NEA GERMANIKA Language Centre Introduces Interactive Learning for Young Children
On 1 October, NEA GERMANIKA Language Centre officially launched learning with the latest interactive educational software and digital learning products.
The manager of NEA GERMANIKA, Ms Svetla Zhelyazkova, told us more about the educational platform for online and hybrid learning and the Envision interactive educational platform.
According to her, the aim of these innovations is to ensure that the language centre keeps pace with modern trends in education and that the children studying at NEA GERMANIKA grow into highly qualified and competitive individuals.
The final stage of training is currently underway for the teachers who will use these new tools and put them into practice during lessons.
The Envision interactive learning platform uses interactive hardware technology that includes an interactive whiteboard, a computer, a multimedia projector and individual mice for the children. These are used to complete educational tasks displayed on the board.
The new technology makes teachers’ work considerably easier and more effective. Until now, they had to rely on traditional methods of presenting information using whiteboards and markers.
Multimedia projectors were already being used extensively during lessons, but this alone was not enough to provide fully interactive learning.
The online learning platform, another major innovation at NEA GERMANIKA this school year, is still operating in test mode, although it is already fully functional in practice.
With its help, the traditional, static and passive approach to teaching is being transformed into a modern, innovative, dynamic, interactive and engaging learning model for children.
The system enables continuous communication between children and their teachers.
When needed, learners can use online chat and video chat to communicate with their teacher in real time.
Through forums and blogs, children studying at NEA GERMANIKA will be able to discuss various questions and topics related to their studies and exchange information with one another. In addition to independent study, testing their knowledge and maintaining continuous communication, the platform also allows exams to be held in real time.
At present, each child studying at NEA GERMANIKA is to be given an individual profile with a password for accessing the system, which they can use from anywhere and at any time. When children log in to their accounts, they enter a virtual learning environment guided entirely by their teacher, featuring video lectures, presentations and a wide range of interactive materials tailored to the specific course. Initially, the plan is not to move entirely online, but to introduce what is known as “hybrid” learning.
In essence, this means alternating between face-to-face and virtual learning. A key feature of hybrid learning is that if the self-study task set on the online platform proves difficult for most of the children, the teacher will revisit the challenging material during the next in-person lesson, explain it again, and provide a new exercise to help them practise and catch up on any gaps in their knowledge.
In practice, there is a constant “transition” between the digital and the real-life learning environment.
Now is the time to lift the curtain a little and share that, at a later stage, the platform is expected to offer fully online learning on a national and even international scale. According to the centre’s manager, many Bulgarian children whose parents have emigrated from Bulgaria do not have access to quality education in Bulgarian.
Ms Zhelyazkova believes that Bulgarian schools established abroad are far from sufficient to meet this need. This is also another way to help these children stay connected to their Bulgarian roots and never forget that they are Bulgarian. At a later stage, the platform is also intended to be used to train teachers in applying digital teaching methods based on the “training the trainers” principle, introducing effective teaching and learning methods.
You can find out more about all this, as well as many other interesting insights and the latest developments in foreign language education, by visiting the NEA GERMANIKA Language Centre at: 47 Bulgaria Blvd., Orpheus Complex, 2nd floor, office 3.
Our manager assured us that every visitor would receive personal attention and advice on any questions they may have.
