16.12.2006. The modern teacher – skilled in information technologies

The modern teacher – skilled in information technologies

To teach teachers how to use information and multimedia technologies in their work. This is how you can briefly express the goal of the Polish-Ukrainian project “Teach-IT.net – Building an educated society in Ukraine. Using information technologies in innovative ways in the professional improvement of teachers.” The second stage of the project concluded in December with a summary conference at the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv, Ukraine.

The idea for such instruction for teachers started in Poland, where, in 2003 at the initiative of the KANA Catholic Youth Education Center in Gliwice, the project Teach-IT.net was started. In three years, with the support of the European Commission, the initiators and participants of the project developed methods which are composed of 10 instructional modules, each of which can be the basis for lessons, depending on the teacher’s qualification level in information technologies (IT). Together this is approximately 200 hours of instruction, and some of the modules are intended for lessons in teachers’ colleges and some in the school where the teacher works. In Poland, there are now 60 centers of such instruction. In 2006, Ukraine welcomed the project. “Polish and Ukrainian educators have similar problems in this area,” says Witold Zawadzki, projects coordinator of KANA. “Unfortunately, today we don’t have enough teachers whose usual regular activities, in and outside of the school, involve IT. The teacher should understand the role of using these technologies in teaching his or her subject, so the technologies can make their work much more effective.”

The KANA Center is introducing Teach-IT.net “Ukrainian style” together with the Ukrainian Catholic University, one of the leading centers for the humanities in Ukraine. “UCU here is always open to innovation. I see great enthusiasm and exceptional ability to execute great and necessary matters.” KANA Director Waldemar Kuwaczka thus explains the choice of partner.

The question might arise: but are such innovations in time? Today no one can deny that every year the percentage of computerization of Ukrainian society increases. Modern information technologies are surely felt in our offices, and they constantly fight for their place in the sun in our homes. And progress is noticeable in schools of general education; at least city schools can take pride in a modern computer classroom, and sometimes more than one. However, as computer specialists say, to have “iron,” that is, equipment, is still not all; one needs to know how to use it in daily activities. In addition, since 2002 there has been a national doctrine of development in Ukraine, which states that “the priority of the development of education is the introduction of modern information-communications technologies that provide further improvement of the educational-instructional process… the preparation of the younger generation for living in an information society.” There is also a government program of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine “Information and Communications Technologies in Education and Research from 2006 to 2010.” These have a number of problems. For, to tell the truth, even teachers of informatics do not always know how to use the latest machines in the educational process; so what can one say about other subjects, teachers of geography, history, biology, and so on? As a rule, not an exception, young specialists graduating from higher educational institutions are also not in a hurry to introduce the newest methods for teaching students.

There are many reasons for such a situation, say the specialists. In particular, Dr. Natalia Morze, pro-rector of the Academy of Work and Social Relations, during the conference said that, in the estimation of experts, what is most lacking is the motivation of teachers, certification requirements regarding the use of information technologies in the educational process, the informational “literacy” of educators, understandable methods for using IT in lessons, methodological literature on these issues, and so on. The project “Teach-IT.net – Building an educated society in Ukraine…” is trying to take this into account.

“We have a program to raise the qualifications of teachers in the IT field,” says Dr. Morze. “These are projects of famous gigantic companies like Intel and Microsoft, which do very useful things. However, they do not foresee monitoring the knowledge and habits acquired by the teacher.” But the Teach-IT.net program has concrete expected results from the teacher on three levels: knowledge, requirements, and application. These are evaluated by a qualifying exam that demonstrates the real abilities of the teacher while conducting a lesson, so the instruction is held at a convenient time, once a week at the end of the work day. Another great plus is that the project foresees certification recognized by the government, which is taken into account in the system of evaluating the teacher. For this reason, the changes made for the Ukrainian version of the program absolutely adapt all its elements to the realities of Ukraine and will strive to take into account the wishes of adult students.

Finally, educators themselves understand the need to change something. “In the modern era the goal of education is changing.” Nina Zhuk, assistant director of the Mathematical Lyceum of Cherkasy Specialized School Number 17 associated with UNESCO and a participant in one of the training sessions that were part of the project, thus shared her thoughts. “Previously, the teacher was to give the students knowledge. Now, we should teach them methodology, that is, how to master this knowledge. Information technologies are exactly what students need in this situation, but, for this to happen, the teacher him- or herself should master them.”