Microsoft Croatia and the Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNet, with the support of the Ministry of Science, Education, and Sport, opened a new Classroom of the Future at Metković Gymnasium. Metković has thus become the fourth city in Croatia, after Opatija, Mirkovci, and Zagreb, in which Microsoft and CARNet have opened a Classroom of the Future, bringing the total number of Classrooms of the Future opened by CARNet with its partners to eleven.
Representatives from Microsoft Croatia and CARNet presented the principal of Gimnazija Metković, Professor Jozo Jurković, with a fully equipped digital classroom. The classroom consists of 30 state-of-the-art Windows 10 tablet computers with keyboards adapted for students, one Windows 10 tablet computer for teachers, and an interactive smartboard. These resources will enable students and teachers to utilize modern technologies in their daily lessons.
„A successful school is a combination of enthusiasm, dedication, and expertise. Our teachers and students participate in training and share their experiences with colleagues from Croatia and around the world, and will certainly know how to implement this technology in their teaching content. In this way, Gimnazija Metković continues its development in this direction, as it has a multimedia center in its school library and reading room, classrooms equipped with modern teaching aids, and an IT classroom. I thank CARNet, Microsoft, and the Ministry of Science, Education, and Sports for recognizing our potential,“ said Jozo Jurković, principal of Gimnazija Metković, adding that the school participates in a number of international projects and, recently, in the e-Schools pilot project.
All devices are connected to a network managed by a specially designed system, and how it works in practice was demonstrated to those gathered by the 3rd c grade students, who will be the primary users of this classroom in the 2016/2017 school year. Using tablets, students showed how, with the help of the OneNote tool, they can take notes, observations, and measurements for laboratory exercises, use the Sway program to create interactive demonstration experiments in chemistry and biology, and finally reinforce the material by solving quizzes and questionnaires that teachers have prepared for them using the Forms tool.
The "Classroom of the Future" concept is based on the implementation and integration of advanced hardware and software solutions into traditional school classrooms with the aim of improving teaching delivery. The solution enables interactive teaching, the use of teaching materials in electronic format, conducting dynamic tests and knowledge quizzes, monitoring individual student activity, collecting and analyzing individual student activity and test results, and communication between teachers and students.
Zvonimir Stanić, Director of CARNet, said on this occasion: "We are proudly opening the fourth Classroom of the Future, equipped in collaboration with Microsoft, which is the eleventh such classroom in Croatia overall. This classroom, the second in Dalmatia, is just one more in a series of projects through which CARNet promotes the advanced use of information and communication technologies in education, integrating technology and teaching processes. Our wish is that students from this school, too, will emerge computer literate, educated, and capable of independent thinking and being good team players. The Classroom of the Future project in Metković is another step towards that goal and the creation of digitally mature schools in Croatia, which CARNet is also achieving through the large e-Schools project.".
Along with the Classroom of the Future, students and teachers at Gimnazija Metković can also use Office 365 tools, which Microsoft Croatia has provided free of charge to all Croatian elementary and secondary schools that are eligible by using electronic identities in the AAI@EduHr system. Office 365 provides students and teachers with access to email via the Microsoft Outlook browser, access to OneDrive cloud storage, Office Online tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), as well as the communication tool Skype for Business, which enables audio and video conference calls. Students and teachers can install the full version of Office 365 tools on up to 5 different devices.
„With the “Classrooms of the Future' project and Office 365 tools, we aim to facilitate communication between students and teachers, increase the attractiveness and efficiency of the learning process, and provide students with IT education that will prepare them for future challenges posed by the job market. Through initiatives like these, Microsoft Croatia continuously invests in the education and development of the Croatian educational system to prepare and guide young people towards future professions and better life opportunities. According to a recent study by IDC, Microsoft Office is the fourth most commonly sought-after skill by employers and the only ICT skill among the top ten most important, which speaks volumes about the importance of adopting advanced software, such as Office 365, for successful integration into the job market," stated Ivan Vidaković, Director of Microsoft Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Gimnazija Metković is a modern school attended by 421 students, offering language, science-mathematics, and general programs, with classes conducted in a single shift. Students are notable participants in county and state competitions, and the school has received recognition from the City of Metković, the County, and the Ministry of Science, Education, and Sport. In addition to the Classroom of the Future, the school also participates in numerous projects such as CARNet's e-Schools project, UNESCO schools, Schools of Democracy, Quality School, Erasmus Plus projects, school partnerships in the Goethe-Institut initiative, and others.