Looking for alternative ways to improve their students’ learning process in their classrooms during the last years, the Secondary School “St.st. Cyril and Methodius” is delighted to be a part of the DIGITAL FIRST project’s mission to transform informatics education across Europe. The teachers from the school find the project very inspiring and enlightening as it directly addresses their daily teaching and learning experiences in their school.
The Impact of ICT on Education
Information and communications technology (ICT) can positively impact the learning process for students, and when teachers are digitally literate and understand how to integrate it into the curriculum, the lessons become more pleasant, inspiring, and beneficial. Today, more than ever before, schools use a diverse set of ICT tools to communicate, create, disseminate, store, and manage information, but it is still a field that constantly broadens. Computer sciences have become integral to the teaching-learning interaction, through approaches such as:
- Replacing chalkboards with interactive digital whiteboards
- Using students’ smartphones or other devices for learning during class time
- The “flipped classroom” model where students watch lectures at home on the computer and use classroom time for more interactive exercises
When teachers are digitally literate and trained to use ICT, these approaches can lead to higher-order thinking skills, provide creative and individualized options for students to express their understandings, and leave students better prepared to deal with ongoing technological change in society and the workplace. Computer sciences have changed teaching and learning, impacting the construction and distribution of knowledge and power around the world.
The Need for Professional Development
Therefore, teachers need specific professional development opportunities to increase their ability to use ICT for formative learning assessments, individualized instruction, accessing online resources, and fostering student interaction and collaboration. Such training in ICT will not only positively impact teachers’ general attitudes towards informatics in the classroom, but it will also provide specific guidance on informatics teaching and learning within each discipline. To facilitate the adaptation process for teachers, it is also essential to train education managers, supervisors, teacher educators, and decision-makers about the use of ICT tools.
Previous Initiatives at the School
Being aware of these facts, the Secondary School “St.st. Cyril and Methodius” has successfully finished two Erasmus Plus KA1 projects focusing on the usage of digital tools, where a great number of teachers completed training courses in European teacher training centres. The use of ICT tools creates a more engaging and active teaching and learning environment for students. Some schools started to allow students to bring their mobile technology (such as laptops, tablets, or smartphones) into the classroom rather than providing such tools to all students. However, it is important to note that not all families can afford devices or service plans for their children. Schools must ensure all students have equitable access to ICT devices for learning.
Supporting Students with Special Needs
Moreover, mobile devices can also offer programs that provide extra support to students with special needs, with features such as simplified screens and instructions, graphics combined with text, audio feedback, the ability to set pace and level of difficulty, appropriate feedback, and easy error correction.
Empowering Parents and Community Engagement
Being aware of these facts, for the past few years, the Secondary School “St.st. Cyril and Methodius” has put a lot of effort into improving digital literacy for all. The teachers dedicated a lot of time to helping parents adapt technologies to their needs through face-to-face and online training. Empowering parents facilitates the advancement of students’ digital literacy. The parent courses that the school has organized over the past years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, improved the school’s connection with both the parents and the students while making a difference in the efficiency of the learning process at all stages. The school also looked for ways to exchange experiences with different stakeholders, such as local business owners who use digital technologies in their work, as well as local administration staff and representatives of the authorities to be able to prepare their students for their future professional lives. During the Focus Group interviews carried out by the school for the DIGITAL FIRST project, a local business representative explained the types of competencies that are sought in the young people who apply for jobs in that sector.
The Need for an Interactive Teaching Approach
While the school aims to bring ICT closer to their learners by helping them gain confidence in the usage of digital technologies to improve their learning, the teachers are also fully aware that there is a need to remodel the teaching process from a strict lecture type, where the teacher is the presenter and the student is the listener, to a more interactive way, where students are empowered to express their thoughts and search for different methods to gain knowledge. The eTwinning projects, workshops, and webinars were very helpful in giving the students these opportunities to develop their competencies because they use ICT tools in such a way that ensures the success of the learning process and shows responsible use of technology in project-based learning. They build both digital skills and digital citizenship competencies, and it is also a very safe digital space because eTwinning follows very strict rules for sharing any data online.
Challenges and Future Directions
While conducting the DIGITAL FIRST Focus Groups on how informatics is taught and learned in Bulgarian schools, all groups – students, teachers, and parents once again faced the need for and importance of implementing informatics in teaching. It also showed that teachers in Bulgaria, like their counterparts in other countries, need help in acquiring knowledge on how to use these tools and methods confidently in the classroom. Integrating informatics in the classroom creates a more engaging and interesting learning environment for students. What’s more, teachers and educators have a key role to play in equipping their students for the future – a world of digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI).