Reports

The basic goals of the project “Information communication technology in the educational process” are to train teachers and pupils for using the ICT in the education process, to improve student learning and give them fast access to new information and results of the research and to develop national and international cooperation and communication among schools.

Svest, in a partnership with the Ministry of Education and Science, MT-net ( Macedonian Telecommunication Commpany) and Schoolsonline from USA, has provided information and communication technology to access the Internet in the following eight schools in the Republic of Macedonia (Jan Amos Komenski - Skopje, Bratstvo - Skopje, Dedo Iljovski Malesevski - Berovo, Petar Musev - Bogdanci, Goce Delcev - Negotino, Goce Delcev Gostivar, Lirija - Tetovo, Dimitar Vlahov - Radozda, Struga).

Svest organized a meeting (29.01.2003) with the school principals and presented them the goals, objectives and content of the project “Information communication technology in the education process” and training seminar (5-8.02.2003) for teachers from eight project schools for introducing new technologies in the educational practice.

The structural framework of the Project integrated the following activities:

	Equipping the schools with up-to-date technologies used in the educational process
	Involving the school principals in the project activities
	Establishing teams of coordinators (1 technical and 2 pedagogical coordinators), empowered to train the other teachers in their schools
	Providing teachers with ongoing professional development opportunities and support with which they expand their teaching skills and learning opportunities for their students
	Development sustainable and replicable models of good practice that use technology for learning and collaboration
	Contributing to the ability of students to engage collaboratively and to encourage social responsibility and self-actualization

The school team of coordinators has the Project key role and is the main carrier in the development and dissemination of the idea for IT integration in the education process. Each school team of coordinators has three members - one technical and two pedagogical coordinators.

The team of coordinators participated in one 4-day training seminar (5-8.02.2003, Skopje) that was organized by Svest. The training seminars covered topics from basic ICT literacy to management issues. The team of coordinators gained the direction on how to implement the program activities in their schools.

The main role and responsibilities of the school coordinators are development and improving the following aspects of the project:

	ICT organization and management of work
	Usage of ICT classroom
	Teacher training and dissemination of the ICT idea in the school
	Integration of ICT in teaching process
	Developing national and international communication and cooperation

A positive atmosphere has been created in the project schools for accepting the Project by the principals, team of coordinators, teachers and pupils. The idea for integration of ICT in teaching is accepted by the principal, schools coordinators, teachers and pupils in the project schools. It should be emphasized that all schools are in charge of establishing and securing the ICT classrooms, and rules for effective use of the IT classrooms were defined and obeyed. The effects of the Project seen from the perspective of principals and school coordinators could be summarized as follows: access to new information, extended knowledge, improved communication, modernized teaching.

The report was written by

Snezana Jankulovska