Testing EdTech solutions in Lithuanian educational institutions – inspiring co-creation between teachers, students and startups

How are Lithuanian schools, kindergartens and pre-schools doing in testing innovative, student-engaging tools? Last week, the EdTech Centre of the National Agency for Education invited general education schools, pre-schools and pre-primary schools to come together and openly share students’ and teachers’ impressions and best practices from testing digital solutions. Testing educational technologies is a very popular practice in foreign countries (testbed activities).

108 educational institutions were invited by the EdTech Centre to try out the innovations and learn about the solutions offered by innovators and start-ups. For two months, various digital solutions from Lithuanian and foreign start-ups were tested – from a playful career path counselling tool for pupils to interactive sand and counting robots that surprised kindergarteners with their Lithuanian language. The Digital Innovation Challenge brings together those who can support each other – the education community and the developers of educational tools. When a dialogue between them takes place, developers can get valuable feedback from the students and teachers who have tested their innovations. In turn, Lithuanian schools, kindergartens and pre-schools receive engaging educational tools that meet the needs of the general curriculum and consumers.

The meeting was opened by Indrė Šuolienė, Head of the EdTech Centre, who welcomed the fact that 2023 is indeed the year of digital technologies. The EdTech Centre is implementing the New Generation Lithuania project “Digital Transformation of Education (EdTech)”, which is gaining momentum and promises a breakthrough in innovation in Lithuanian education. She noted that a lot of attention is paid not only to educational technologies and their testing in classrooms, but also to the digital competences of teachers and lecturers, and to the strengthening of international relations: the EdTech Centre invites the communities of schools, colleges and universities to participate in internships in foreign countries, drawing inspiration from countries that have mastered EdTech.

Returning to the testing of innovations, Indrė Šuolienė addressed the teachers, heads of educational institutions, “Thank you, our partners, innovators – ambassadors. You were the first to participate in such educational technology trials in Lithuania.” The Head of the Centre encouraged the Innovation Ambassadors to spread the word about the EdTech Centre’s activities to other educational institutions and the opportunity to bring innovation to their classroom doorsteps.

Educational institutions that signed up for the testing were free to choose the products they wanted to test from a list of startups. All developers provided their educational technologies free of charge and provided regular advice to those using them. Live meetings and the participation of the developers in the lessons were particularly useful.

You can see the proposed solutions here.

Justas Paulikas, Educational Technology Specialist at the EdTech Centre, who supervised the testing, gave the figures: more than 40 municipalities participated in the proposed testing activity, involving teams from 1/8 of Lithuanian educational institutions. The startups were grateful for the feedback from the users of the tools, which they had really heard and, as some teachers noted, had adapted even during the testing, changing their tools according to the comments and preferences they had heard.

Eglė Pranckūnienė, a researcher and expert in educational technology, together with her colleagues, analyses the feedback from the questionnaires filled in by educational institutions. She believes that in the future, the developers and testers of solutions will become a community, constantly exchanging up-to-date knowledge and practical advice. This ecosystem would also provide real data for policy makers. The researcher’s conclusion is that it is worthwhile for tool developers and educational communities to communicate as closely and openly as possible. After all, as Eglė Pranckūnienė points out, the creators of digital tools do not always have a pedagogical background, so insights from the mouths of educators and students are invaluable.

The statistics of the comments already collected show that the 11 solutions tested are well received: they help to use lesson time efficiently, saving teacher hours, for example by not creating only their own additional content, by eliminating excessive administration, by eliminating homework corrections, as the tools help to automate these. Educational innovation also captures students’ attention and improves their learning outcomes by involving them in the process. Teachers also become more confident. Stasys Norbertas, Director of Šilalė Simonas Gaudėšiaus Gymnasium, said that the pupils empathised with the opportunity that one of the tools gave them to explore their future in an organised, structured way. Not only teachers in the classrooms, but also parents and guardians could discuss individual character traits with the pupils, as the digital innovation reached the pupils’ homes.

It is clear that the education community is ready to test and thus “tame” digital tools. Some success stories: Šilalė Simonas Gaudėšiaus Gymnasium, after testing the tool, with the joint agreement of students, parents, guardians and teachers, purchased a tool for 10th graders, which helps students to decide on the further direction of their education and career, and the community of Alytus pre-school and pre-primary educational institution “Volungėlė”, was impressed by the technical solutions of the maths-teaching robot, which encouraged children to empathise and challenge themselves, and ensured that they could continue to enrich their daily lives with this innovative teaching tool.

The EdTech Centre will be inviting you to try out new tools – registration will open soon, stay tuned for updates. Educational institutions that have already participated in the first trial are welcome to continue to participate in the others, as well as new educational institutions that are ready to embrace innovation!