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On November 5, the Open Policy Foundation, with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Ukraine, held a webinar "International Practices: Cooperation of Universities and Schools in Implementing Innovative Distance STEAM Learning".

Educators from Ukraine and Lithuania took part in the webinar. 26 school teachers, lecturers from the displaced universities, college teachers, representatives of public organizations from the towns of Rubizhne, Velyka Novosilka, Starobilsk, Toretsk, Selidove, the cities of Mariupol, Kramatorsk, Ukrayinsk, Slovyansk, Kharkiv, Vinnytsya, Kyiv: Luhansk National University named after Taras Shevchenko, Luhansk National Agrarian University, Donetsk National University named after Vasyl Stus, Kramatorsk Vocational College of Technology and Design, Pryazovskyi State Technical University, Toretsk school #2, Rubizhne school / children care facility, Neskuchne school named after M. Korf, Selydiv schools #6 and #12, Slovyansk school #1, as well as representatives from the public organization "Christian Rescue Service", Kharkiv Hydrometeorological College, Centre for Professional Development of Pedagogical Workers joined the discussion with the teachers of the gymnasium named after Y. Dabkevičius and the lecturers from Vytautas Magnus University.

Speakers:

Iryna ZHDANOVA – Executive Director of the Open Policy Foundation, Founder of the Klym Churyumov Scientific Lyceum, Candidate of Sciences in History

Saulius Mickevičius, Acting Dean, Faculty of Natural Sciences of Vytautas Magnus University, Professor, Kaunas (Lithuania)

Gediminas CHAPKAUSKAS - teacher of the gymnasium named after J. Dabkevičius, Kaunas (Lithuania)

Jurgita MAYRONIENE - teacher of the Lithuanian language of the gymnasium named after J. Dabkevičius, Kaunas (Lithuania)

Full video of the webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hPFLYLgM1E

Iryna ZHDANOVA – Executive Director of the Open Policy Foundation, Founder of the Klym Churyumov Scientific Lyceum, Candidate of Sciences in History:

"The mission of our scientific lyceum is to teach and learn to be human, to love science, space, Ukraine and the world. We want pupils to keep a lively interest in learning nature and the world. This is our global challenge. Online education is the education of the future, children have been living in the clouds for a long time and we should be flexible facing their requests as well as teaching and learning with them in the digital space.

In times of war and epidemic, we manage to find new opportunities to share experience and to learn, implement academic mobility and exchange experience online. There are plenty of opportunities for learning. If we start telling parents today about studying opportunities through European exchanges, it will strongly motivate their children to study better."

Lithuanian educators also shared their advice and life hacks.

Gediminas CHAPKAUSKAS - teacher of the gymnasium named after J. Dabkevičius, Kaunas (Lithuania):

”As a natural sciences teacher, I try to teach students to do research. Usually, our cognitive activity includes three stages. The first is the recognition of a certain problem, we interpret it scientifically. Then we do research, maybe experiments. And most importantly - we make changes through the implementation of a particular project.”

“The most important in our work are pupils. Not the school administration or parents. We do our best to deliver information to pupils so that they can comprehend it easily. When studying nature or biology, we “go out into the field”: we look at rivers, swamps. In distance education, we try to replicate the same approach: our students are given research projects: from studying the environment to analyzing the planets.”

Saulius Mickevičius, Acting Dean, Faculty of Natural Sciences of Vytautas Magnus University, Professor, Kaunas (Lithuania):

“We cooperate with many universities in Ukraine; provide the opportunity to obtain a double diploma. If a student obtains a bachelor's degree, he is to study for at least one academic year at our university. If a student plans to get a master's degree - the period of study is reduced to one semester. The rest of the time students study at their home university.

We had two students from the East studying for their master’s degree and they received double diplomas - one issued by Donetsk University named after Vasyl Stus, and the second diploma was issued by Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Ecology. It was a grant study, now these girls are studying to obtain a science degree at our university. We have many students from Ukraine on programs from the Lithuanian government or from specific universities.

Jurgita MAYRONIENE, teacher of the Lithuanian language:

“We have a lot of problems with distance learning. Many parents experience severe stress. It is important for us as teachers to keep in touch with pupils’ parents online. Schoolchildren performance may decline as they find themselves at home and are trying to cope with the new learning format. Their adaptation is a joint work of teachers and parents.

Sometimes, technology fails: the Internet can disappear or gadgets are not functioning properly. The teacher needs to be creative to get children interested. For example, on the wall of my house I arranged a school board which I used for writing during online classes. I have three sons. I often have to go to bed at 2 am and wake up at 6. Teaching is not a job, it is a way of life.”

We are thankful to the participants for their active work and would like to share the feedback of some of them:

Ivan Reznichenko, Luhansk National Agrarian University:

“Thank you very much for today's event, it was very interesting. At the end, the idea of creating a separate Moodle platform for Ukrainian-Lithuanian educational projects was voiced. For my part, I can offer technical and methodological assistance: I used to work for quite a long time at DonNU and was engaged in distance education activities. Now I am doing almost the same at Luhansk National Agrarian University.”

Halyna Kanafotska, Kyiv:

“It is a very good idea to have a common platform for training the participants of our meetings. Many thanks to the speakers for being open to give access to their experience and their willingness to continue cooperation!”

Tetyana Lytvynkovych Slovyansk: 

“Thank you for an interesting presentation with practical advice!”

Olga Orlova-Kurylova, Kharkiv: 

‘Thanks a lot for the useful, interesting information, pleasant, interesting meeting. We hope to get contacts and links for webinar participants. I wish everybody present to stay healthy.”

Here is the link to watch the webinar online: https://www.facebook.com/OpenPolicyFoundation.

This project is a continuation of the previous 2 projects with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Ukraine aimed at improving the quality of distance education and holding refresh training activities for teachers from the war-affected areas. Also, the project “Quality Distance Education - for Everyone!” Lithuanian-Ukrainian Science & Digital [no] Schools for Educators from Post-Conflict Regions of Ukraine” is implementing agreements with the Lithuanian educational institutions, which were reached in the negotiations in Vilnius and Kaunas in March 2020 during professional mobility programs by the Executive Director of the Foundation - Iryna Zhdanova (within the programs of supporting professional mobility with the financial assistance of the European Union under the House of Europe program, German Cultural Center Goethe Institute).

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