Ref: 022503
The development of information technology has begun to influence teaching information technology and general knowledge subjects at primary and secondary schools in the Czech republic since 1990. Schools are equipped with computers, but only few teachers have been able to use the new technology in an active or effective way in teaching so far.
The teachers who finished their studies before 1990 had had no opportunity to work with the computers and information technology during their university education.
There are a lot of various opinions among our teachers saying that computer knowledge is not necessary for teaching and they manage without it. The answer to this attitude is the development of information technology, which enables teachers and students access not only to the new information but also to the co-operation among themselves on various levels.
There are the reasons for which our Department of Computer Science wants to deal with further education of teachers.
It is a very important thing for the teachers, headteachers and headmasters to be acquainted with the possible ways of utilising the computers and information technology. Only then they will be willing to introduce them at schools.
We set up The Teacher's Training Centre at University of Ostrava designed for Information technology at primary and secondary schools.
We have these aims :
· information technology will be used in education at the primary and
secondary schools,
· schools will use the services of the Internet for the communication
between themselves and with our university,
· schools will be communicating with schools in other countries.
There are 69 primary schools in Ostrava. At present some schools are equipped with various types of computers in laboratories but in others there have not been any computer laboratories so far.
Computer facilities at primary schools in Ostrava
Computer type The number of schools
equipped with a laboratory
PC 25
Macintosh 2
Consul 16
None 26
Total 69
We are offering these courses:
· Basic Work with Computer and Operating System
· Education Software
· Word Processing Systems
· Database and its Application
· Using Spreadsheets
· Algorithms and Programming Languages
· Using Internet
· SGP Baltazar - Czech programming language for children
Interest teachers in offer course
The teachers are interested in the courses very much. 148 teachers participated in 12 courses in Autumn 1996 and Spring 1997.
The number of graduates in the realised courses
Basic work with Computer and 62 Operating System Education Software 14 Word Processing Systems 25 Database and its Application 14 Using Spreadsheets 10 Algorithms and Programming Languages 12 Using Internet 0 SGP Baltazar 11 Total 148
Now our department offers Lifelong Education in Computer Science - Postgraduate
study of computer science for in-service teachers :
· the study for three years
· tuition - 84 hours per a semester
· curriculum is the same as in regular study and there are these
parts:
- theory of informatics
- information technology and
application
- programming and computers
- educational software and
didactics
· study finishes with extended diploma
At present we are contacting several primary schools in Ostrava's area that would like to participate in “Using Information Technology at Primary and Secondary Schools“ project.
Our help to these schools:
· to work out the presentation of their schools and put it on WWW pages in
Web server in our university,
· we will enable the teachers of these schools to have access to the
computer laboratory at our faculty in order that they can be acquainted with
the latest information technology and work with Internet,
· the preparation of competition called “Utilising Internet at our
school“ for primary and secondary pupils and teachers.
We and the teachers together are going to prepare a conference. The teachers will present their work with their pupils and acquaint the participants present at the conference with the utilising information technology at their schools.
Copyright EUNIS 1997 Y.E.