considers students’ digital literacy and ability to detect disinformation as critical components of crisis preparedness and management in school communities.

Against this background, the project aims to: (a) explore the gaps in the literature on teachers’ and students’ digital literacy; (b) conduct mixed-methods field research with students, teachers, school leaders and parents to generate new data for the development of training materials for teachers; (c) use mixed-methods research to pilot test training materials for teachers and school leaders; (d) conduct training on a large scale at EU level and in the Ukraine. DRONE aims to achieve individual, organisational and systemic impact at consortium, national and EU level through the production of innovative teacher materials, create training courses and materials and integrate them into the curricula of partner organisations, produce evidence-based policy guidelines to promote digital active citizenship in school communities and create a Europe-wide network of DRONE’s ambassadors to ensure the sustainability of the project.

Primary target groups of the DRONE project outcomes include educational professionals, students, policy makers and government officials, as well as parents and guardians. Secondary target groups include the academic and research community, NGOs and civic organizations, educational institutions and the media.