The Novopechersk School in Kyiv and the Lyceum of Information Technology (IT) at Dnipropetrovsk National University, as well as nine teachers in personal capacity have been included in the rankings of the most innovative schools and teachers. These rankings are compiled annually by Microsoft’s global education development program. This year’s list includes 150 schools and 800 teachers from around the world.
To get into the rankings, schools had to actively use not just new gadgets, but mobile and cloud technologies as well in the learning process. Through the use of these technologies, the recognized educational institutions have managed to make the learning process more personalized and improve their students’ academic performance.
As for the teachers, only those using progressive pedagogical techniques and new technologies in working with students and helping them to adapt to the professions of the future have made it on the list of innovators. The program will provide these teachers with free licenses for Office 365 packages and enable them to enhance their professional development, including via participation in a prize draw for a trip to the World Education Forum, to be held in Redmond, US, in April 2015.
COMMENTARY
Nadia VASYLIEVA, CEO, Microsoft Ukraine:
“Introducing new technologies in the learning process is an important element of our work. Actually, there are two approaches to education, one calling for rapid reforms that will not yield benefits in the long term, and another focusing on, shall we say, ‘investments in the future.’ We believe that the future belongs to IT, so we want to see how the latest developments can be used in the learning process, how they can improve the level of education offered by Ukrainian schools. This initiative can work, however, only when schools are interested in making this effort.
“The Novopechersk School and the Lyceum of IT volunteered to apply to our company and we helped them to introduce new ITs in the learning process. These schools have a system where the whole educational process has an electronic representation, and the very process of learning and performance can be followed online. It looks similar to state-level e-governance. These schools upload all relevant educational information in electronic form to a cloud storage system. Information about the activity of students in the classroom is also recorded in the system, so parents and the school supervisory authorities can check how a teacher conducts a lesson, who got what marks, how active was kids’ participation in the discussion, and who managed to do what.
“In addition, each student has an individual device with their personal profile. Previously, the teacher had to teach the material aiming at the average student’s level, but this is not necessary anymore. The devices’ records show the teacher how much the kid is behind or ahead their peers, allowing the teacher to increase or decrease the learning load, so that the student fully digests information. The schedule of classes is posted online as well.
“As educational information is freely available, kids have the opportunity not only to acquire knowledge required by the program, but also to choose certain subjects and study them individually according to their interests.
“Also, this system has a positive effect on the health of kids. The need to carry a bunch of heavy textbooks goes away since they now need just a cloud-connected device. It could be a tablet or a phone, or even a PC, which one can download files to at home.
“We try to spread these technologies and work with those who are interested. I wish that all schools, both private and public, took an interest in them.”
