Almost 280 workshops and webinars with more than 5,700 participants, equipping teachers from 151 school with modern computer equipment and corresponding infrastructure, and preparation of strategic documents to help primary and secondary schools in Croatia to achieve a higher level of digital maturity – are only some of this year's results of the implementation of the pilot project of e-Schools: Establishing a System for Developing Digitally Mature Schools presented today by the Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNet.
Mr. Zvonimir Stanić, CARNet CEO, presented an overview of numerous activities performed during 2016 within the project which CARNet is implementing in cooperation with its partners: the Education and Teacher Training Agency, the Agency for Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education and the Faculty of Organization and Informatics of the University of Zagreb. The total value of the pilot project is almost 307 million kunas, and is co-financed for the larger part from the EU Structural Funds. During his presentation, he reminded that on 15 July an agreement was signed on grant allocation for implementation of infrastructural servicing part of the project in the value of more than 220 million kunas, 85 % of which came from the European Regional Development Fund, and the remaining sum was co-financed from national funds.
Based on this agreement, equipping started of teaching and non-teaching staff in 151 primary and secondary schools participating in the project, which is 10 % of all schools in Croatia. Of the total number of schools in the project, to this day almost 85 % have been equipped, while the remaining schools will be equipped in the beginning of the following year. Besides equipping of schools with ICT infrastructure, exceptionally important are content-related elements, as well as education and support provided by CARNet to teachers and school principals through the project implementation. This year, two strategic documents have been prepared: the Framework for digital maturity of schools, which for the first time in Croatia enables a deep insight in the condition of digital maturity of primary and secondary schools in Croatia, and the Framework for digital competence of users, which, in addition to the accompanying guide, includes an overview of knowledge and skills (competences) required of teachers, school principals and school administration staff for the application of digital technologies and resources in schools.
In order to encourage teachers to use technology and digital educational contents in classrooms, CARNet prepared 60 learning scenarios for biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics for the 7th and 8th grades of primary, and the 1st and 2nd grades of secondary schools, and by the end of the project the goal is to create a total of 240 scenarios and encourage teachers to create their own. Encouragement and empowerment of teachers is also performed through numerous workshops and webinars on which the attendants, among other things, are educated on implementation of modern classes with the aid of technology, usage of tools for production of digital educational contents, or usage of videoconferences in classes. To this day, 275 workshops have been held with more than 4,300 participants, and four webinars with almost 1,500 active participants.
Today, CARNet also presented a new website for the e-Schools project (www.e-skole.hr) on which it will regularly publish all important information for project participants, but also for general interested public, and Mr. Stanić announced the plan of project activities for the next year. Therefore, the following year CARNet will publish the remaining 180 learning scenarios, and start the creation of digital educational contents which will accompany teaching curricula of particular subjects. All contents will be available to the users through the central national repository, thus creating a unique place of access to those contents, from schools and from homes. Within the mentioned contents, what should certainly be pointed out are the numerous comprehensive works of Croatian and foreign literary authors from the list of mandatory school reading assignments for primary and secondary schools, which will be available as e-Lektire through the repository.
In the beginning of the following year, the finalisation of equipping of schools and regional training centres with computer equipment is expected, and during 2017 CARNet will build a wireless network in 144 schools. Production of the e-Schools ecosystem will start, an umbrella system defining all other sub-systems, such as SIPU (institution processes informatisation system) – a centralised and standardised system for business informatisation of business processes monitoring in schools, and a system for learning and organisation analytics by which the schools will collect, measure, analyze and give reports on students and their learning. In the second half of 2017, final research and valuation of digital maturity of schools will be performed, which will show how much the schools included in the project have advanced as compared to the recently published research according to which a vast majority of schools (82 %) falls in the category of digital beginners.
The e-Schools project is a part of the wider e-Schools programme which is being implemented through several projects of school system informatisation from 2015 to 2022. The pilot project implementation started in 2015 and will continue until 2018, after which the major project will begin, the implementation of which is planned for the period from 2019 until 2022, and will include 60 % of all primary and secondary schools in Croatia. In the pilot project implementation, almost 7,000 teachers are participating, of whom 1,300 are teachers of natural science subjects and mathematics, and 151 school principal.
Projekt je sufinancirala Europska unija iz europskih strukturnih i investicijskih fondova.
