Final Report of Demonstration Project in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 2018
Professional Development of Teachers and Trainers in VET in the SEET Region.
Project Leaders: Goce Nedelkoski (SOU Gorce Petrov) & Vlatko Butleski (SOU Riste Risteski Richko)
Project Coordinator: Julian Stanley (ETF)
Project title: Embedding the use of digital tools in vocational schools
Partners and management
The Demonstration Project was led by The Civic Association – Harvest of Knowledge. Partners in the project were six VET schools – SOU Gjorche Petrov – Prilep, SOU Riste Risteski Richko – Prilep, OEMUC Sv.Naum Ohridski – Ohrid, SOSU Sv.Kiril I Metodij – Ohrid, SOU Orde Copela – Prilep, SOEPTU Kuzman Josifiski Pitu – Prilep.
Creation of Web site and Manual
At the beginning of the project, in September 2017, file sharing platform vetnet.mk was created, registered and hosted.
Master trainers developed a user manual for the trainees which consisted of 6 modules.
Training of team leader teachers
12 teachers – 2 from each partner school in the project participated in the training workshop. The training was conducted on 25.11.2017 in Prilep. The course included 6 sessions on the following topics.
- Moodle mobile
- Vetnet
- Vetnet and Facebook
- E-Voting
- Kahoot
- H5P
Dissemination
Dissemination took place in six participating schools in early December 2017. There were 55 participants in total:
| School | City | Number of participants |
| OEMUC Sv.Naum Ohridski | Ohrid | 7 |
| SOSU Sv.Kiril I Metodij | Ohrid | 7 |
| SOU Orde Copela | Prilep | 8 |
| SOEPTU Kuzman Josifiski Pitu | Prilep | 8 |
| SOU Gjorche Petrov | Prilep | 12 |
| SOU Riste Risteski Richko | Prilep | 13 |
Twelve teacher trainers who were trained during the first workshop chose their colleagues and subsequently delivered the training to them. The trainees were given instruction materials and in the course several meetings, they learnt about using the mobile moodle version, vetnet sharing platform and it’s possibility to associate it with the corresponding facebook group, interactive moodle plugins e-voting and H5P, and using popular interactive platform kahoot.
They were mentored by teachers who had received the earlier training on how to implement the new skills in practice. Most of the recruited teachers has previously been trained to use digitalschool platform and this project was indeed helping in embedding their digital skills.
Vetnet.mk is an online platform for sharing teaching materials. It is based on NextCloud software. 21 different groups are created on the platform for easier management of the files and materials. There are groups for each vocation from participating schools in the project as well as group for general subjects.
Users of the platform has shared more then 3000 files (teaching materials, links, presentations, preparations, curiculums).
For each vetnet group, there is a corresponding facebook group. When user is uploading something on vetnet platform, there is a facebook notification for that activity.
Application
From the beginning of this year, recruited teachers started to use the newly acquired skills in their classrooms.
All of the recruited teachers were still actively using the sharing platform by the time of writing this report.
Meetings
During the dissemination and after, teachers and their leaders had their regular meetings where they shared their experiences, ideas, problems and obstacles. Meetings took place December and January. Apart from the regular meetings, teacher-mentors as well as master trainers are available for help and advice on all aspects relating to the project.
Certificates
55 teachers received certificates for participation and successfully performing project tasks.
12 LTNs received certificates for successfully completing their tasks.
Summary
In this digital era where students are using computers, smartphones and various gadgets every day, teachers of the 21st century have to adapt and adopt new teaching techniques and skills. This project provides a model for teaching teachers new digital techniques which can be applied effectively in the teaching process. These skills and techniques improve teachers’ competencies and increase interest amongst students. Via interactive classes students have round the clock access to learning materials. Interactive content is more acceptable for students.
New modules and plugins are being tested and implemented at digitalschool.mk platform.
The teachers feel supported by other teachers and some of them believe the new tools or methods will be of immediate value to them, their students and other teachers. Other motivating factors are: the opportunity to work with enthusiastic teachers across schools, certificates, small financial rewards and ‘belonging to a group’.
This is something new to a greater number of teachers and lot of them are not aware that they are those who should make the changes, and the training is just the trigger. But we need to start from somewhere even if the institutions are not very supportive to this type of bottom-up projects.
Challenges
- Hardware – teachers at schools in Macedonia face serious problems due to the lack of the computers in the classroom. Only a few classrooms at each school are equipped and the computers are old with outdated software and hardware. Schools also suffer from insufficient support from technicians.
- Internet – the sometimes poor internet connection and very poor wi-fi coverage at the schools.
- Motivation – there are two different types: internal motivation which comes from the teacher’s personality and this motivation brings quality. Second type is external motivation (certificates, financial reword) which brings quantity. Our opinion is that success and sustainability of the project mostly depends on internal motivations of the teachers.
- Workload – using these new techniques in teaching increases the workload of teachers, which may cause some teacher resistance.