ICT IN EDUCATION LATVIA Mobility in Latvia 05/05/2017- 09/05/2017 Project No. 2015-1-LVO2-KA205-000609

What is the meaning of “ICT” What is the meaning of “ICT”? ICT refers to all equipment, applications and services that involve communication. Computers, cellphones, televisions, radios and satellite systems are all part of ICT.

The Effectiveness of ICTs in Education Anytime, anywhere.  Access to remote learning resources.  ICTs help prepare individuals for the workplace.

The use of ICTs help improve the quality of education Motivating to learn. Facilitating the acquisition of basic skills. Enhancing teacher training.

Benefits for teachers       ICT facilitates sharing of resources, expertise and advice Greater flexibility in when and where tasks are carried out  Gains in ICT literacy skills, confidence and enthusiasm. Easier planning and preparation of lessons and designing materials   Access to up-to-date pupil and school data, any time and anywhere. Enhancement of professional image projected to colleagues. Students are generally more ‘on task’ and express more positive feelings when they use computers than when they are given other tasks to do.    Computer use during lessons motivated students to continue using learning outside school hours.

Benefits for students Higher quality lessons through greater collaboration between teachers in planning and preparing resources . More focused teaching, tailored to students’ strengths and weaknesses, through better analysis of attainment data Improved pastoral care and behaviour management through better tracking of students Gains in understanding and analytical skills, including improvements in reading Comprehension. Development of writing skills (including spelling, grammar, punctuation, editing and re-drafting), also fluency, originality and elaboration. Encouragement of independent and active learning, and self-responsibility for learning. Flexibility of ‘anytime, anywhere’ access (Jacobsen and Kremer, 2000) Development of higher level learning styles. Students who used educational technology in school felt more successful in school, were more motivated to learn and have increased self-confidence and self-esteem Students found learning in a technology-enhanced setting more stimulating and student-centred than in a traditional classroom Broadband technology supports the reliable and uninterrupted downloading of web-hosted educational multimedia resources Opportunities to address their work to an external audience Opportunities to collaborate on assignments with people outside or inside school

Benefits for parents Easier communication with teachers Higher quality student reports – more legible, more detailed, better presented Greater access to more accurate attendance and attainment information Increased involvement in education for parents and, in some cases, improved self- esteem Increased knowledge of children’s learning and capabilities, owing to increase in learning activity being situated in the home Parents are more likely to be engaged in the school community You will see that ICT can have a positive impact across a very wide range of aspects of school life.

The potential of ICT to support improvements in aspects of literacy, numeracy and science. Improved writing skills: grammar, presentation, spelling, word recognition and volume of work . Age-gains in mental calculations and enhanced number skills, for example the use of decimals . Better data handling skills and increased ability to read, interpret and sketch graphs Improvements in conceptual understanding of Mathematics (particularly problem solving) and Science (particularly through use of simulations)

Disadvantages of Using ICT for Education ICT equipment is expensive and needs trained staff to maintain it correctly hardware can be unreliable leading to breakdowns which cause frustration using ICT means children can become dependent on computers and technology and not learn how to do things by hand Internet can lead to children accessing unsuitable sites plagiarism has increased as students find pre written work online leading to students gaining unfair results on coursework

School Management Software

E-class for students to follow the changes of lessons to see homeworks to communicate, read and write messages among students and teachers

E-class for teachers to put marks to communicate with parents to get the latest information about free class excursions, competitions, political issues to read information from Ministry of Education to control the absenteeism and attendance of students to introduce students and parents with hobby groups at school

Uzdevumi.lv (exercises) Assistant for students Companion for teachers Support for parents

Support teachers with their teaching Support learners with their learning Ensure that Moodle is open in every way, yet Moodle sites can be fully private Integrate everything needed for a course in a single platform Provide the most flexible toolset possible

Latvia in International Olympiad in Informatics In 2016th summer in International Olympiad in Informatics Latvian student Aleksejs Popovs got the 1st place. Another student from Latvia got the 3rd place. In total, Latvia has got 70 medals in International Olympiads in Informatics. 7 of them are for the 1st place.

ECDL programme Latvia is the first country in the world to introduce the ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) programme in the country’s general education programme. Since the autumn of 2003, basic IT skills have been taught at the elementary school level, while applied skills to satisfy all ECDL requirements are taught at high schools.

“ICT technologies for quality of education” Programme lasted from 2007 to 2013. Objectives: increase teachers' knowledge and skills modernize ICT infrastructure provide the availability of electronic training materials

Computer Science It is planned that from 2018 in our Latvian schools the subject Informatics will be replaced by subject Computer Science and it will be taught from the first grade. Approximately 20% of comprehensive schools have started this project like a pilot project to teach children Computer Science from the first grade.

Informatics in our school Informatics in our school has been taught since 1990 and now it is taught in 9th form and 11th form. The 12th class students can choose IT exam as one of the optional exams to finish school and get secondary education.

Thank you for your attention!