Innovations in Education
Published on
Author: Stefan Alievikj
Nowadays the society is hungry for innovation. Innovations are needed in each field and circle of the society and they are crucial for our movement towards smarter and sustainable future. At the university St Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, Macedonia, two teachers had come up with few ideas how to bring innovations in the educational system.
Elena Oncevska-Ager and Rumena Buzarovska, teachers at the Department of English Language and Literature had come up with innovation at the verge, combining social networking with the usual curriculum. They have opened up Google groups for each group which they lecture and the Google groups have become a platform where students can post information, news or book reviews. The students are able to discuss about world issues and problems, stereotypes and prejudges or simply share their favourite bits of music on this platform. Of course, all the activities on these social network groups can bring the students additional points. This sparkling idea is much promising, since it has the potential to grow into a platform where stereotypes for instance can be disregarded.
Additional activities which are made are the Otstapka sessions, meaning something “out of the norm”. On these sessions, the two teachers are hosting the students in another out of classroom activity with a special guest. The sessions are again thought provoking and give insight in many contemporary issues, thus a true discussion is enabled.
The last Otstapka session was held just few weeks ago and the special guest was an Englishman who had been teaching inMongolia for almost thirty year, so the students were able to have insight and compare two different educational systems in the world.