Designing efficient self-assessment system concerning digital technologies application in secondary education institutions has been under consideration of education policy makers in Georgia well before the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though traditional assessment has been part of the schools and VET colleges authorization, and self-assessment has been conducted on the rolling basis, no systemic tool existed until recently, that should have allowed getting consistent and reliable evaluation results in different areas of digital technology use in schools’ practices.
Popular European rising star – SELFIE (Self-reflection on Effective Learning by Fostering the use of Innovative Educational technologies) has arrived to Georgia in 2018 as a part of Estonian development cooperation project DG Turn Enhancing Quality of Education through Digital Innovation in Georgian Schools. Until this fall SELFIE was piloted only in general education system (reaching 120 schools), and now it has been also introduced to VET education in the form of SELFIE WBL through the uptake of the ETF/JRC Pilot by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports (MoESC) of Georgia. 15 VET institutions with WBL/Dual programs and their 15 partner companies have participated in the pilot. Similar SELFIE Work Based Learning pilots are currently closing in 5 EU countries (Germany, France, Poland, Hungary and Romania), and in 3 other non-EU countries (Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey).
To give the more detailed context: general and vocational education co-exist in Georgia as two parallel centralized policy verticals with little interaction. Each has its strategies, set of rules, traditions, progress metrics and goals. General K-12 education is provided through 2085 public and more than 200 private schools with 609000 students of all grades, and 59 thousand teachers. Upper secondary VET education system is much smaller. It consists of 100 providers, among which 76 are public and private colleges; currently it enrolls 19500 students and more than 3200 teachers and instructors. Work Based Learning is implemented since 2016, and its gaining pace by increasing the share of the VET colleges and students entering the Dual Education programs implemented with the growing number of the partner companies.
At the same time PC infrastructure and equipment per student is much better in VET colleges. E.g. the Student/PC ratio in VET education is 4/3, and about 20/1 in K-12 public schools. Also, 14 VET colleges have been equipped with the Fabrication Laboratories by the Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency. But it the PC/Fab lab style infrastructure enough? The pandemic has forced all schools and colleges to switch to the emergency distance learning mode, and the desktops and equipment became much less useful. Investing in mobile/notebook classrooms, 1:1 and blended learning, LMS, letting students to take school laptops home could have been better solutions.
Could SELFIE be helpful in identifying the gaps and planning the response measures? The pilots’ feedback definitely indicates that SELFIE possesses that potential. The first results show that for general education schools’ digital infrastructure remains still the main concern along with leadership; for the VET colleges, improving assessment practices by digital tools is the clear priority, and similarly improving leadership in digital technologies adoption.
Georgia was quite successful in the government digitization and reforms leading to successful models of public (e-)services delivery, however the education system remains a bit too conservative in-wide to quickly adopt the new learning with technology models, that might sound familiar for many educators, but is far from the everyday practice in majority of the classrooms (even virtual).
There were several attempts to shake things up, with first in 2005-2008 by the Deer Leap program under the Ministry of Education (a replica from the Estonian Tiger Leap) that has provided public schools with computer labs, respective teaching methodology and resources. The recent flagship initiative of the New School Model reform program by the MoSCS gives optimism for making digital technology active use by schools a priority again. Furthermore, the latest approaches recognize the need to shift the policy making and strategy development to the school level, and thus meets SELFIE decentralized approach quite well. Participated in the DG turn pilot project schools’ SELFIE teams have been thoroughly trained in exercising with SELFIE, including understanding the SELFIE reports and extracting meaningful data for the ICT strategy and school policy making. Since the MoESC has adopted further rollout of SELFIE, it would be pleasing for the expert eye to see similar school-based SELFIE teams competence development in all newly involved public schools.
The first pilot results from SELFIE WBL also demonstrate that VET institutions welcome its implementation. Different respondent groups: school leaders, teachers, students and in-company trainers acknowledge its usefulness. Analysis of the results by the participating colleges is underway, and many have got familiarized with the sets of core and optional questions quite well. Some also consider designing their own questions, and appear to feel empowered by the SELFIE ownership.
For in-company trainers of the partner companies the experience is novel in a positive sense. Many foresee the inevitability of the digital transformation, and already use advanced simulations or Electronic Management Systems for various business processes. One of the challenges for the Dual education programs provider partner companies is designing distance learning models resembling the in-company training. Also, extending available only in the company premises digital tools and applications to the remote access by students is often difficult with non-IT specializations.
But what about interaction of two sister SELFIEs? Currently these are mostly separate processes, but the country SELFIE team consisting of SELFIE and SELFIE WBL national coordinators at the MoESC, education experts and ETF national expert plan to discuss the possibilities of experience sharing and joint competence building initiatives, - starting with contemplating on the new year resolutions and brave plans for the post-pandemic projects.
Happy New Year! Unfortunately, It should be noted Progress of Digital skills and competencies in Georgia is below zero without any preconditions! There are too many gaps and challenges! Most of goals in Digital Skills outlined both in the Milestone 2 and in the EaP work program of the platform 2 haven't yet to be fulfilled in Georgia, neither the national digital skills & jobs coalition, nor the national digital skills strategies nor the goal of setting up an e-Competence Framework in Georgia. Therefore we should be more honest during assessing real pictures and provide objective information to International Partners and Environment, who really support us. Hope SELFIE WBL will contribute for fulfilling the existing gaps and meet expectations of the objectives of the project. Rgds, David Tsiskaridze
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