“We do not only learn our lessons in different subjects. We experience them!” – students from the Second English Language School “Thomas Jefferson” in Sofia contend. The Second English Language School has been a Google reference school for two years as part of the global programme “School in the Cloud”. The innovation launched in 2013 by educational researcher Sugata Mitra is related to the overall digital transformation of the learning process. Nowadays, thousands of schools around the world use the so-called cloud platforms based on the 1:1 model of Google G Suite and the Second English Language School “Thomas Jefferson” in Sofia is among them.

Eighth and ninth-graders easily switched over from paper textbooks to the so-called chromebooks.  This is a personal device that allows them to search for information and to show creative approach to the learning process. Teachers are also equipped with the same portable computer devices. “For the purpose, 23 teachers from the Second English Language School have undergone training courses and received certificates by an international programme for Google trainers. We have 1,138 personal and business Google G suite profiles in the school’s domain”, Veselina Ivanova, Deputy Principal of the Second English Language School “Thomas Jefferson” contends. The platform provides opportunities for online lessons, file-sharing, management of virtual classroom and provides unlimited space for storage of information in the “cloud”.

How the overall digitalization of the learning process changes students?

It turns out that the “cloud” makes them the active side in the learning process. They are no longer passive and bored consumers of knowledge, but are motivated and impatient to demonstrate their knowledge. Alone or in a team, they study, look for and find reliable information and even create certain online products. “The role of teachers has also changed and they have become mediators. Currently, pupils are staying at home and continue working this way due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, this system is also applied in the classroom itself in the presence of the teacher”, Veselina Ivanova explained.

How a lesson goes in the “cloud”?

“If we talk about geography or history, there are instruments that give the students the opportunity to make expeditions themselves- i.e. to mark the places they study and to look at them from a geographical point of view. They can take virtual walks in certain places of historical significance related to the period they study. Students have definitely become more successful and self-disciplined! Students are more active and motivated. As for the marks given for their school work – they have definitely become higher. But more importantly – students like the system. The children admit that they have acquired much more skills than studying in the traditional classroom”, Veselina Ivanova said further. 

The Second English Language School “Thomas Jefferson” was the first Bulgarian school which joined the global digital project “School in the Cloud”. Moreover, it is still one of the two Google reference schools in the whole Central and Eastern Europe, together with Ivan Vazov Language High School in Plovdiv. Several days ago, the Sofia Municipality initiated a new pilot project for accession of 16 more schools in Sofia to the “cloud”.

Written by: Veneta Nikolova

English version: Kostadin Atanasov

Photos: 2els.com