Project Albus

 

Can you imagine organizing your work without the right electronic accessories? Regardless of whether you are an office worker, nurse, freight forwarder or sales representative, you need to use specific tools – which are a telephone, a computer with an e-mail box, text editors and appropriate applications. Most likely, for most employees, getting rid of this type of equipment would cause huge chaos and the inability to quickly perform the tasks entrusted to them. Today, it is not necessary to prove to anyone that equipping employees with appropriate digital tools help them to perform their work more effectively.

Similar relationships appear in the case of educational institutions, we are talking about teachers and students. Equipping both groups with appropriate textbooks, notebooks, pens, and pencils helps them improve the quality of both teaching and learning. How, then, would school learning change if instead of pencils and notebooks, we equip students with laptops, e-mail boxes or content creation applications? Google as a company has been running educational Albus projects for many years that a

Objectives of the Albus Project

The main goal of the project is to popularize digital transformation in Polish educational institutions. For successful implementation, the following criteria must be met:

  • the educational institution is required to have an educational platform
  • students and teachers should be provided with appropriate electronic equipment (1 laptop for each student and teacher)
  • the management is required to undergo training – Cloud-based School Management
  • the educational institution must nominate several teachers for workshops related to the administration of the digital platform
  • Teachers should undergo training that will allow them to use digital tools in classroom practice.

 

Because of the high standards of this educational endeavour, three highly specialized technology companies were invited to the Albus project:

  • technological giant Lenovo provided Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebooks
  • the educational platform with the necessary applications has been implemented by the leader of educational solutions Google for Education
  • CCT Poland, which has many years of experience in conducting workshops on the practical use of the Google Workspace for Education platform in education, was invited to train the teaching staff.

Project chronology

Two Polish schools were selected for the project. Primary School No. 234 Julian Tuwim in Warsaw and the Second High School. Maria Konopnicka in Katowice.

The project started in May 2022. With the start of the whole project, procedures were launched to meet all the conditions and criteria required by Albus’ originators. The Google Workspace platform was implemented and Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebooks were purchased. In June, CCT Poland conducted the first training courses on Administration and Management, Communication and Organization, School in the Cloud, Chromebook Management and Service. The next very important aspect of the Albus project was the Level 1 and Level 2 Certified Google Educator workshops. Taking these courses (which end with an exam) allowed teachers to correctly select Google Workspace for Education digital tools for a particular lesson topic. After familiarizing themselves with Google’s educational philosophy, teachers learned about teaching methods that allow them to use the full potential of the digital classroom. To achieve this goal, CCT Poland has developed a special training block containing such didactic topics as content creation, project-based teaching and 1:1 teaching and learning.

On October 12, 2022, there was a ceremony of handing laptops to students and the first workshop using the acquired equipment. From then on, all classroom activities began to be conducted in the 1:1 (digital classroom) model.

Educational changes after project implementation?

A very important aspect of the Albus project is a scientific study that will measurably analyze the impact of teaching and learning in a 1:1 model on broadly understood school education. The research is carried out by an independent research group consisting of scientists representing the best Polish universities (e.g. Jagiellonian University).

Within the next two or three months, the above-mentioned research group will conduct the last research tests. After their completion, a report will be published fully presenting the impact of digital transformation (school in the cloud, digital classroom, 1:1 model, project-based teaching, use of Chromebooks) on the quality of school education from the perspective of students, teachers and principals. You will be able to read it on our website www.cctpoland.com.

 

However, today we can present some positive facts observed by the headmaster, teachers and students in the schools participating in the project.

First of all, the role of the teacher in the digital classroom has changed dramatically. From a provider of dry facts and definitions, the teacher became a guide for his students in their process of analyzing the information they learned, and consequently, based on these thoughts, a navigator in the process of creating new solutions.

The change in the attitude of students consisted in their greater involvement in lesson tasks, but also in developing a large dose of independence in the learning process.

Another positive feature that parents and teachers liked was the provision of a safe working environment for students. The Google Workspace platform and Chromebooks have special protections thanks to which the platform administrator can block suspicious and unwanted websites.

Based on the above reports and observations, we can say that we are on the right track to success. It is worth noting that similar studies have already been carried out with positive results in various educational institutions around the world.

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