The main outcome of the successfully completed e-Schools pilot project, initiated by CARNET and its partners in 2015, is an increased level of digital maturity in 10 percent of Croatian primary and secondary schools.
By introducing ICT infrastructure and equipment to 151 Croatian schools, developing digital content, e-services, and tools for teaching and business processes, and providing continuous training, it became possible to use technology in teaching and learning on a daily basis, thereby increasing the digital competence of school staff.
The project included more than 7,000 teachers and over 23,000 students. The e-Schools project has even been recognized by the EU as the most important project in the field of education in the Republic of Croatia in the last three years, thus funding 85% of this project worth 307 million HRK. In cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Education, CARNET is currently preparing the second phase of the project, which will include all primary and secondary schools in Croatia. The value of the second phase of the project is estimated at 1.3 billion HRK.
„In the second phase from 2019 to 2022, we plan to digitally transform teaching and business operations in the remaining 1,200 primary and secondary schools in Croatia. The project follows all international trends in applying information and communication technology in education and relies on best international practices and policies concerning the use of ICT in the development and improvement of education,“ said Andrijana Prskalo Maček, Project Leader and Assistant CEO at CARNET, at the presentation of the results.
Significant increase in the level of digital maturity
Since the project's inception to the present day, participating schools have demonstrated significant improvements in their application of digital technologies. The framework for schools' digital maturity, developed in collaboration with experts from the Faculty of Organization and Informatics at the University of Zagreb, outlines five areas and five levels of digital maturity, serving as the foundation for external digital maturity assessments.
The initial external evaluation of digital maturity was conducted in October 2016 and it showed that, on a scale from 1 (digitally unaware schools) to 5 (digitally mature school) our schools ranked at 2 on average. 18 months after the project's implementation, as many as 93% of the schools included in the pilot project ranked at the level of digitally capable (level 3) to digitally advanced (level 4).
Scientific research conducted by the Center of Applied Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka on the impact of the e-Schools pilot project implementation showed positive trends among students and teachers in their use of ICT in teaching and learning, as well as in motivation.
Much of this progress is owed to numerous training courses organized by CARNET. More than 1,900 workshops, e-courses, and webinars were held to raise the digital competency levels of teachers, school principals, professional, and administrative staff, and to ensure the meaningful use of ICT in teaching and school operations. More than 7,000 individual users attended at least one of the offered training content, which is more than 90 percent of the teachers and school staff included in the pilot project. If we consider that the total number of attendances is almost 45,000, each participant attended 6.4 trainings on average.
As part of the project's implementation, five cities – Varaždin, Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka, and Split – were equipped with modern Regional Training Centers. These centers are multifunctional and technologically innovative spaces designed for training activities within schools, as well as for educational events organized by local communities, providing added value to this project.
Modern equipment and numerous digital materials
With 12,340 computers of different types (hybrid computers, tablets, laptops, desktops) for teachers, principals, administrative staff, and students, all schools included in the pilot project were equipped with quality network and wireless internet.
With the new equipment, 151 pilot schools were trained for the implementation of a more modern teaching method. This was made possible by a wealth of new content and possibilities, such as digital educational content (DOS) designed to support the 7th and 8th grade curricula in math, physics, chemistry, and biology, as well as the 1st and 2nd grade secondary school curricula. Over 100 DOS were stored in a digital content repository (Edutorij), offering teachers and students centralized search and access to educational materials published on different webpages, while also serving as a platform for uploading their own digital content. Throughout the project, 240 teaching scenarios were developed to help teachers better prepare for the integration of digital educational content and tools into their teaching practices. The E-laboratory, a central hub for research, testing, and selection of digital tools, was also upgraded, and the list of E-lectures was expanded.
Numerous e-services and tools for enhancing the quality of business operations in schools
Multiple e-services and tools were developed during the implementation of the e-School project to support educational processes in schools and enable more transparent, simpler, and more economical business operations. One of these services is the informatization of business operations (SIPU) – a centralized, unique, and standardized system for informatizing school business operations, allowing for faster and simpler communication and data exchange between the school and agencies, the founder, ministries, and other stakeholders. The classroom management system (CMS) aims to provide a more effective environment for learning and teaching. Its functionalities enable teachers to have an overview of their students’ activities, interact with students, test their knowledge, and so on. The learning and organizational analytics system, which includes measuring, collecting, analyzing, and reporting data about students and their contexts to understand learning and the environment in which it occurs, has also been implemented as part of the project. The sensors and smart management (Aero) system monitors working conditions in schools to ensure optimal conditions, and the monitoring application (EMA) serves as the central point for registering all project users for training activities within the project.
Projekt je sufinancirala Europska unija iz europskih strukturnih i investicijskih fondova.