The last week of January 2026 saw the launch of the E-CODE project, Ethical, Common and Open Digital in Education, following on from the ECHO Network project.
The first seminar of this European project took place at at a former University campus, now used by civil sociaty associations, Césure. It brought together 34 people for three days to discuss critical education for free, ethical and responsible digital technology.
The participants came from three different countries and multiple organisation:
- 5 direct project partners: Cemea Belgium, Italian Federation of Cemea, Dafni Kek and Solidar+
- 2 project associated partners: Collectif EducPopNum (Nouvelle Aquitaine, France) and Tactic (Belgium)
- 6 regional associations of Cemea France: Picardy, Réunion, Nouvelle Aquitaine, Pays de la Loire, Normandy, Rhône-Alpes.
This meeting had three main objectives:
– To meet and get to know each other
– To build a common knowledge base around the project themes and collectively affirm our values
– To launch the project for the next stages
The first half of the day focused on meetings and continuing the ECHO Network project, with a collective and active reading of the advocacy document produced in 2024.
These elements will feed into the advocacy roadmap for youth workers, a future output of the ECODE project.
The participants were then divided into three groups (one in French and two in English, allowing them to choose the language most suited to them).
In each group of participants, a pair of facilitators proposed one or more facilitation approaches for reflection, discussion and development around four themes:
Centralisation/decentralisation of the digital world
We discussed the omnipresence of digital giants in our daily lives, identified the ideologies and economic models promoted by these giants, and examined the societal impacts of this concentration. Finally, we shared possible solutions to circumvent this problem and find alternatives.
Digital sobriety, environmental issues
We discussed the environmental impact of digital technology (hardware, use of online services including AI, etc.) and identified levers for action to move towards greater digital sobriety.
Artificial intelligence
In this workshop, based on Shalini Kantayya’s documentary Coded Bias (2020), the idea was to identify existing uses of AI in our lives, beyond generative AI, and to understand how it works
and its dangers, in order to better protect ourselves and raise awareness of the impacts of AI.
Digital inclusion
In this workshop, we brought out representations of digital inclusion and collectively define what we wanted to put behind this term for the next two years of the project.
Finally, on Saturday morning, the 31st, we were able to collectively review what had been discussed on the four themes and identify what is essential to retain and include in a training module, possible teaching scenarios, and the resources that still need to be produced for our modules.
During this launch seminar, we affirmed our positions, aligned our values, and identified the first courses of action, training programs, and guides to be produced between now and 2027 to enrich the digital educational commons for youth workers.
Find out more about this project on the ECODE page and feel free to contact us for further information.