The Elixir for Schools DIGI Centre educates teachers and students alike in digital technologies at the Faculty of Science

“The objective of DIGI Centres is peer coaching, and so a lot of emphasis is placed on the exchange of experience, mutual inspiration and feedback sharing. Teachers get the opportunity to learn about new tools and they can try them out,” explains Mgr. Petr Coufal, the Head of the DIGI Centre. He himself teaches at the Department of Applied Cybernetics (Faculty of Science, UHK) and at primary schools and he has been addressing issues relating to the didactics of information technology for many years.

“It sometimes happens that schools already have the tools, but teachers don’t exactly know how to use them or what they can be used for. Last but not least, we try to show teachers freely available materials,” he adds.

A space where real teachers, students and graduates can meet

We meet once a month – each meeting revolves around a different topic. Topics cover subjects like Ozobots in teaching, logic games and puzzles, eLearning courses and board games in IT lessons. If teachers attend the course regularly, they receive a certificate, because it is accredited by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. And the course is free of charge.

“We invite lecturers to each meeting or we give the lectures in unison with our colleagues from our Department. But sometimes we delve on topics that the participants themselves suggested,” says Petr Coufal.

They come from Hradec Králové or the nearby area. Our courses are attended by practicing teachers as well as trainee teachers and recent graduates.

“As a teacher who is fresh out of school, I am constantly on the lookout for teaching material to make learning fun for my students. The DIGI Centre is like a well full of ideas for me. And I love the almost family-like environment in which we study and learn. I visited most of the lectures and all of them have been an inspiration to me,” happily says Iva Zvoníková, a teacher who graduated from the Faculty of Science, University of Hradec Králové. She lives and teaches at a local primary school in Kolín and commutes to Hradec Králové.

And what has she already put to use? “I use the paper and pencil game in my Maths classes, in our after-school classes we play with the Lego Mindstorms robot, and I even took my colleagues along to the lecture on Ozobots. Moreover, after the last lecture that I attended I am now planning and considering which board games I should get for our school. Every time I go to the DIGI Centre I’m filled with inspiration and a strong will to change things. I always come home full of energy and new ideas. And I must say Hradec Králové is a beautiful town and I always like going back,” she adds enthusiastically.

The Faculty of Science of the University of Hradec Králové has been working with Elixir for Schools since 2018. It all started when it hosted the Elixir for Schools annual conference for science teachers. “We plan to involve the DIGI Centre at our next conference and we would like to present some tools, because physics and digital technologies naturally go hand-in-hand,” concludes Petr Coufal.