Distance Learning in Bulgaria

June 9th, 2020 by guest

The start of the Covid-19 crisis was a big challenge for me and my colleagues. The students from the school I teach at “Acad. Prof. Dr. Assen Zlatarov ” in Botevgrad, have Google Suit accounts which helped. When the online teaching started I was greatly relieved by seeing full classrooms in both the Google Classroom provided by the school and the Khan Academy that I liked to use since the beginning of the school year. All my students were participating, which made it all much easier.

After the initial adaptations, backed by the support of our colleagues and the leadership of the school, we started our physics and astronomy trainings quite successfully – alternating between synchronous and asynchronous.

A great help came also from my teacher colleagues from my country, from abroad and most of all Science teachers in Europe, for sharing their views on the possibilities of different distance learning platforms and how to protect students’ personal data when using them. The main communication platform for us was through various teachers in Facebook groups. Special thanks to Alexander Angelov – Scientix Ambassador for his training and his shared information on how to successfully use Google classroom and Google meet.

My former school supervisor, Professor Daniela Gotseva from TU Sofia, also provided me with Google meet directions. The guidance from my colleague TU Ruse and the video shared: Video Lectures on Innovative Educational Technology was super helpful (Available here in Bulgarian). What I could witness was all colleagues constantly sharing on social networks training materials and instructions for using different applications, for example University Of Ruse – Innovation Educational Technology Center.

Very useful was also the training course: “Learn STEM: Pedagogical innovations for STEM education” coordinated by Open University of the Netherlands.

For asynchronous Google classroom learning, assignments included references to e-lessons, web pages, classroom assignments, and self-study tests done on Google forms, Quizizz, or Kahoot. I also included project-based training in lessons related to Global Warming, Stars, Star Evolution, and the Universe, giving them advance guidance and resources from various projects uploaded to Scientix: such as Go lab, You4Energy, InGenious, Stem Alliance and more. I could also share my lessons in EUN Academy courses. Great presentations by students were made. More information here.

See bellow attached a presentation, by Mirela Itzova, about radioactivity study with the Queensland University’s Remote Laboratory.

Labs-Land-experiments-Tsetsa-Tsolova-Hristova Download

In synchronous training, I used Google meet, where we discussed the relevant lessons and specified different tasks

The Go lab team provided our school access and we were able to successfully use research approaches and do lab work with The Quinsland University’s Remote Real Laboratory to study pendulum oscillation and radioactivity.

I helped my colleagues navigate the opportunities offered by the various online distance learning platforms by sharing the information on about 20 social networks (See in the References the links to the social networks).

Along with the work, I also shared various online concerts, which relieved the tense atmosphere and was much appreciated by my colleagues on social networks. (See in the References some of the concerts I shared with colleagues)

Finally, I want to thank the Scientix project team for the knowledge they gave me about new technologies, methodologies and the opportunities to use these resources to inspire students to learn STEM.

Author: Tsetsa Hristova, Scientix Ambassador in Bulgaria, PPMG – Botevgrad, Bulgaria

Tsetsa Hristova has a master’s degree and teaches physics and astronomy. She is interested in new technologies and methodologies, virtual, remote labs, Graasp from Go lab/Next lab project, IBSE and distance teaching in STEM education. Tsetsa favorite science is astronomy and her hobby is alternative medicine and herbs. She is also Bulgarian Scientix Ambassador since 2010.

References

The links to the social networks: