Fostering digital innovation in Georgian schools

About the Regional Innovation Hub

The goal of the mentoring and establishment of the Regional Innovation Hub in Georgia was to foster the coordinated collaboration from different parts of the Adjara region with different abilities and to support teachers to enhance digital competences. The Regional Innovation Hub brought together teachers of different subjects at different levels in sharing the experience and supporting each other in the application of digital technologies in the teaching process.

Regional Innovation Hub brought together 5 schools from Adjara region, 100 teachers, 5 school leaders, 5 ICT teachers, 7  mentors to accelerate the digital innovation in schools and foster the school-to-school mentoring.

Local context and the needs

One of the priority tasks of the united  national strategy of education and science of Georgia (2022-2030) is to enhance teachers’ digital competencies. Studies conducted in the last decade have shown that schools in Georgia differ in terms of using digital resources in the educational process, as well as in the possession of digital competence of teachers. In particular, some teachers more actively use information and digital technologies in the educational process and have better developed digital competencies than their colleagues. Regional hubs will support strengthening cooperation in and between schools and mutual sharing of experience in the use of digital technologies.

Enrollment

Five Public Schools were selected in the Adjara region. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara and the educational resource centers of the municipalities helped in the selection of schools. School level(s) were primary, elementary, and secondary. The schools were selected according to the following criteria:  experience, size, geographical area, infrastructure and teacher achievements, etc. According to preliminary data, it was certain that a large number of teachers faced certain difficulties in using digital technologies in the teaching process. This method of school selection has reiterated the fact that the school/teacher should be given the opportunity to identify their professional needs and to plan/implement the intervention in collaboration.

Stakeholders
  • Researchers, who play the role of experts and mentors, provide methodical assistance to teachers and support schools in the implementation of various activities (creating teacher training groups, organizing meetings, sharing and introducing innovations), observe the processes, analyze and give feedback in the form of conclusions and recommendations;
  • School teachers, who actively participate in various events (trainings, webinars, teacher training groups) in order to use digital technologies in their practice, as well as to share experiences;
  • Leadership team (school principals, teachers responsible for ICT development in the school) from each school plan the collaboration and development actions both within the schools and   between schools.
  • Policy makers are responsible for developing and supporting schools in strengthening schools with digital resources and implementing digital innovation in schools.
Sustainability mechanisms of the Regional Innovation Hub
  • For policy makers:
    • accelerate the process of promoting the development of digital innovations in the educational space;
    • investigate the research results and make research-based decisions;
  • For school principals:
    • promote schools to reach a regionally outstanding position in terms of implementing digital innovations;
    • have teachers with high digital competences;
    • improve  the quality of education
  • For teachers
    • Increased knowledge and skills;
    • Opportunity to become mentor teachers;
    • To make the learning process interesting and effective;
    • Opportunities to cooperate with other colleagues;
    • Opportunities for active involvement in various seminars, workshops;
  • For the University
    • development of new pedagogical approaches as a result of research;
    • development of educational programs;
    • possible research topics for students; 
    • participation in the fulfillment of the tasks of the third mission of the university
    • Capacity building opportunities: training events, workshops, online and face to face meetings for teachers. 
    • Opportunities to expand impact through recognized expertise: The experts in the field of computer technologies from Georgia were invited to conduct seminars. University trainers conducted training and workshops for school teachers. Trainers introduced innovative digital tools to teachers.  BSU ICT experts held a workshop. Teachers from different schools were invited to share their practice. 
    • Access to personalized support and guidance: Individual support from mentors and IT technologists.
    • Knowledge sharing platforms: Facebook group created for communication. Google Drive services, Padlet, Miro and Mentimeter for creating and sharing content. 
    • Access to network-disseminated materials: Facebook group, mailing list.

The Georgian local Facebook group was created to share the information, good practices, and important information. Additionally, the Zoom environment was used for engagement events.

The cooperation between the five schools become systematic: teachers communicate with each other and share news with each other without the involvement of university mentors.

Other schools in the region expressed their desire to cooperate with the pilot schools. Several activities have been planned, which involve sharing the experience of the teachers involved in the piloting with teachers from other schools, organizing joint events, pedagogical research, etc. 

The manual developed within the framework of the project will be translated into Georgian and will be made available to all interested persons working in the field of education.

University researchers will use  the experience gained in the project, and strengthen cooperation with human resources (teachers involved in piloting as mentors, trainers, experts) in the process of implementing other new projects.

The mentors were funded by the IHub4schools project.