Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer inaugurated the Education Technologies Incubation and Innovation Center “ETKİM”, which was established within the framework of the cooperation between the Ministry of National Education and METU Technopolis.
Speaking at the opening held at METU Technopolis, Minister Özer said, “We will work together to make our education system much stronger by using the acquis of all our stakeholders in education.” used the phrase. “Despite all difficulties, this country is always renewing itself, strengthening itself, and continues on its own path with sure steps.” Minister Özer touched upon the main theme of the last United Nations Education Summit. Özer said, “The main theme there was: How can education systems in the world be made more durable by using educational technologies with digital transformation so that education systems can be resilient after the Kovid epidemic? It was an in-depth discussion about him.” shared his knowledge.
Özer continued his words as follows: When we went there, we saw that we have actually come a long way in our education system. In a huge education system with 19 million students and 1.2 million teachers, we have not only grown in quantity, we have grown together by focusing on quality as well as quality. Here, Education Information Network EBA is in everyone's memory, regardless of whether they are connected to the education system or not. sözcüHe became able to pronounce it. Why? Because when countries faced an unexpected challenge in the covid epidemic, they immediately tried to manage this process with digital platforms and distance education. With the reflections of the technology moves of the Ministry of National Education, which had already started in the past, on the Ministry of National Education, the process that started during the time of our previous ministers became richer and more useful with the contributions of each minister, and EBA stepped in.
Expressing that they gave great importance to increasing the number of digital platforms in this period, Minister Özer stated that the teacher started first and pointed to the Teacher Information Network ÖBA. Özer said, “… In other words, we created the Teacher Information Network to not only support our teachers with face-to-face professional development training, but also to bring them together with a mechanism where they can receive the training they want, wherever they want. ÖBA has made such a great contribution to us that in the 2020s, the number of hours of training per teacher was 44 hours in Turkey, and there were also teachers in the system with an average of 44 hours and no training. In 2022, we achieved an incredible rise, especially by introducing both IPA and school-based professional development training. We both increased the quality of education and made a significant contribution in terms of quantity, and the training hours per teacher increased from 44 to 250 hours.” he said.
The contents of digital platforms are being developed and strengthened day by day.
Özer said that with the move to develop digital platforms made in 2022, the mechanisms to support teachers have been developed and strengthened day by day, adding that an education system is as strong as its teachers. Reminding that ÖDS, Student Teacher Support System was developed to support both students and teachers, Özer said, “Perhaps one of the digital education platforms with the strongest user capacity in Turkey, ÖDS has increased the number of users incredibly. Supporting the students we have supported with helpful resources, no longer with a general auxiliary resource for everyone, but with a digital mechanism that will address their individualized deficiencies; It is also a digital platform where teachers can access all kinds of resources, with a processing module where teachers follow the personal learning adventures of students and support their development.” said.
Minister Özer noted that another focus on digital platforms is 'three languages' and said: “Turkish, mathematics and foreign language. No language can be learned without the mother tongue. We focused on Turkish. Then we discussed mathematics as a language. Because mathematics is not something that only numerators should know. Especially today, where so much data is produced, learning technologies are becoming widespread, artificial intelligence and deep learning come into play, we need to raise children and young people who have the acquis about reading data. That's why we created new methodologies that deal with different approaches to mathematics, as well as a digital platform. Third, foreign language. This country has no problem with learning a foreign language. We have made new expansions in foreign languages with new approaches and for the first time we have introduced a platform called 'Dialect' recently. Currently, it has become a foreign language platform with the most downloads and users on digital platforms.”
Explaining that the number has reached five with ÖBA, ÖDS and three language platforms, Özer said, sixthly, underlining the life-long support provided by public education centers to adult citizens, the personal development options here are transferred to the digital platform and HEMBA, where not only citizens in Turkey but also abroad can access and obtain certificates. He noted that a digital platform called
Finally, Minister Özer, stating that a digital platform related to augmented reality and virtual reality in vocational education has been implemented, concluded his words as follows: “We also introduced it. Therefore, while there is only one digital platform in the Ministry of National Education, we continue to support our students and support our teachers with eight platforms in our education system. These studies are now here, with an interdisciplinary approach, open to people with all kinds of educational experience in Turkey, open to experts, open to higher education institutions, our R&D center where these existing platforms can be developed and supported with additional platforms. became our innovation center. For the first time, the Ministry of National Education has an R&D and innovation center in this context. I care a lot about this. I believe that these steps will really set a milestone in such a process in education, health, transportation and infrastructure where all kinds of preparations are made for our country in the future, especially for the next century to be the Turkish Century. For this reason, I would like to thank those who have worked hard to bring such a structure to our country, not only as a building but also as a spirit.”
After the opening ribbon was cut, Minister Özer and his entourage visited the professional learning laboratory and offices and received information about the activities.
About ACTIM
The center will support the implementation of digital education strategies for schools, providing technology-supported good practice examples and capacity building activities. In addition, professional development studies, pilot applications, R&D studies and technology development activities will take place in the professional learning laboratory in order to use educational technology investments in the most powerful way.
It is planned to initiate digital gamification in education, to increase the usability performance of the Ministry's digital education platforms, and to initiate innovation ecosystem development studies with technology-supported professional development societies and school-based professional development projects, and to establish working groups that will include all the Ministry's units. Along with the initial projects, new projects will be developed with the Ministry's units to support the technology-supported education approach, R&D and innovation culture of the Ministry.
ETKİM, Education Information Network (EBA), Teacher Information Network (ÖBA), Student/Teacher Support System (ÖDS), Mathematics Education Platform, English Education Platform DİYALEKT, Turkish Education Platform, English Education Platform, Public Education Centers Information Network (HEMBA) and Vocational Education Augmented Reality platforms will play an active role in the effective use and development.