FITS: Focus on IT in Schools

The survey on the use of Information and

Communication Technology in Georgian schools

Kai Pata, Mart Laanpere, Nino Japaridze ,Eka Jeladze,, Merab Labadze
Table of Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 3
Background of ICT-application in schools............................................................................................... 3
ICT in Georgian Schools – Deer Leap program ....................................................................................... 3
Research aims and questions .................................................................................................................... 4
Methodology ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Sample ...................................................................................................................................................... 6
Results ............................................................................................................................. 10
Background information about respondents ........................................................................................... 10
Main computer resources in Georgian schools....................................................................................... 13
ICT budget in schools ........................................................................................................................ 13
Computers and operating systems in schools .................................................................................... 13
Arrangement of computers in schools ................................................................................................ 14
Computer equipment in schools ......................................................................................................... 14
Internet connection type in schools .................................................................................................... 15
Computer software availability .......................................................................................................... 15
Using ICT resources for teaching and learning ...................................................................................... 17
Teachers’ ICT competencies .............................................................................................................. 17
Need for teacher training ................................................................................................................... 20
ICT teaching practices in schools ...................................................................................................... 21
Teachers experiences with computers ................................................................................................ 22
Teachers’ opinions of ICT implementation at schools ....................................................................... 25
Teacher’s perception of different aspects in schools that were affected by computer use................. 27
Using computers in school for professional reasons ......................................................................... 28
Teachers’ readiness to use ICT with students with special needs...................................................... 28
Problems using of Linux operation system instead of MS Windows to perform tasks ....................... 29
ICT management in Georgian schools ................................................................................................... 30
Explicit ICT development plan in schools .......................................................................................... 30
Responsibility for taking care of planning ICT-related developments in schools ............................. 30
Means of motivating teachers to use ICT in teaching and learning .................................................. 32
Organization of the awareness raising about opportunities and using ICT in education ................. 32
Areas where teachers need for support to use ICT in teaching ......................................................... 33
Vision for the future developments ........................................................................................................ 34
Critical ICT-related problems in schools .......................................................................................... 35
Urgency of the following needs in schools ......................................................................................... 39
Inferences of main results and visions for the future developments of ICT in Georgian schools ... Error!
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References .............................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Appendixes 1-3....................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Introduction

Background
Computers have been used in education for more than 50 years. During this period, not only
technology itself has evolved – the approaches to make use of technology in teaching and
learning have changed radically as well. While in the beginning the main goal was to replace
teacher with computer, then soon it was realized that “learning with computers” instead of
“learning from computers” is the right way to go. In Soviet school system computers were
associated only with teaching informatics as a specialized school subject. By the end of 20th
century, most of the countries have changed their policies about the use of computers in
schools so that integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into all
school subjects and grade levels was prioritized.
Georgia accepted the similar approach when Deer Leap Programme was initiated by the
Ministry of Education and Science in 2005. By doing this, several new challenges were
created: how to engage teachers of all subjects to make use of ICT and related new teaching
methods, how to guarantee equal access to computers and Internet to all teachers and pupils
throughout the country, how to provide suitable software, digital learning resources and
Internet services for learning purposes etc. Deer Leap Foundation succeeded to make a jump
start and to address all these new challenges in a systemic manner. The experiences from
Tiger Leap programme in Estonia were used as guidelines. In many ways, the Deer Leap
programme has been a success story, but this claim will be just an emotional statement
without reliable empirical proof. This study is trying to provide empirical evidence about the
success of integrating ICT into teaching and learning in the schools of Georgia.

ICT in Georgian Schools – Deer Leap program

Deer Leap was launched in 2005 by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia as a
national programme for integrating ICT into teaching and learning in Georgian schools.
The aim of the Program was defined to facilitate the modernization of the education
system in Georgia by creating a country-wide school-based ICT infrastructure and
building capacity in modern information technology. The Deer Leap was approved to be
a three-year programme (2005-2008) with a strong prospective of at least one more 4-
year extension phase.
Prior to Deer Leap program (data from 2003/2004) Georgian schools possessed 2600
unequally distributed outdated computers. Internet connection was very rare with a
very low speed (33kbps) and high cost (sometimes up to 20 times higher than in the EU).
Informatics was a compulsory subject in all secondary schools, the content of this subject
was programming – frequently taught without computers. ICT was rarely used in other
subjects and in school management.

After the needs assessment Deer Leap initial phase (2005-2008) was established to
provide:
access to computers and Internet in each school;
availability of educational software and services;
availability and quality of technical support;
ICT skills of teachers and students;
integration of ICT into curriculum;
integration of Education Management Information System on school, district and
 national levels.
During the three-year period (2005-2008), the programme has been financed mainly
from the state budget (36,7 MGEL), with additional support from private sponsors (7,8
MUSD).

By the time the monitoring took place the main achievements of Deer Leap programme
were as follow:
Development of ICT infrastructure in schools: more than 26 520 new
computers were provided to schools, increasing the average pupil/computer
ratio from 250 to 22. All computers were equipped with Linux operating system
and a set of open-source software applications. Internet connectivity was
provided to more than 300 schools so that 60% of all primary and secondary
pupils have access to Internet at school. Web-based collaboration environment
for educational projects was developed and integrated with LeMill.net portal in
order to support authoring and sharing the learning objects.
Teacher training: introductory-level computer literacy courses for teachers
were developed and implemented nationwide, 21 540 teachers (out of 70 000)
have passed these courses.
Digital learning resources: 310 Web-based learning resources have been
developed for literature studies, music and art; 70 Web-based school journals
have been published, 70 Web sites have been produced by pupils under social
sciences project ‚My Environment‘. Georgian teachers have contributed 173
digital learning resources to the largest international educational repository
LeMill.net.
Administration and support: most of the schools have hired IT managers.
Educational projects: DLF has conducted several successful projects on the
national level for integrating ICT into teaching and learning: “Vakhtang VI”, “e-
directory of Georgian and foreign composers”‚ “e-directory of Georgian and
foreign artists”, “e-journals”, “Cosmic Odyssey”, “team writings”, “My
Environment‘. In addition, schools have participated in international projects of
iEARN and Global Gateway. Some collaborative learning projects have been
carried out between Georgian and Estonian schools.
My First Computer program: 8 158 laptops have been provided for excellent
pupils under presidential programme “My First Computer”.

Research aims and questions

This study was initiated by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Georgia ,
motivated by the need for reliable and valid data from schools as an input for decision-making
with regard to the next phase of Deer Leap Programme.
This is why there was an urgent need to start systematical collection of data from schools: not
just pupil-computer ratio, but also the ways and intensity of ICT use, related regulations,
investments, role distributions etc on the local level. The best way to guarantee validity and
reliability of this data (as well as comparability on the longitudinal scale) was to prepare a
monitoring survey scheme and instruments that can be re-used on the regular basis (for
instance, in every 3 years).
The research design and instruments followed the methodology and indicators used in
international studies of ICT in education (IEA study SITES, OECD study on ICT innovation
in education). The survey questionnaires and logistics was similar to ICT Monitor study in the
Netherlands and Tiger in Focus study in Estonia, both of which are quite close to international
comparative study SITES Module 1 which involved 26 countries around the world. The
questionnaires were translated from English to Georgian language and adapted to the local
context. Some new items were added to the questionnaire in relation with the Linux operating
system that comes with all computers purchased by the Deer Leap Foundation.

The objectives of FITS (Focus on ICT in Schools) survey were:

 to analyse the scope and ways of integrating ICT into learning/teaching processes, by
measuring the intensity, purpose and ways of computer usage by the teachers and
students within the schools’ settings;
 to identify the problems related with educational use of ICT that need to be addressed
in the next phase of the Deer Leap programme
 to describe the readiness of teachers and students to use ICT in teaching and learning,
by assessing the their ICT competencies and attitudes towards ICT; and
 to search positive and negative determinants that could shape the attitudes of teachers
and students towards ICT usage in teaching and learning.

Research questions were stated in the following manner:

1. What are the main characteristics of the ICT infrastructure in Georgian schools?
2. How has the use of ICT been integrated into teaching and learning in Georgian
schools?
3. What strategies are the school leaders implementing in order to integrate ICT into
teaching and learning?
4. How do the main stakeholders of implementing ICT in education (school
principals, ICT-managers and teachers) envision the future trends and risks related
to deeper integration of ICT into teaching and learning in Georgian schools?
Methodology

Sample
The preparations for FITS survey were initiated in autumn 2007, not all schools in Georgia
have received new computers by that time. In order to get a more realistic (and less emotional)
picture about the use of ICT in schools, the research group and Deer Leap administration
decided to study only those schools which have received computers before the summer 2007.
Out of these 667 schools, a systemic sample of 167 schools was formed by picking every 5th
school from the alphabetical list. Table 1 illustrates the regional distribution of schools that
were selected to the sample.
Adjara 10
Abkhazia 3
Guria 4
Imereti 31
Kakheti 12
Kvemo Kartli 16
Mtskheta-Mtianeti 5
Racha-Lechkhumi 3
Samegrelo-Zemo
Svaneti 15
Samtskhe-Javakheti 7
Shida Kartli 14
Tbilisi 47
TOTAL: 167
Table 1. Geographical distribution of schools in the sample.

In every school five persons were asked to fill in a questionnaire: school principal, ICT
manager and three teachers. Although response rates were quite good, the results cannot be
interpreted as representing the situation in all schools of Georgia. The results and related
inferences can be generalized only to 25% of schools, which are most likely more innovative
and active than the rest of schools in Georgia.

School principals

Total 160 school principals responded. Age of respondents is between 24-65 years,
average 46,5 years. Among school principals 67,5 % were men and 32,5 % females. Their
distribution by specialization is illustrated in the table below:

Education Frequency
Physics, mathematics 46
History 29
Biology, chemistry, geography, geology 24
Philosophy, philology 18
Philologist 14
Primary school teacher 9
Engineer 7
Economist 6
Other: composer, arts critic, translator, doctor 4
Labor-profession learning 2
Informatics 1

ICT managers

Total 154 persons responded. 83 % of ICT managers were men, 17 % were women. The
minimal age was 21, maximal age 60, average age 35 years. 95 % of the ICT managers
were with higher education, 5 % with secondary education.
Their specialization:

Education Frequency
Engineer 35
Computer technology, programmer, telecommunication 32
Mathematician 24
Physicist 13
Economist 13
Teacher of language or history 12
Science teachers (biology, chemistry, geography, geology) 8
Specialist of foreign relationship, law 7
Teacher, primary teacher 4
Specialist of systematization, librarian 3
Physician 2
Designer, webmaster 1
Teacher of information sciences 1
Expert of food 1

Job titles of a persons who are responsible for ICT-management, informatics teaching are
information manager (72 persons), informatics teacher (64) or IT-specialist (12). Other
positions: teacher of economy, administrator, bookkeeper, economist, laboratory
assistant, manager of computer laboratory, member of BOT.

About 40 % of ICT managers had been working less than 2 years. Majority of them had
not changed schools. 50 % of ICT-managers had been doing this work 3-5 years, but only
2/3 of them had been teaching ICT in this school. About 12 % of teachers had been
teaching ICT more than six years. The general trend was that ICT managers stay at one
school for several years and, thus, they can develop and influence the school ICT trends
considerably.
Teachers

Total 485 teachers responded. 94 % of teachers were women, 6 % men. 99 % of teachers

had higher education. The age of teachers was 22-73 years, average age 43 years.

Their specialization:

Education Frequency
Mathematics 125
Philologist 99
Biology, natural science 53
Physicist 43
Foreign language 39
Chemistry 39
History, social sciences 35
Geography 20
Information technology 11
Teacher of primary school 8
Art 7
Psychologist 2
Physical culture 1
Religion 1
Economy 1
Music 1

Length of teacher’s career among respondents was rather long, only about 30 % of
teachers had been at schools less than 10 years. About half of the teachers have 10-25
years of experience. In other countries (eg. Estonia), this group of teachers uses ICT with
students most actively, presumably because they have no difficulties with students’
discipline and they have an in-depth understanding of their subject and various teaching
methods and, therefore, they are more willing to try out new methodologies.
Results
Background information about respondents

62 % of school principals have computer at home, 56 % of the principals have computers

on his/her office desk.

About 70 % of the principals use computers frequently for searching information from
the web and composing documents. However, only 45 % of them send often emails and
40 % use spreadsheets for calculations. 25 % of school principals never send email, use
spreadsheets for calculations and search for information in Web, 5 % of principals don’t
compose text documents.

ICT managers estimated that about 25 % of school principals, teachers and students do
not use of e-mail and WWW at least once a week. They estimated that among students
and school principals about 25 % look every week email and WWW, while the teachers
look this media less frequently.
55 % teachers do not have at home personal computers.

72 % of teachers have been using computers up to 2 years, 21 % of teachers have used

computers 3-5 years, 7 % of teachers have experience with computers more than 5
years. Most of the teachers (72 %) have used computers for teaching up to 2 years, about
25 % of teachers have longer experience. About half of the teachers have some
experience of using computers outside of work practice.

55 % of teachers do not use email, and 50 % don’t have email address, 12 % of teachers
use email couple of times per year, 8 % couple of times per month, only 20 % teachers
are more frequent email users.

Teacher’s out of work computer-use is moderate. 14 % of the teachers do not use

computers outside of classroom. 17 % of teachers use computers outside of work very
rarely, few times per year. About 25 % of teachers have need for the computer after
work few times a month. Almost 30 % of teachers use computers weekly. Only 15 % of
teachers use computers every day. Most frequent activities with computers besides work
are related with another job, hobbies and creating learning materials and instructions.
About half of the teachers do not use computers to communicate with students and
parents and for their own personal correspondence or going to Internet bank.

Some teachers (17 %) have personal websites, 7 % have made these websites by
themselves.
Half of the teachers perceive that last 4 years have caused some significant changes in
their work at school: more changes are perceived in the planning and organization of
teaching, teaching methods, learning materials and assessment, about 40 % teachers
perceive change in the use of technology, and about 25 % of the teachers have noticed
changes in teacher’s workload.

The majority of teachers agreed that these changes have been caused by the appearance
of computers at school, administrative initiatives taken at schools, new learning
materials (textbooks) and curriculum. Teachers in general felt less need to make changes
due to pressure from parents and students.
Main computer resources in Georgian schools
ICT budget in schools

The average annual ICT budget was distributed as following: the largest amount of
money (40 %) was spent on computer hardware purchases, 10 % on software, 10 % on
Internet connection costs, 20 % on teacher training and 20 % of technical support. The
average and maximum funding received by schools differed great deal, but most
significantly in the category of computer hardware purchases and technical support. The
average cost for computer hardware purchases per school was 1650 lari, software
purchases 310 lari, internet connection 410 lari, teacher training 700 lari and technical
support 630 lari.

About 83 % of schools had not received any external funding for ICT purchases, limited
support (less than 100 USD) was received by 3 % of schools, 8 % of schools had received
significant sponsorship (between 100-2000 USD) and 6 % of schools had got generous
support (more than 2000 USD).

Computers and operating systems in schools

The average number of computers in a school is summarized in the following two tables. We
can see that majority of computers in schools are new, equipped with Linux operating system
and used for educational purposes. Only 2-3 computers are reserved for other uses by the
school administration or teachers. The large number in the category “Other computers” can be
explained only by the translation mistake – in fact, the most of computers in schools should
belong to category “New PC-s”.

mean
Computer types administrative educational
Intel processor 486 and older (or similar) 0.99 1.35
Intel processor Pentium 1 or 2 (or similar) 0.1 0.35
Intel processor Pentium 3 (or similar) 0.4 0.78
New PC-s (less than 3 years old) 0.47 2.86
Other computers 1.9 14.71
Operation system types mean
Only Linux/Unix 17.13
MS Windows NT/2000 0.39
MS Windows 95/98/ME 0.97
MS Windows XP 1.34
Both Linux and MS Windows 3.91

Arrangement of computers in schools

Most of the computers in schools (93 %) are located at computer labs, 4 % of the
computers are in the classrooms, 2 % in the school library and 1 % in teachers’ rooms.

The average number of computers per sample schools was: in the computer labs 17,96,
in the classrooms 0,81, in the library 0,46 and in teachers’ room 0,17. No computers
were situated in the lobby.

Computers Library Teachers‘ room Portable computers Cabinet/classroom

None 90.5 91.4 89.3 92.2
1-5 9.5 7 10.7 4.1
11-20 3.6

53 % of teachers do not have at their school any dedicated computers for teachers’ use
only, 19 % of teachers assumed that there is one computer and 16 % of teachers have 2-4
computers reserved for teachers’ use. Over 5 computers were available for 12 % of
teachers. From these computers meant for teachers, 66 % of teachers can use them
always, 25 % of teachers have access only sometimes, and 9 % of teachers do not have
access to them.

Average 59 % of all students in school have access to the computers that are there for
educational use (either during or after the lessons).

In the majority of computer labs (77 %) desks are arranged in U-shape, facing the walls of
the classroom, 12 % of computer labs have desks that are arranged by rows that enables
users to face the teacher in front of the classroom. In 5 % of classrooms the students can
sit in 4 rows in two corridors, back to back with each other. 6 % of schools have arranged
computers the other way of the former descriptions. Approximately in 73 % of computer
classes there is 2-3 m2 per computer, in 17 % of classrooms there is 4-5 m2/computer
and in 10 % classrooms there is more space.

Availability of computer peripherals in schools

About 90 % of schools had at least one printer and about 80 % a data projector available
for educational use. Scanner was available in 60 % of schools. Digital cameras and video
cameras, which enable recording the authentic learning experiences and integrating this
material to learning process, were in available in ¼ of schools. Webcams, which are
needed for project-work between schools were in 20 % of schools. Wifi connection that
is useful for bringing laptops into schools for project work and other activities was in
available 10% of schools. In 15 % of schools earphones and microphones were available,
which enable language learning. The average numbers of computer peripheral devices per
school are summarized in the table below.

Connected
Earphones Connected to printer
and/or Laptop CD or DVD- to Local Area (directly or
microphone computer ROM writer LCD-screen Network via LAN)
15.61 0.55 7.6 9.53 9.58 1.63

Internet connection type in schools

Approximately 1/3 of schools were not connected to Internet, ¼ of the schools had dial-
up modem connection (14-56 kbps) and about 8 % of schools had slow permanent
connection (64 kbps and less). Satellite connection is in 8% of schools. Only less than 30%
of schools had Internet connection on satisfactory level: ¼ of schools were with medium-
speed cable connection (128-256 kbps) and 7% had fast cable connection.

Computer software availability

Majority (43 %) of teachers were satisfied with the availability of software in schools and
1/3 of teachers estimated that the situation is good. About ¼ of teachers estimated the
situation with software as very good. Only 5 % of teachers were not satisfied with the
availability of software. However, majority of teachers (75 %) use mainly MS Office
software or WWW search (60 %) or online encyclopedias and email software (50 %).
The popularity of MS Office among teachers does not fit with their satisfaction of the
availability of software (while there have been no tenders for buying MS Office licenses for
schools) and the fact that majority of computers in schools are Linux-based. This contradiction
can be explained by a hypothesis that teachers use MS Office mainly at home and do not miss
it in school.
Using ICT resources for teaching and learning
Teachers’ ICT competencies

The application of ICT depends on teacher’s ICT competencies. In the survey these
competencies were evaluated externally by IT managers and internally by teachers
themselves.

ICT competencies of teachers: evaluation by IT managers

The IT managers were critical about most of the teachers’ competencies of using
computers for differentiating learning activities, organizing computer-supported
collaborative learning, using web-forums and online environments, editing and creating
new learning materials, using spreadsheets for data management, preparing
presentations with computer and using subject-related digital learning resources and
quizzes and recording students’ data electronically via the help of information systems.

The IT managers’ estimation on teachers’ competence for using computers for

introducing new teaching methods, creating new materials and managing files on
desktop was highest – 25 % of them believed that half of the teachers in their school
have this competence, indicating to the belief of teachers’ creativity with computers. 20
% IT managers believed that more than half of the teachers could perform WWW search.
15 % IT managers believed that more than half of the teachers in their schools can also
evaluate educational software suitability, and use projectors, video and audio.
Teachers’ self-evaluation of their ICT competences

More than half of the teachers were sure that they generally understand how computer
works, use word-processing software, and use keyboard, mouse and printer. Half of the
teachers claim that they are able to find additional materials from Internet, know what
influence computer has on psychical, mental and social development. About 40 % of
teachers are sure that they can use email, are aware of suitable software and can use
databases and spreadsheets software. Only ¼ of teachers are sure that they can use
computer and data-media projectors for presentations, keep account of their students’
data, know various teaching methods, give personal instructions to students, conduct
active project-based learning, integrate ICT in their lessons, differentiate their students’
work with computers, and know legal issues.

About one third of teachers are not sure in their ICT competencies, but think that they
can manage more-or-less. Many teachers do not know how to add effects to media
presentations, use computer and data-projector for presentations, test students with the
computer, know legal issues of ICT use, and find help from manuals. This indicates that
teacher’s need more courses in the before-mentioned areas.
20-25 % of teachers claim that they have obtained the ICT skills mostly independently or
from the courses taught at their school, at the university or schooling centre. Over 60 %
of teachers admit that their ICT competences result of individual learning, using various
instructions and help from colleagues. The least learning of ICT has happened from open
lessons of colleagues. It is possible that teachers do not frequently organize or attend
such open classes, meetings or seminars where they present their innovations of using
ICT in teaching.
Need for teacher training

2/3 of teachers perceive the need for teacher training in different areas. The most
urgently they would like to attend courses that teach how to utilize ICT for implementing
new teaching methods, differentiate individual learning process, integrating ICT in their
course syllabus, creating instructions for computer-based work, using subject-specific
software in the lessons, creating and managing computer databases and preparing
multimedia presentations. Many teachers expressed their interest to become
familiarized with the Linux and Windows operation systems. Noticeable is the fact that
many teachers (65 %)need courses to use email and use word processing software.
ICT teaching practices in schools

The principals of schools reported that computers are most frequently (75 %) used in
their schools for teaching informatics as a school subject. Secondly, computers are
frequently used to perform administrative tasks (50 %). Only 20 % of teachers reported
of frequent use of computers as presentation tools, tools for participating in educational
projects via WWW or for finding and distributing resources. Computers are less
frequently used for collecting students’ assignments and preparing digital learning
resources, but also for participating in projects and finding and distributing learning
resources.

IT managers reported that in 30 % of schools computers are used manly for informatics
lessons, in about 25 % of schools subject teachers can use the computer class for their
lessons with computers. In about 12 % of schools no specific trends in teaching ICT have
been established. 25 % of ICT managers believe that computers play an important role in
an overall educational change process. Merely 2 % of ICT managers assumed that
teachers do not use computers in their schools.

IT managers’ opinion of teacher’s awareness of new ICT trends and methods was in
general low. They believe that only 20 % of teachers know very well or well about the
new educational ICT trends (digital photo, digital video, online collaboration, e-learning
environments, virtual reality), and about the didactical methods how ICT can be used for
teaching and learning in their own subject. Majority of teachers (60 %) have on their opinion
only satisfactory knowledge of these issues.
Teachers experiences with computers

43 % of teachers have used computers for teaching couple of times and plan of doing so.
32 % of teachers use computers regularly for their work and find it indispensable in a
modern school day. About 10 % of teachers have integrated computer use into their
everyday work and share their experiences with colleagues and support them to use ICT.
About 14 % of teachers are interested in using computers at school, but have no personal
experiences with it. Around 1 % of teachers had no belief in the necessity of using
computers in teaching and had not used them themselves.

About 42 % of teachers do not perform any lessons with the computers. 30 % of teachers
have less than 1 lesson per week with the computers, 21 % have 1-2 lessons per week. 6
% of teachers perform lessons with computers more frequently.

In 33 % of lessons the students have to use computer more than 3 times per lessons,
presumably most of the lesson is computer-based. In 25 % of lessons teacher used
computer in between other activities, usually 1-3 times per lessons.

The main activity that students have to do in lessons with computers is information
retrieval (40 %). About 25 % of teachers mention teaching, drill-and-practice and testing
as main methods. 15-20 % of teachers introduce topics and do presentations, let
students to do exercises and word-processing tasks with computers. Problem solving,
rewarding, supervision, support and cooperation were mentioned seldom (about 5 % of
teachers). Few teachers (2 %) mentioned that computers have no use in the lessons.

Teachers suggested, that the main reasons, why computers should be used in schools
were:
1. Offering possibilities for cooperation between students and communication with
same-aged children abroad
2. Making the learning process more interesting
3. Applying active, project-based learning methods
4. Increasing students’ responsibility of their own learning, endorsing independent
learning
5. Increasing the effectiveness of teaching and learning
Teachers used less frequently (50-60 % of teachers did not use) distance learning and
study-center methods. Teachers were more supportive about classic method, individual
method, centrally managed method and working outside the classroom. 40-50 % of
teachers use these methods several times per month or week.
Teacher’s openness to constructivist methods is in general high. Only few (about 20 %)
of teachers were currently paying attention of giving his/her students opportunities for
self-directed and personalized way of learning and creating them out-of classroom
experiences and conditions for working in less structured school environment (round
tables, study centers). However in the future they wished to practice these methods.
Currently, students with special needs were not integrated to the learning process with
other children (15 % of students are integrated), but the teachers were positive of
increasing this integration. Quite many teachers (35-45 %) believed that students must
learn with classic way, be seated in the traditional pattern facing the teacher, not suggest
the assessment methods of their work, and not be allowed to use computers outside of
teacher-assigned tasks.

Many teachers (60-75 %) claimed that they are the primary source of information for
students, they plan and assign tasks by themselves in traditional way but consider
students’ self-evaluation a natural part of teaching, pay attention that no students would
fall behind, have in the computers software and in the class the possibility for individual
work with the computer, enable students to raise new topics in class, allow working in
groups or independently following instructions and enable students to learn from the
process, analyze and present information.

These characteristics indicate that Georgian teachers have obtained some characteristics
of constructive teachers, but they still have many understandings that belong to passing
knowledge tradition where teacher is an authority. In the future teachers would like to
use more different media for presenting information, increase the process-centered
education and the use of computers for individualizing the learning process.
Teachers’ opinions of ICT implementation at schools

Teachers’ opinions were collected about their general preferences to use ICT, students’
and teachers’ ICT-use patterns and purposes, collaborative and community-sharing
issues, plans to use ICT in the future and affiliation towards making innovations in
teaching by the use of ICT. Teachers’ preference to use ICT was generally very positive,
indicating that teachers don’t see the possibility of ignoring the change towards ICT-
mediated lessons.

Teachers had high opinion of the worth of using computers for developing students’
skills – they had noticed that students are more interested, productive, and independent
when learning in the lessons with the computers and they face less discipline problems
in such lessons. However, half of the teachers were concerned that students know more
of them about how to use computers and tend to have a critical attitude towards
teachers. This implies that the teacher perceives the threat to his/her authority.
However some methods of involving students who are and will always be more
advanced than teachers in the teaching process and supporting the teacher and their
peers should be developed. Most of the teachers accepted that they need to learn how to
use computers in their teaching process and this will bring forth the inevitable changes
in their teaching methods.

Many teachers perceive cooperation and sharing as useful tactics among the teachers of
their school and feel the role of ICT in this trend, but about 30 % of teachers are negative
about collaboration and sharing. About 60 % of teachers claimed that they mostly work
individually, indicating that sharing is not so common among teachers. The initiatives of
using ICT are driven from persons rather than administrative means. Half of the teachers
expect monetary motivation to use ICT in teaching. Almost half of the teachers believe
into the administrative up-to-down regulations as useful in schools, ICT-skeptics are
about 30 % of teachers.

%
Teacher’s assumptions about ICT use (agree)
General
Computer is an excellent tool for improving quality of teaching and learning 94.7
Applying the computers and Internet in schools entails irreversible changes in
content and form of education, and school culture 88.2
Computer enables to adjust the difficulty and tempo of learning process according
to individual needs of students 86.1
Every teacher in our school recognizes the value of computer as an educational
instrument 79.8
About students
Use of computers makes even the otherwise difficult tasks and boring exercises
interesting 94
Use of computers and Internet develops independent learning skills for students 92.5
Use of computer in classroom increases productivity of students (they manage
more in one lesson with a computer than without) 80.1
Students behave better in the classroom, if computers are used 79.5
Students with good computer skills tend to criticize the school and the teacher
more than other students 50.3
About teachers
Computers and the Internet broaden possibilities of further learning and
development also for teachers 95.6
In the future, every teacher has to be skilled in using IT for teaching 95.3
I feel the need for educational network, which would offer the teachers cheap
Internet connection, information services, technical and methodological support 94.7
Every teacher must have a personal e-mail address 93.2
Use of the Internet strengthens cooperation between teachers and their influence
on educational politics 91.8
To use a computer, I have to restructure and change my lessons 88.6
I’m better at teaching when I can use a computer in the process 85.9
Nowadays, one cannot be a good teacher without using computers in teaching 84.1
About collaboration and sharing
Sharing the principles, objectives and rules of the school’s activities implies
cooperation between teachers 89.7
Cooperation between the teachers of one subject or on the level of a subject-
section is regular and considered natural in our school 85.1
IT-based projects have significantly increased cooperation between teachers of
our school 71
In our school, teachers of different subjects cooperate through cross-disciplinary
projects and general topics 68
In our school every teacher works by himself or herself, it is not a custom to
collaborate with others 62.1
Insisting on the cooperation between teachers of different subjects is just a
pointless trend 32.9
Insisting on the cooperation between teachers of different subjects is which
wastes time and has no benefits 20.9
About planning ICT use
Teachers and students propose by their personal initiative new ways to improve
the performance of our school 80.1
In our school, curriculum development is the job of administration, teachers don’t
interfere in the process 42.7
A detailed plan rather hinders than helps a teacher 39.9
I compose lesson plans only for the administration 24.4
About innovations
I like experimenting with new things at my work 95.9
In our school, administration and teachers approve adopting new facilities and
methods for teaching 95
I adopt new things at my work by my personal initiative, not because of influence
of others 89.8
Implementing changes at school (e.g. utilizing computers at classes of different
subjects) presumes increased monetary motivation (addition to salary) for
teachers 51
It should not be allowed for every teacher to try new ideas on his/her students 48.7
School is a conservative institution, which shouldn’t align with the latest fashion 48
Use of computers and Internet is not going to improve the results of students -
just like most of the previous attempts for innovation haven’t 31.9
In our school it is forbidden to modify the curriculum by teachers personal
initiative, without written approval from administration 27.5

Teacher’s perception of different aspects in schools that were affected by computer use

Half of the teachers have perceived that computer use has affected several aspects of
their teaching. They are more aware of the influence of ICT on cooperation between
students, communication of students outside the lessons and relations between students.
They also perceive influence on students’ motivation of learning and their independent
learning skills. Teachers have noticed that it has become more difficult to identify
relations between students and find in time if students have learning difficulties.
Using computers in school for professional reasons

Almost half of the teachers (45 %) do not use computers for professional reasons besides
teaching. ¼ of teachers are passively monitoring professional mailing lists. About 20 %
of teachers are sometimes participating actively in discussions in mailing lists and www-
based discussion groups for teachers. Only few teachers (2 %) are affiliated with virtual
communities (project teams), which communicate mainly by using ICT. In general (60
%), teachers do not cooperate through Internet with specialists or other teachers in
order to solve problems or try to establish contacts with teachers of other schools to
learn from their experiences of using computers. However, more teachers (80 %) talk
with colleagues about the use of ICT in teaching and learning and 60 % of teachers help
colleagues to use computers.

Teachers’ readiness to use ICT with students with special needs

The results of this question indicate that the teachers might not have understood the
question correctly, since they reported of having many students with special needs in
their classrooms. Presumably, they also considered small-scale differences as special
needs (eg. students with glasses, some learning disabilities etc.). Few teachers use
computers to support learning activities with such children.
Problems using of Linux operation system instead of MS Windows to perform tasks

Georgia is one of the few countries which has Linux-based operation system in the majority of
schools and where open software is supported centrally. This innovative approach is hindered
by the use of Windows operation system at homes (in most cases these are illegal copies) and
workplaces. Some schools use Windows operation systems illegally for ICT manager’s use
and half of the respondents reported of having some kind of problems of using Windows
operation system. Largest problems are perceived with using some peripheral devices,
multimedia CDs, playing or writing multimedia files for other computers, and working with
word and spreadsheet files. In general the school principals perceived more problems than ICT
teachers.

Note: D = school principals and T = teachers

ICT management in Georgian schools
Explicit ICT development plan in schools

Most of the schools had integrated ICT development plan with generic school
development plan, about 10 % of schools had a separate ICT development plan and 7 %
of schools lacked of such program.

Responsibility for taking care of planning ICT-related developments in schools

Most of the responsibility for ICT development in schools (65 %) was put to the schools’
ICT managers and on school principals (23 %) (the principal’s opinion). The school
principals did not see the role of IT specialist from municipality, parents (75 %), but also
the role of students, other teachers and informatics teacher (15 %) in planning ICT
development for schools. Few schools expected Deer Leap to participate in this
development.
Most of the teachers (92 %) believe that headmasters do not play an important role of
using computers in education. Teacher’s opinion of the ICT implementation strategies
revealed that only in ¼ schools the results of computer use are regularly evaluated. In
general the teachers do not perceive that they are encouraged to start innovative
experiments and projects to integrate IT with school’s work (85 %). The teachers think
that in general every teacher in their school has no access to computers according to
their needs and wishes. On their opinion, many teachers (85 %) are not aware of
possible ICT applications in teaching process and different opinions of using computers
for educational purposes prevail among teachers. Some teachers (10 %) have
conversations with other teachers of the role of computers in education.

Most of the teachers (80 %) perceive that IT technicians and students with advanced IT-
skills are available and helping teachers. About 50 % of teachers have received help
from local training courses at school and 30 % of teachers from printed user guides.
Means of motivating teachers to use ICT in teaching and learning

School principals reported, that in about 20 % of schools regular or frequent awards are
given to teachers who use ICT in lessons, 40 % of schools give such awards rarely and 30
% of schools do not motivate teachers with awards. The most frequent motivation
scheme is a possibility to attend free training courses, in 65 % of schools this is often
possible, and in 50 % of schools this motivation method is used regularly. Salary bonus
for ICT use in lessons on regular basis is given in 20 % of schools, often in 10 % of
schools. About 55 % of school principals never award teachers with salary. Other
motivation elements are assessment from parents, increase of students’ motivation and
teachers’ new innovative ideas.

Organization of the awareness raising about opportunities and using ICT in education

In general, teachers do not think that the information of ICT opportunities is sufficiently
available. The most frequent means of raising teachers’ awareness of new Deer Leap
opportunities and ways of using ICT in education are received from schools’ IT managers
who shares information with teachers regularly (55 %). Information is also distributed
at subject committee meetings (45 %) and at the meetings of the schools pedagogical
committee, at wallpapers and info sheets at teachers’ rooms (35 %). The most
disappointing was information distribution from local Deer Leap schools (12 %).
Areas where teachers need for support to use ICT in teaching

Teachers perceived the need for urgent support in applying ICT while teaching more
talented students (40 %), other urgent issues (25-30 %) needing support are preparing
and conducting ICT-based cross-disciplinary projects, using ICT for preparing lessons,
finding resources, choosing and configuring software and making instructions,
integrating ICT to all subjects thoroughly and applying ICT with disabled students.
Teachers felt less need for support in teaching ICT competences and teaching students
with studying difficulties (about 20 %). About 10-20 % of teachers did not expect any
support in integrating ICT in various areas.

Local informatics teacher (75 %), Deer Leap foundation (70 %) and school’s
administration (60 %) are the main sources of support for teachers in ICT use. Teachers
also feel some help from other teachers and from students. It appears that many teachers
(80-90 %) do not perceive much help from the local municipality and educational
departments, universities, GRENA, various companies, colleagues from other schools and
parents.
Vision for the future developments

Most of the school principals (80 %) envision that computers should be used mainly for
making teaching and learning in all school subjects more effective and efficient. About 60
% of directors believe that the main use of computers in education would provide them
with practical ICT-skills that might be needed in future workplaces. Half of the school
principals believe that computers should be used mainly for innovating teaching
methods. Even less directors (30 %) agree strongly that using ICT in schools might
significantly save money, raise administrative and organizational effectiveness through
the application of school information systems. Most of the directors (70 %) do not
strongly support the claim that computers should be mainly used for teaching
informatics for preparing IT-specialists. This opinion is in coherence with the trend that
ICT is more a mediator of various learning and work-activities and must not be
considered at schools as a special technological subject apart from other subjects’
context. Yet, about 10 % of directors think that IT-lessons and using computers in
administration is the main way of applying ICT in education.
Most of the ICT managers (80 %) envision that the centralized national educational
portal will be developed to distribute learning resources, lesson plans, news and best
practice. About 60 % of them expect that the role of inquiry learning would increase and
change partially the traditional lessons and students would become more self-directed
and have competences of searching resources for their projects. They also think that
school websites will start functioning as educational community portals, from where all
teachers and students can find information. Half of the ICT managers hope that
multimedia educational software would become more available for students who wish to
learn independently. About 40 % of ICT managers hope that teachers will set all their
teaching materials in the web and 30 % of them believe that the virtual classrooms will
appear.

Critical ICT-related problems in schools

School principals and ICT managers listed the main critical areas in the order of
importance as follows:
1. Insufficient ICT training opportunities for teachers
2. Teachers do not know the didactics how to use ICT in their subject and the
curriculum does not prescribe in teaching which topics ICT use should be
encouraged
3. Not enough educational software and information what is available
4. Insufficient resources for ICT maintenance and not enough computers
Note: ICT = ICT manager, D = school principal
Note: ICT = ICT manager, D = school principal
From the teachers’ viewpoint, the most critical was the lack of computers and too slow
Internet connection. The use of illegal software was of concern. Many teachers perceived
that they have difficulties in utilizing the computers in their everyday practice of lessons,
there is a lack of time to prepare computer-based lessons and there is not sufficient
software in Georgian that could be reconciled with the curriculum. In general teachers
perceive less problematic the availability of teacher-training courses to learn how to
implement ICT in their lessons, teacher’s missing interest to se computers in education.
Half of the teachers don’t feel concerned of the administrative or learning environment
issues: not enough space for computers in the computer lab according to health
inspection norms, vandalizing and stealing computers or the overbooked computer-class
times.
Urgency of the following needs in schools

The urgent or immediate need was perceived for all resources. 2/3 of the ICT-managers
attributed that there is an urgent need for faster Internet connection, school intranet,
other hardware devices, and training for teachers. The least need was perceived for
laptops for pupils, most schools are not ready to develop new laptop-based lessons.
Conclusions
While the results of FITS study confirm the fast adoption of ICT by Georgian schools, there
are still various issues that need to be addressed by the Deer Leap programme in the near
future:
 All schools need at least 128 kbps Internet access, as the real impact of ICT in teaching
and learning can be achieved today mainly with Web-based tools and learning
resources
 Access to computers in schools should be guaranteed to all teachers and pupils:
computer labs should be open after lessons, some computers should be placed in public
rooms outside computer labs (e.g. school library) and teachers’ room so they could be
used independently of the computer lab schedule
 In the context of recent agreement with Microsoft, legal copies of MS Windows and
MS Office should be installed on school computers (on the request by any school) as
this software seems to be more familiar for teachers
 Improvement of technical and administrative support to integration of ICT into
everyday teaching and learning activities in schools: this includes massive training of
IT managers (specializing on educational technology, not purely technical skills),
online helpdesks on school and national levels, printed guidelines, templates, policies
etc.
 Teachers’ ICT competencies need to be developed and evaluated systemically, ICT
competency standards and related training programme could be a right way to go
 Clearer guidelines are needed in order to support tighter integration of ICT-enhanced
teaching and learning methods with curriculum objectives
 The best practice cases in ICT integration need to be disseminated whidely among
teachers, support for establishing communities of practice among innovative teachers
is needed (financial and administrative support, online collaboration environments, etc)
 Schools need support (and maybe also some push from the MoES) in developing
explicit ICT policy and development strategy.

The authors of this report suggest that FITS study needs some follow-up activities. It would be
interesting to compare the results of FITS with the Tiger in Focus survey that was carried out
in Estonia in 2001 (on the fifth year of Tiger Leap programme) and with IEA SITES M1
study. Based on FITS questionnaires, a shorter version can be developed for regular (annual)
monitoring of the progress of Deer Leap programme.