Key messages from SELFIE online workshop - SEET region
Context
Digital and online learning used to be considered forward-looking, innovative, special. Not anymore. In just the first months of 2020, COVID-19 wiped away their aura of exclusivity and made them the new status quo – overnight.
“There has been a massive and unprecedented shift that has turned all teaching into emergency remote teaching, and put digital learning at the centre of education”, said Deirdre Hodson (DG EAC, European Commission) in the first online meeting in a series organised by the ETF as part of the SELFIE project on the 4th of June 2020.
What is SELFIE?
SELFIE is an online self-reflection tool that helps primary and secondary general and vocational schools reflect on how they are using digital technologies for teaching and learning. It has been developed by the European Commission in partnership with the European Training Foundation (ETF), the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) and UNESCO's Institute for Information Technologies in Education, and it is undergoing continuous updating.
Piloted in 2017 with 67,000 users in 650 schools across 14 countries, among which Georgia, Serbia and Russia, SELFIE has been used, to date, by 650,704 people in 7,289 schools across 57 countries – and counting.
SELFIE and ETF Partner Countries in the SEET region
The SEET region has been one of the early adopters of SELFIE, with pilots and in some cases scale-ups running in Turkey (starting March 2019), Montenegro, The Republic of North Macedonia, Kosovo* (starting May 2019) and Albania (starting November 2019).
On the 4th of June 2020, the ETF hosted an online workshop together with the European Commission – represented by DG EAC (Deirdre Hodson) and the Joint Research Centre (Nikoleta Giannoutsou and Ralph Hippe) – during which the country coordinators for SELFIE in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, The Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey shared their status updates, notable experiences, as well as their specific needs for further steps.
Status updates from SEET
Albania
As Ejvis Gishti, SELFIE national coordinator Albania, took the floor, a reality that had been eclipsed by COVID-19 was suddenly back in the spotlight: on the 26th of November 2019, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Northwestern Albania. This event had already determined the country to accelerate the implementation of digital learning. With the onset of the pandemic, attention shifted even more from quality assurance towards remote and online education. Six schools had been enrolled in the SELFIE pilot right before the earthquake, and five of them completed the process. In spite of the difficulties experienced, Gishti reports a high response rate and the adoption of SELFIE results into the national self-assessment that the schools have to do.
Kosovo*
Valbona Fetiu-Mjeku, SELFIE national coordinator in Kosovo*, took the floor to highlight that the several initiatives in place to reform the education and vocational systems in the country could be very useful also to promote SELFIE, yet a better coordination and capacity building would be necessary to deliver online courses, networking and peer learning.
Montenegro
Jelena Konatar, SELFIE national coordinator in Montenegro, proceeded with an overview of the pilot run in ten schools and scale-up, with 1,800 school managers, teachers and students. In early 2020, after a successful pilot in the previous school year, 211 public primary and secondary schools were included in the SELFIE project, and results were due in March, but the process was interrupted by COVID-19. An analysis is now expected at the end of June 2020, and Konatar re-confirms that digitalisation is a high priority for the Ministry of Education.
North Macedonia
The SELFIE national coordinator for North Macedonia, Nadica Kostoska, could not take the floor for a technical problem, yet she sent a note to the ETF recalling the criteria that were used to select the four primary and eight secondary schools for the SELFIE pilot in May 2019. A broad mix of schools of different sizes and types as well as locations were chosen. While plans are being laid for the pilot to be rolled out nationally, schools are being provided with upgraded hardware and better internet connections. Some of this is being done with the support of the business community. In future, examples of good practice will be showcased and school coordinators will be encouraged to meet online to share experience.
Serbia
As Serbia was part of an early pilot, 960 primary and secondary schools have conducted SELFIE, with 92,687 participants, states Danijela Šćepanović, country coordinator for SELFIE. From each school, three participants have been invited: the school principal, an IT coordinator/ teacher, and a psychologist / pedagogue. It is clear to Šćepanović that the tool has been welcome, as all participation was voluntary. There is also interest for a re-launch of SELFIE in November 2020. Moreover, SELFIE is part of the Digital Capacities of Schools pillar in the Serbian Education Development Strategy 2027.
Turkey
In Turkey, the Ministry of National Education has put special focus on digital education since 2010 with the FATIH project. SELFIE has proven a valuable tool, contributing to Turkey’s Education Vision for 2023, said Sümeyye Hatice Eral, SELFIE national coordinator. Digital badges and certificates turned out to be an important incentive in Turkey: 213 schools were planned to take part in SELFIE, but once they started publishing their badges more schools applied. The total number went up to 290 schools. Collaboration in the SELFIE program in Turkey has taken place across three layers, involving a team in the Ministry, provincial and regional institutions and the school coordinators.
Needs and interests
Several needs were highlighted, particularly regarding access to aggregated annonymised data, better translations, better access to infrastructure, more training and for a more coherent process and to having a community of SELFIE participants who can share expertise.
One desire expressed unanimously across the board regards a set of guidelines on how to act upon survey results and how to develop sustainable follow up plans. While SELFIE is a tool provided for free by the European Commission, at the moment it does not issue recommendations upon the completion of the survey. Instead, schools can draw their own conclusions, make their own improvement plan, and take the SELFIE survey again (and again) to assess their progress.
However, if project management has taught us anything, it is that one can only improve what one measures – and this is where SELFIE comes in as a first and essential step.
Why take a SELFIE (survey)?
“Behind SELFIE there is a democratisation within the school community, as it is a participatory process” says Alessandro Brolpito, ETF. “Participating in SELFIE represents a commitment for innovation on the part of the school, it shows that the school doesn’t wish to stay in the comfort zone, but is open to improvement. In the past, digital learning used to be the privilege of an inner circle of tech gurus. Now it can belong to everybody.”
Efka Heder, team leader of the project ALLED2 in Kosovo* supported that statement:
“The role of schools in regional development is to act as lighthouses of knowledge and digital literacy, by supporting companies, especially SMEs, to adopt digital culture.”
SELFIE never stops
Looking ahead, Deirdre Hodson confirmed that new questions (among which several regarding blended learning) as well as new resources are being added and are expected to be released in August 2020.
News highlights were the upcoming SELFIE Forum, planned for March 2021, announced by Nikoleta Giannoutsou, JRC, the on-going development for a methodology to scale-up and integrate SELFIE in National Education Systems, announced by Alessandro Brolpito, ETF, and the piloting of SELFIE for Work-Based Learning, announced by Ralph Hippe, JRC.
“SELFIE never stops”, concluded Hodson, “and if we didn’t have SELFIE, we’d want to build it now”.
(*) This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence
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