Hosted by , contributed by Kyriaki_Vakkou on 13 December 2022
A regional school in Croatia did not have adequate equipment and lacked of Internet connection because there was no Internet in the village where the school is located. Another school, which is the main regional school, had a weak and slow internet connection (at first exclusively analog, and later ISDN and ADSL). These schools suffered severe inequalities in digital education.
Through the participation in a national project, called E‐Škole, the schools were able to solve many of their digital-related problems. The main regional school managed to install an optical cable for internet connection to the school and this enable the school to acquire more advanced digital equipment. This included wired and wireless WiFi networks setup, access point devices, interactive screens, Polycom video conferencing systems, Smart TVs, PCs, laptops and tablets. In the case of the more disadvantaged regional school, an internet signal was sent from the TV transmitter on a nearby mountain (412 m above sea level) via radio link to the receiver antenna, which was installed on the tower of the church located next to the school. The school is now connected with an internet cable to the antenna on the church tower and all the classrooms inside the school have now access to the Internet.
Setting up secure, fast, broadband network enabled the schools in collaboration with the project E‐Škole to purchase and introduce specialized equipment for certain curricular and extracurricular activities, such as a digital weather station, equipment for Internet school radio and CNC milling machines for plexiglass. Today, the schools (the main school and the regional school) use internet speed of approximately 50 mbps, which meets their basic needs, although sometimes the connection "breaks". This especially applies to the upload and download of the program of the online school radio, which broadcasts 24/7, but also to three other servers (to ensure uninterrupted duration of the program). The situation is the same with the school YouTube channel and the data from the school weather station, which are regularly updated.
In order to monitor the aforementioned initiatives, teachers and professional associates are regularly educated in and outside the school, through international organizations (British Council), state institutions (Ministry of Science and Education), agencies (CARNET, Education and Training Agency), faculties. (Faculty of Organization and Informatics from Varaždin and Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing from Zagreb), non-governmental organizations (IRIM, STEMI) and other external collaborators.
Students and teachers were able to create, access and use digital educational content in real time or on demand. The teachers were actively engaged in following and using all the information (e-learning, video lessons, curricula) that was made available to them as part of the national curricular reform named "School for Life". In addition, teachers have access to the repositories of digital educational content that were created in the context of the program E‐Škole. Moreover, teachers actively participated and used the content provided by large national publishing houses and other stakeholders in the educational system (County Professional Councils, Professional and Guild Associations, etc.).
Online radio: http://srcezagorja.caster.fm/
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJbQB8z9b0nCeMzxTesuGgA
Weather station:
Educational content: