Education in the digital age
Today's "Regional Conference on Education in the digital age: Project Teaching Online environment” organized by NALED in cooperation with the Initiative for Education Reform in Southeast Europe, discussed the experiences and methods of conducting project-based education in the online environment, among teachers from Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and Northern Macedonia, and presented the recently published Handbook for project-based and distance learning.
The participants of the webinar were first addressed by Anamarija Vicek, State Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. She welcomed NALED's efforts to promote the Handbook for project-based and distance learning, outside the borders of Serbia.
- The state of emergency and the crisis caused by the pandemic have affected all spheres of life equally, including education. The situation is changing from day to day, and following these changes, we must also change the way of teaching. Although the teachers in Serbia did unexpectedly well, the Handbook came to us at the right time, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in its development. Withal, I am glad that we have found a way to connect as a region on this issue and through the exchange of experiences, contribute to the quality of teaching in our countries - said Vicek.
Words of support also came from Tina Saric, a representative of the Initiative for Education Reform in Southeast Europe, who told the panelists that her organization is always ready to help teachers improve their work and enable the exchange of experiences with colleagues from this part of Europe.
In the working part of the conference, participants were able to hear more about specific examples and ways of conducting project-based education given by teachers from Serbia, Croatia, Northern Macedonia and Hungary. Among other things, the director of the Elementary School "Milan Rakić" from Mionica spoke about the advantages of the online platform for connecting children from Serbia with peers from other countries, learning about different cultures and broadening horizons. Her colleagues from Croatia, teachers Jelena Djurdjevic and Ivana Petrosanec Pisl from Matija Antun Reljkovic High School, pointed out the benefits of video lessons and engaging students in the field of environmental protection as a good form of distance learning and project teaching.
In the final part of the webinar, the authors of the Handbook for project-based and distance learning addressed the audience - Deniz Hoti, Executive Director of the Organization for Career Development and Youth Entrepreneurship "Connecting" from Pancevo, and Milan Petrovic, team leader of the organization "Teach Me" from Nis. They reminded the audience that the purpose of the handbook is to help teachers in project-based and distance learning in a pandemic, and that it has so far been translated into 6 regional languages - Hungarian, Romanian, Rusyn, Slovak, Croatian and Bosnian. The novelty is that editions in Albanian and Bulgarian are also being prepared.
The manual was developed by NALED, and organizations Connecting from Pancevo and Teach Me from Nis, in cooperation with the Institute for the Advancement of Education, within the project Public-Private Dialogue funded by USAID.
