Teaching and learning in the virtual environment are powerful solutions for education, given the social distance imposed by the coronavirus. Classic study tools had to be quickly replaced with digital tools and internet resources in order for the educational process to continue.

With the closure of schools, the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research encouraged teachers to be innovative and recommended the use of a set of digital classroom teaching tools. STEAMonEDU project partner EOS Romania, as a partner for education of the Ministry, has implemented a remote working system: video conferencing applications, a common place in the business environment, are now used as “virtual classrooms”. Shared, the computer screen becomes the “writing board”; the class can be put “on mute” while the teacher explains the topic;  the chat field hosts questions until the teacher opens the lecture time for discussion.

Teachers were not prepared to use this kind of tools and resources and required training and assistance to use them and adapt their teaching process. To support them, EOS Romania developed a range of resources and guides available in the national language, provided technical support to schools, and prepared a series of webinars about obtaining and using connection accounts to the resources made available by the Ministry of Education and Research. All the guides, resources and webinar recordings were uploaded onto EOS website and are available for free for all schools and teachers who want to use them.

The virtual courses are organized on secure web domains, from which the educational resources made available by the Ministry of Education and Research are accessed. Video conferencing systems facilitate not only simple screen sharing, but also learning how to use other computer applications and encourage collaborative work in the projects developed by students.

During 15-31 March 2020, EOS Romania ran 22 webinars to train and support Romanian teachers.

Our Romanian partner EOS – Educating for an Open Society Foundation, in early May 2020 launched the Cloud Career Accelerator project in partnership with Microsoft Romania, through Microsoft’s global philanthropic program.

In order to meet the challenges of the labour market, young jobseekers need to learn new skills, both in the area of technical skills (learning new technologies and programming languages), as well as in the area of soft skills (critical thinking, analysis or ethics).

Thus, EOS Foundation runs the Cloud Career Accelerator – a free pilot programme for accelerated learning and certification with up-to-date resources in the fields of cloud technologies, artificial intelligence and integrated digital services: Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics or Microsoft Power Platform.

In 2020, the Cloud Career Accelerator will offer specialized AI and cloud technology courses to approximately 500 young people who do not have access to such courses or opportunities for certification of acquired skills. In the context of the current situation generated by COVID-19, all training courses and their associated resources will be made available to the beneficiaries in a dedicated space, so that the participants have a pleasant user experience. In the first stage of the project, EOS Foundation will select five partner universities interested in developing specialized courses in Azure and artificial intelligence for students.

In full swing of the digital economy, the most popular jobs did not even exist 10 or even 5 years ago. Many experts argue that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud technologies are some of the most important topics when discussing careers in the IT sector. As technology continues to advance at an ever-accelerating pace, a lot of new jobs have been created. New jobs in IT include stand-alone machine programmers, cloud computing specialists, big data experts and artificial intelligence.

The Cloud Career Accelerator project has already been accepted by the European Commission as an important contribution to achieving the goals of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition strategy.

Microsoft Office Specialist World Competition has been organised each year in Romania, since 2015, by STEAMonEdu project partner Educating for an Open Society – EOS Foundation  in partnership with Certipro Education and Microsoft Romania. Thus, between 15 September 2019 – 15 June 2020, the candidates who had registered for this prestigious championship took the local qualifying exams by passing a Microsoft Office Specialist exam from one of the three sections:

• Microsoft Office Specialist WORD 2016;
• Microsoft Office Specialist EXCEL 2016;
• Microsoft Office Specialist POWERPOINT 2016.

Due to the restrictions imposed by COVID-19 (school closure, social distancing, etc.), the organizers managed to examine the students enrolled in the competition by using the system Exams from Home developed by Certiport for this purpose.

Following the verification of the exams and scores, 38 candidates were validated and selected to participate in the national qualification stage of the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship – 2020 edition, which will take place in Bucharest on 9 October 2020 at Microsoft Romania headquarters (if COVID-19 situation at that time will allow the organization of safe face-to-face events).

The candidates who obtain the best score in the categories Word 2016, Excel 2016 and PowerPoint 2016 at the national final in Bucharest, will represent Romania at the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship, which will take place in July 2021 in Orlando, Florida, USA.

Romania had great results in the previous years at the MOS World Championship, results that made us very proud about our students. In 2019, Romania had a new spectacular premiere by gaining three medals during the final of the 18th edition of the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship 2019 competition that took place in New York: three Romanian high school students were on the awarding stage to pick up their prises for the following categories:

• Gold medal for the Microsoft Word 2016 section
• Gold medal for the Microsoft Excel 2016 section
• Bronze medal for the Microsoft Power Point 2016 section.

By EOS ROmania

The actual Romanian education system needs new STE(A)M challenges and approaches that could revive interest in studying disciplines such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It is necessary for these disciplines to become more challenging, to arouse the imagination and inspiration of today’s students, the citizens of tomorrow’s world. In Romania, STE(A)M education is at very beginning, and a lot of efforts should be done in order to develop these educational practices at national level.

STE(A)M approach is based on the idea of educating students with the help of five different disciplines: science, technology, arts, engineering and mathematics – in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. The five disciplines are not studied differently and separately, STE(A)M model integrates them in a cohesive learning paradigm, based on real world demands. What differentiates the STE(A)M model from traditional education is cohesive learning, which shows students how the scientific method can be applied in everyday life, by developing the type of thinking based on problem solving by applying real life solutions.

STE(A)M education is a concept that has started to be talked about in Romania quite recently, but which is believed to become a key point in preparing the young generations for the future. To achieve the integration of STE(A)M approach in the Romanian educational system, Ministry of Education developed in 2019 an “Action plan for education in Romania 2019 – 2030” aiming at increasing the quality of public education by improving the well-being of school communities.

Among the various objectives and actions included in this plan, there is a group referring to the implementation of a new STEM/STE(A)M curriculum. This will bring a new approach to mathematical skills, creative thinking skills, computational thinking and coding, engineering and technological innovation modernization of the student assessment system, as well as a calibration of the assessment of learning outcomes according to individual pathways and clearly defined standards.

The results of implementing the “Action plan for education in Romania 2019 – 2030” will be:

• Elaboration of a new STE(A)M curriculum, based on a trans-disciplinary approach
• Creation of OERs (Open Educational Resources) to support the implementation of the STE(A)M curriculum
• Implementation of an updated competences framework for educators from the STE(A)M field
• Phasing the implementation of the new curriculum at all school levels
• Ongoing monitoring, impact evaluation, and adjustment of resources and indicators for reaching maximum impact.

Although STE(A)M practices are not yet very widely spread in Romania at the moment, there are a few organizations and initiatives which promote and implement STE(A)M education practices and programmes.

This include Asociatia CRESTEM, an innovative non-profit organization whose purpose is creating, developing and promoting an educational ecosystem capable of providing children and students with a complete, balanced and quality education, which will allow them to make informed decisions that will have an impact on the world and how they will live. Main objectives of CRESTEM association are:

• Creating an educational framework, STE(A)M type, adapted to the Romanian educational system;
• Creating, adapting and promoting STE(A)M educational programs (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) adapted to the context and specifics of the Romanian education system;
• Supporting the adoption of STE(A)M programs by public and private educational institutions;
• Supporting the creation of extracurricular activities such as robotics clubs, computer circles, etc., which use the STE(A)M approach; Organizing high quality contests and competitions that promote the STE(A)M approach. Their programmes are very well received by kids, youngsters, and students.

Besides the organizations and initiatives implementing STE(A)M education and practices in Romania, there are also a significant number of teachers who attended STEM/STE(A)M training programmes and now are using STE(A)M practices with their students in the classroom as part of their teaching process. Most of these teachers are also members of the SCIENTIX community and eTwinning community and platforms. This two communities help them in developing their skill to use STE(A) approach within the teaching system.

Another great resource for STE(A)M approach in Romania, that many teachers are using is School Education Gateway platform – European online platform dedicated to pre-university education is a great resource. Available in 23 European languages, the School Education Gateway portal is an online platform for teachers, school principals, researchers, trainers, decision makers and other specialists in pre-university education. On this portal one can find a lot of resources, materials and opportunities related to development of STE(A)M practices and programmes.

STEAMonEdu and Fundatia EOS – Educating for an Open Society

STEAMonEdu project partner – Fundatia EOS – Educating for an Open Society, has collected recently various best practices implemented by Romanian schools, of which we mention the following: “RoboCodeTech and Coding in Scrath from Matei Basarab High School Craiova”, “Let’s code the Micro:bit and Minecraft voyage from Nicolae Titulescu Theoretical High School Slatina”, “Scratch și…… Gool! from Association Pro Teodor Murăşanu Turda”. Content of this practices and all Romanian practices that were collected can be found on our STEAMonEdu platform.

We are confident that our participation in the STEAMonEdu project will contribute to the development of STE(A)M practices in Romania and will bring more experiences in this field at national level.

By EOS Romania

In recent months, the way of teaching and learning has changed completely. Many teachers and academics have integrated new tools into their lessons, often for the first time, and students have faced new learning methods that will have a significant and lasting impact. With this transition, it has become clear that because of the physical distance needed between teachers and students, it is more important than ever to help teachers find ways to connect with their students and keep them involved, motivated and safe in a digital world. At the same time, it is equally important to ensure that students continue to have opportunities to learn and put into practice the knowledge they have learned.

Our Romanian partner EOS – Educating for an Open Society Foundation, in May 2020 launched the Cloud Career Accelerator. It is a free pilot programme for accelerated learning and certification with up-to-date resources  in the areas of cloud technology, artificial intelligence, and integrated digital services: Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics, or Microsoft Power Platform. The programme is funded with support from Microsoft’s philanthropic programme.

Starting with June 2020, five prestigious universities in Romania have expressed interest in being part of this programme, to provide students with an innovative experience through which they have access to the latest cloud technology and artificial intelligence resources.

Paul Boldeanu, student at Ovidius University in Constanta, and participant in the Cloud Career Accelerator programme, appreciated the training experience as being one very well aligned with what he wants, “The experience in the online course environment was beyond my expectations. I was surprised by how well the courses were structured and how comprehensive the information was. At first, I only looked at this opportunity as an equivalence of the practice, I was not so interested, I just wanted to ‘get it done’ but slowly I began to realize that this information is crucial and super up to date for today’s IT requirements. In addition, the chance to get a Microsoft certification and the inclusion of this validation in my resume, I think, will bring me an important differentiator in front of employers.”

In the context of the pandemic generated by COVID-19, students and academics had to look for alternatives to internships at the end of the academic year, through which students interacted with potential employers; they learned practical skills specific to various companies and institutions where they did their internships. This was also the case of Alexandru Ioan Cuza  from University of Iași, which identified this project as an excellent solution to offer students a learning space and practical online activities.

Thus, the students of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration were invited to equate their internships that they could not do due to the physical distance imposed by Covid-19, with participation in courses and certifications offered by the EOS Foundation through the programme developed in partnership with Microsoft.

By the end of 2020, over 600 students in Romania will benefit from cloud technology and Microsoft certification courses. The most active students will be invited to participate in an Artificial Intelligence bootcamp where they will have the opportunity to work on interesting technology projects that solve social problems in their communities. On this occasion, the projects will be presented to the ecosystem of employers in the field of Microsoft Azure infrastructure services.

By EOS Romania

Romania is facing a lack of policies and action plans in the field of STE(A)M education at central and regional level. This is one of the reasons why EOS Romania Foundation together with eight other organizations promoting digital education, decided to create the Coalition for Digital Education (CED).

CED aims to support the development of quality digital education in Romania and the adaptation of the educational offer, so that it prepares children and young people for the transformation of society and the labour market in line with technological development trends. Due to its composition, CED has extensive knowledge about the opportunities that digital education offers, but also the importance of responsible, planned and inclusive use of the solutions that digital education proposes.

The nine organizations that initiated this approach promote digital education and STE(A)M education among students and young people through concrete and varied activities. Thus, they trained in this field about 1,500 teachers in Romania, conducted lessons with about 18,000 students, including those from rural areas, and managed to mobilize also and human resources from outside the education system involving in their work over 250 mentors.

In the context of COVID-19 and the disruptions caused by the pandemic in education, EOS Romania on behalf of CED sent an open letter to the Romanian Ministry of Education, to highlight some critical issues to be dealt with:

• reducing the digital divide between urban and rural areas, given that schools in rural areas have poor infrastructure and limited access to online educational resources;
• predictability and regulation regarding the education of students in the final grades who are most affected by the interruption of courses – the need for a plan with concrete actions and firm deadlines, implementable as soon as possible;
• the importance of developing a unitary distance education strategy, a guide for teachers in order to effectively plan and conduct educational activities in the online environment;
• the need to train teachers to make effective use of tools and resources available online – given that a number of online resources are available, teachers must have the necessary skills to select and use the most effective tools for the proposed educational purpose;
• making the best use of the solidarity and congruence of action and reaction of ICT professionals, in order to coagulate effective and sustainable long-term alternative education initiatives, to combat the implications of the educational syncope’s generated by the current state of emergency as soon as possible;

Currently, EOS Romania has started through CED the localization of an important resource for the development of teachers’ digital skills, so that they become STE(A)M ready. DigCompEdu is the basis for the development of STE(A)M competence framework within the STEAMonEdu project and for the elaboration of STE(A)M educator profiles.

EOS Romania and CED will continue to raise awareness among Romanian policy makers on policies and frameworks already developed at EU level that can be adapted and implemented in the Romanian education system. Moreover, they will support the Government in creating a country-wide STE(A)M strategy that will support the introduction of STE(A)M approach in schools across the country.

by EOS Romania Foundation

EOS Romania has worked in close collaboration with Microsoft Romania to achieve a support system so that, in terms of technology, teachers receive the support they need! Several guides have been developed in order to support teachers in the online teaching process, and they can be accessed at any time:

• Office 365 distance learning for education
• Microsoft Teams virtual classroom administration
• Homework with Microsoft Teams for Education

 Microsoft solutions for education also allow students to learn remotely for free. Content and homework / topics can be accessed online, and students and teachers can interact using online tools and collaborate individually or in work groups to meet requirements.

Why to use Microsoft Teams for Education? What are the advantages?

You can teach from anywhere, at anytime!

Teams online tool is a collaboration app which helps the team get organised and have conversations, all in one place.

You can learn from anywhere, anytime!

Publish the content of study materials online or deliver interactive courses online. Teachers and students can use a single interface through Teams platform to learn, collaborate and interact online, accessing information from any mobile device or browser. Using Teams, students can view the content of the study material, can collaborate with other students, interact with teachers, and transfer homework online. Teachers can review students homework and provide real-time suggestions.

Online classes

Teachers can take online classes, share presentations, or use the digital whiteboard. Teachers and students can interact using digital whiteboard, communicate via messaging, audio, and video.

The Office 365 plan for education and Teams application ensure a high protection of data and users privacy.

A guide on STE(A)M education policies and educators needs will be launched in December 2020 by STEAMonEdu project consortium. The aim of the guide is to present a comprehensive analysis of the STE(A)M education policies that were collected by each project partner at national/EU level and to increase the adoption and impact of STE(A)M education by investing in the community of stakeholders and the professional development of educators.

The guide will cover both policies at the EU level and those at national and regional level in five countries: Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania, and Spain. Nineteen policies were collected and uploaded on the STEAMonEdu project platform, and 15 most relevant policies have been selected to be included in this guide – policies that are bringing significant impact on the education systems, by reforming the curriculum or by ensuring a broader reach of STE(A)M in schools.

The STEAMonEdu project is based on various research activities that are conducted during the project lifetime, thus an EU and country level policy analysis supports the project in reaching its targets, but also supports further research as well as any stakeholder interested in the implementation of STEAM in education across Europe.

Project partners developed a methodological framework in order to identify, select and analyse STE(A)M in education policies.

The process to identify and collect policies has been supported by desk research as well as data collection through online surveys. While the desk research has been undertaken by the project partners, the online surveys have been opened to external stakeholders, through the wider STEAMonEdu community, with the scope to identify and collect as many relevant policies as possible.

In the context of this project, the following STE(A)M policies have been collected and analysed in order to be included in the guide:

• EU policies
• National (governmental) policies
• Regional policies
• Institution level policies (e.g. schools)

The analysis of the collected policies has been carried out by using a series of criteria and policy questions. In this effort, some policy makers have been consulted to bring clarity and accuracy to the policies, and to the implementation progress.

Beyond analyzing the policies, the STEAMonEdu consortium performed an analysis of the policy context in each project country and at the EU level, by researching a number of existing publications as well as by gathering information from the wider project community.

Also, an analysis of the efficiency and impact of STEAM educational policies at EU and national level was conducted by project consortium and all these findings will be included and integrated in the guide together with a short analysis of the STE(A)M educators needs.

Stay tuned!

By EOS Romania

STEAMonEdu project consortium developed a Guide on STE(A)M education policies and educator’s needs that was launched at the end of December 2020. The guide presents in a comprehensive way the STE(A)M education policies identified and/or produced by the community members and the needs of the educators in order to implement them. This document contains existing needs and policies and a selection of the policies produced by the community members.

Project partners developed a methodological framework in order to identify, select, and analyze STE(A)M in education policies.

The process to identify and collect policies has been supported by desk research as well as data collection through online surveys. In the context of STEAMonEdu project, the following STE(A)M policies have been collected and analyzed in order to be included in the guide:

• EU policies
• National (governmental) policies
• Regional policies
• Institution level policies (e.g. schools)

The analysis of the collected policies has been carried out by using a series of criteria and policy questions. Beyond analyzing the policies, the STEAMonEdu consortium performed an analysis of the policy context in each project country and at the EU level, by researching a number of existing publications as well as by gathering information from the wider project community.

An analysis of the efficiency and impact of STEAM educational policies at EU and national level was conducted by project consortium and all these findings were included and integrated in the guide together with a short analysis of the STE(A)M educators needs.

Main conclusions drafted after conducting the research and policy analysis activity are the following:

1. Quantity and quality of STE(A)M policies. The research performed within the project identified only 20 policies both at EU level and in the five countries of the project partners. The quantity and the quality of STE(A)M policies are still very low, and this translates into education systems that are not fully reformed in order to respond to the current societal challenges and opportunities.

2. STEAM vs STEM. STEAM is largely unknown as a concept, and, as a consequence, it is not addressed by policy makers at national level, as the large majority of policy initiatives are related to STEM only. At EU level, the new Digital Education Action Plan introduces the concept of STEAM only to encourage women to consider technical studies. Despite an official communication between the EU Parliament and the European Commission, and a funding programme to promote integration of STEAM, the challenge to achieve a full integration of the STEAM disciplines remains.

3. Integration of STEM. Significant policy support for integration of STEM in education can be found at EU level. STEM Education is thus currently recognised as an effective integrated and multidisciplinary approach able to meet the growing demands of businesses and allowing professionals to excel and perform outstandingly in a highly technical and evolving fast-paced environment. Most of the EU countries have integrated STEM in education by now at various levels, but impact is still low due to the lack of proper policy support.

4. Efficiency of STE(A)M policies. Most of the identified policies are still ongoing or do not include a monitoring and evaluation framework, thus it is very difficult to assess the efficiency and impact of these policies. In all five countries where the research has been performed, very little information has been found regarding policy efficiency. Ultimately, there is currently no official and transversally accepted framework which enables comparisons across different EU member states. The OECD’s PISA programme offers insight on the separate disciplines, but does not offer a full assessment of STEAM opportunities and practices.

5. STE(A)M educators’ needs. The research identified a large and diverse set of needs for the STE(A)M educators, from lack of infrastructure to teach STE(A)M disciplines to low levels of confidence and competences, and to difficulty to assess and evaluate. This only proves that there is an urgent need for coordinated support from the policy side both at EU and at the national level.

By EOS Romania

Featured image from the Microbit class at Nicolae Titulescu Theoretical High School in Slatina, Romania

EOS Romania Foundation in partnership with Certipro Education and Microsoft Romania, successfully launched the Microsoft Certified Educator program, with the aim to support teachers in Romania to develop their digital competences and abilities.

Because students get inspired by dedicated teachers, Microsoft Romania Education team took another significant step towards supporting the teacher community with one of the most exciting resources: the Microsoft Certified Educator (MCE) program.

The MCE certification has been officially recognized by the Romanian Ministry of Education as equivalent to 15 professional credits towards teacher’s compulsory continuing professional development. MCE certification is recommended for pre-university teachers, students preparing to become teachers, teachers in the stage of initial or continuing training, educational counselors and other professionals in the field of education who want to certify their skills. MCE certified teachers can prove that they have the skills to provide students with rich, personalized learning experiences that include the essential skills needed in the 21st century.

This certification was possible due to a strong alignment with EOS Romania Foundation, which has localised and published the 21^st Century Learning Design Methodological Guide, and Certipro Education, which has worked hard for months to achieve a well-structured localised certification for teachers – the Technology Literacy for Educators. The guidebook was also mapped to the European Commission’s Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu).

“Microsoft Certified Educator provides teachers with globally recognized certification and validates their knowledge of integrating technology into the learning process. As a training provider for teachers, EOS Foundation has developed the study material for this certification and supports teachers in obtaining a truly important credential in the 21st century digital education”, says Laurentiu Bunescu, Head of Digital Education Programmes at EOS Romania Foundation.

The launch of the MCE program was hosted under the SMART Edu project – the new digital education strategy which is being developed by the Ministry of Education in Romania.

To date, over 1,000 teachers have already taken the Microsoft Certified Educator with many more teachers signing up for the program every day. It is important to mention that the success of this course is due to the fact that it is one of the very few resources in the Romanian language that tackles the pedagogy of using technology when teaching in the classroom or remotely.

By EOS Romania Foundation