Estonia's 2020 Year of Digital Culture - Estonia offers free digital education resources worldwide

In Estonia, under the leadership of the Ministry of Culture, 2020 is planned as the Year of Digital Culture. With the programming overtaken by the COVID-19 crisis, Estonia has announced that it offers its digital education solutions for free to support other countries. Estonia, the leading education nation in Europe (No 1. in PISA test in Europe), announced that it is humbled to share all of its digital education tools to support other countries’ education systems during the COVID-19 crisis.

The list of digital education tools that are internationally available are here: http://education-nation.99math.com/

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The Ministry of Culture has organised thematic years since 2000. The Digital Culture year will be organized with the aim of enabling new generations to embrace the country's living culture and heritage, and to support digital solutions. The aim of the Digital Culture Year is to make digital culture part of the success story of e-Estonia. It is important that new generations embrace our own living culture and heritage and that digital solutions support it. The activities and events of the year are organised by the National Library of Estonia, National Heritage Board, Estonian National Broadcasting and Estonian Film Institute.

Topics that will shape the Digital Culture year include re-use and rethinking of the digitised cultural heritage, related copyright and open data issues, the Creative Tiger programme that brings digital creativity to youth, and the analysis of big cultural data for better policies. Attention is also paid to the downside of digital weather, i.e. smart addiction, identity theft and cyber security.

Interviews with various cultural leaders outline expectations for the year:

2020 is the year of digital culture. This is a good opportunity to focus your attention on a particular cultural area or event. Active discussions have begun on which cultural objects could be supported through the Cultural Endowment. Tarvi Sits, Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture

In the Digital Culture Year, it is perhaps also worth mentioning the goal of the ministry's work plan to compile an overview of the need for digitization of musical manuscripts. It is also part of creating new opportunities for artists and audiences to share artistic values. Hillar Sein , Deputy Secretary-General for the Arts

The Ministry of Culture in Estonia has consistently organized thematic years. Over time, attention has been paid to art, books, film, but also, for example, cultural heritage and children and young people. The last year of 2019 valued the history of song and dance festivals and looked at the future of the festivities.

A series of opinion pieces on Digital Culture in Estonia is launched by Tallinn University and Postimees - read more

Learn more from the MEDIT - TLU Center of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture at Tallinn University. MEDIT conducts research and development on audiovisual digital culture, digital culture and digital creative industries.

Image: Telerid. FOTO: Erik Prozes/Postimees