Bridging the Digital Humanities and Educational Media Divide in the West Balkans

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The ‘digital leap’ is a sustainable formative factor in many areas of science and society. Its advances encompass a wide range of disciplines, including humanities, education and the cultural sector. As an inter-disciplinary field of study, digital humanities are a bridge linking the aforementioned disciplines with information technology for the purpose of helping others experience and explore these areas in new and stimulating ways, as well as scientists within the same disciplines advancing their research using technological tools. Digital humanities and educational media further stretch beyond academia, mainly through collaboration with the cultural heritage, tourism and education sectors. Last but not least, digital humanities have proved to be a major step towards the Europeanization of heritage. Although the necessity to integrate digital tools in humanities and education has been felt in the West Balkans as elsewhere, there is scarcity of operators providing the expert knowledge, skills and competences necessary to develop properly trained professionals to engage technology for the purpose of devising creative solutions in a range of humanities and education application areas at cultural heritage institutions, schools, public agencies, international organisations and private companies. The aim of this project is thus to contribute to bridging the digital humanities and educational media divide in the West Balkans (WB). To this end, relevant state-of-the-art European expertise shall strengthen the Digital Humanities and Education Media expertise in the WB’s partner universities in two directions: 1. Developing a M.Sc. in Digital Media and Education. 2. Revising and updating a number of mandatory and elective courses in existing curricula. The project will provide for substantial laboratory development / enhancement, labour market research in the WB to record current and future trends, specialized training for academic, laboratory staff and students.