Virtuoso Distance Learning

Vocational teachers were amongst the prize winners in first-ever pandemic championship for distance learning in Serbia.

A dozen winners were chosen from the over 700 entries from almost 400 schools nationwide for The Magic in Teachers’ Hands Awards. “The response was overwhelming,” said Dušan Vasiljević, economic development adviser for NALED, a Serbian non-governmental organization that played a central role in implementing the competition. “It was a problem to evaluate all of the applications.”

Award winners offered many imaginative approaches, including board and video games, the organisation of a news agency, website creation, and the compilation of Coronavirus stories.

The competition was open to primary, middle school and secondary teachers. Entries had to include a short video clip outlining the educational method and the innovation involved. Award winners were chosen initially by panels of experienced educators from the public sector. In the final round of selection, the judges included representatives from educational NGOs. A special “people`s choice” winner emerged from 185,000 online votes from over 60,000 individuals.

NALED took the lead in implementing the program. It received support from Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, the Institute for Improvement of Education, the Republic Secretariat for Public Policies, and Serbian Radio and Television. The development agency of the United States, USAID, and several private sponsors provided additional backing.

The awards were designed to recognise the extra effort made by teachers to adapt to the challenges of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown. “Our teachers did a lot of hard work to find solutions and work with the students,” noted Olivera Todorović, assistant director of the Centre for Professional Development at the Institute for Improvement of Education, a public agency.

A teacher from a vocational school in Lajkovac received a prize for a Google classroom lesson on electromagnetism that included video, an on-line quiz, a flip chart, mind-mapping, chat and on-line collaboration. A winner in the category for the best use of digital platforms used Padlet and Thinglink to produce a digital textbook for music and art classes. A teacher from a medical school in Novi Sad was commended for a two week Google classroom project that tasked groups of nursing students to make audio guides for patients preparing for a diagnostic examination.

In addition to the overall first prize and the ones for digital tools, categories included television-based learning, and best interaction with students, and best project-based initiatives. In many categories, separate prizes were awarded for elementary and high school teachers.

Details of the commended entries are available on a website (https://jpd.rs/istaknuta-resenja). The top 20, including the 12 winners, are featured on the landing page. “In September, if we go to online learning again, people can search the examples,” said Vasiljević.

Many parents voted for the awards which helped parents to understand the capacity of teachers to innovate. For perhaps the first time, parents had their children at home full-time and were able to more closely observe interactions between students and teachers. “People are much more appreciative of teachers,” commented Vasiljević.

Happy with the result in Serbia, Todorović stands ready to help people elsewhere who would like to establish their own awards programs. “We are ready to share good examples,” she said. “If somebody needs help, we are available.”

To read recent blogs on the topic and engage in the discussion:

For more information on ETF Covid19 actions:

https://openspace.etf.europa.eu/pages/education-during-covid-19-crisis

For more information on ETF work:

https://www.etf.europa.eu/en and https://www.facebook.com/etfeuropa/

Virtuoso Distance Learning

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