The project SYPO (System support for teachers and school principals) presented by the national pedagogic institute of the Czech Republic started offering a series of educational webinars for teachers in mid-March. It aimed to show them the various options they have, in on-line teaching. The webinars are free for every professional and include optional consultations with a tutor. Interestingly, before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was hardly any interest and now the courses have thousands of followers.
The initial spur started with the immediate closure of schools for an indefinite period. At that point, lots of teachers were optimistic and believed that we should let children enjoy a bit of free time. Then the public speech by the Minister of School Education, Robert Plaga, where he announced that schools will not re-open till mid-May, made people realise that they have to change their approach. They now had to find a way to support their students during this lengthy period.
The head of SYPO, Jiří Nekola says: “Educational videos and webinars have always been an important part of our project. The current difficult situation shows that they have a wide range of use.”
They would like to support a large number of pedagogic staff through their Youtube videos. Their focus is on practical steps, guiding schools on how to teach on-line, what specific technologies they can use and how time-consuming or complex each process is. And they are prepared to offer guidance as long as it is needed.
The pandemic finally put digitization theory into practice
When the Education Strategy 2030 was recently introduced, the gradual digitization of teaching by 2030 was envisaged. But due to the Corona-19 pandemic and the closure of schools, the schoolwork needs to be “digitized” in a matter of days. On the other hand, the previous Strategy 2020 had already included suggestions of gradual digitization, so there would have been enough time to bring it into practice – unfortunately, it had never been put into practice successfully. The sudden closure of schools forced teachers, school principals and the government to act immediately.
“Of course, nobody could have predicted such a situation and it is too early to say if the forced acceleration of the digitization will be to an advantage or disadvantage. In any case, it is important to say that the schools are facing the situation head-on and they immediately looked for on-line teaching options,” says Jiří Nekola. “Personally I believe the system will benefit from it. The approach of teachers and schools fills me with optimism,” he adds.
He believes it is important for the whole situation to stabilize so everybody can get used to their new roles. The teachers should find what teaching methods and tools work for them and also communicate between themselves. It is also important to remember the children who do not own a computer or do not have access to the internet. The schools could send them their school work in the post or leave it in a safe place at the school grounds, or possibly place it on a board accessible from the outside. Another option is to be in a telephonic connection with the parents.
He also adds that the interest in their webinars has grown immensely. “In the past, tens of people attended, today it is hundreds and thousands. And we are not alone in offering such assistance. Therefore, we also try to point out and complement each other’s initiatives,” he says.
How to digitize teachers
Each webinar lasts about 35 to 45 minutes. The webinars can be viewed on the Youtube of SYPO and www.projektsypo.cz. The complete offer of all the webinars can be found here.
In addition, schools can use free methodological support of regional ICT methodologists operating in all regions, support of colleagues – teachers involved in SYPO methodical cabinets, E-counseling for specific questions or join the Facebook group ICT support SYPO.
The 5-year project was started 1.1.2018 and is lead by the National pedagogic institute of the Czech Republic. The financial support comes from the Ministry of school education and the European Union.
State institutions were also quickly modernized
Apart from the schools, the National pedagogic institute of ČR also had to manage a speedy modernization. In a few days, they were able to build a team that is capable to shoot and share instructional webinars.
It was a hard trial for the net of all their methodical offices based around the country. This is the net of teachers of specific subjects who co-operate closely. It also includes their Information and Communication Technology (ICT) consultants based in each region. The main responsibility of these consultants is to regularly visit small village schools that cannot afford their own IT specialists. These days even they have to be able to offer their help remotely. And they have to be able to support a bigger number of schools.
There are a number of tools and virtual spaces where classes can be held. It is the responsibility of the ICT methodical offices and the Permanent congress of principals to choose the ones that are best suited in the current situation and the ones that were the most used even before the pandemic. The most used tools are from Microsoft and Google.
“We have just had a meeting with an editorial board, that chooses suitable webinars, and we want to start offering something for everybody from next week. We want to include programs for small mixed-age classrooms as well as high schools. We always prepare a program one week ahead, we call it a Cinema program and we publish it in different areas so it is easily accessible to all teachers,” describes Jiří Nekola.
People are not overly excited, but the interest is enormous
The biggest issue for teachers presents the organization of the lessons for the whole school, communication with parents and students and finding the right amount of homework. “Such speedily organized distance teaching simply cannot equal 1:1 to the teaching in schools,” says the head of SYPO.
And how did teachers accept this instant digitization? Interest is enormous, according to Nekola, but the question is whether enthusiasm can be said. “There is simply no other path now, so we just have to learn new things. And it turns out, teachers are capable of it,” he says.
“I think that when all this is over, everybody will appreciate their classrooms and teachers, children behind the tables, even the noise and running around during break time. We are social creatures. And I sincerely hope it will be very soon and we will successfully win the fight against COVID-19,” Jiří Nekola adds.
This article has been kindly translated from the source, for Littlepanda by Jana Nemcova