On the recent 26-27 October 2022 a new important milestone was set in the inspiring SELFIE journey to Azerbaijan with the organization of two days workshop in Baku attended by around one hundred participants.
The two days face-to-face event in Baku aimed, at day one, to involve piloting schools to put into actions improvement plans based on the SELFIE results of their own schools and, at the day two, to
gather involved stakeholders to discuss progress achieved and explore the next steps for the use of the SELFIE tool in Azerbaijan to support the implementation of the national strategy for the inclusion of digital technologies in teaching and learning, stepping from a policy recommendation action into a policy implementation level.
The journey started back in early 2021, with a first SELFIE pilot, whose results were discussed in October 2021. As result, in close cooperation with the Bureau on ICT for Education of the Ministry of Science and Education of Azerbaijan, a second pilot was launched early this year, and the decision was to go deeper rather than going broader.
“The idea was to look deeper into the process, involving all stakeholders, preparing better the schools, building stronger ties in the SELFIE ecosystem, before scaling up broader” said Alessandro Brolpito, senior HCD expert at ETF And the results of the workshop showed the choice was winning.
A hackathon was organized during the first day of the workshop and it offered the opportunity to schools' teachers, principals, students and policy makers to exchange creative and outside the box ideas, enhancing team working to develop effective school digital action plans and involving all user groups. Teams worked constructively and presented their ideas to the jury, which assessed the originality, feasibility and impact of the action plans. One team was awarded, but all team actually received a symbolic prize for their engagement.
“It was great to sense the energy in the room, the hackathon engaged participants in a lively discussion on how to find actionable solutions to identified challenges; they felt empowered and according to their feedback, they also had fun!” reports Brolpito, who facilitated the exercise.
The workshop was also enriched by external interventions, offering the opportunity to hear the SELFIE experiences from other countries, from Spain and Ukraine.
On the second day, the discussion focused on what is next. The debate was intense and constructive involving the relevant system stakeholders; the Ministry of Science and Education as well as the Education Quality Assurance Agency clearly stated the importance of self-reflection for quality digital education. Different options to scale up SELFIE in Azerbaijan will be discussed based on the final report that will be released early December 2022. Vafa Yagublu, head of Department from the Ministry of Science and Education, has accepted to keep the ball running and the SELFIE journey in the country will surely continue with more developments.
For more information, read the final report in English and Azerbaijan available as attachments.
More information on SELFIE in Azerbaijan are available here SELFIE in Azerbaijan | Open Space (europa.eu)
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