Learners and educators from Ukrainian refugee communities have access to a substantial catalog of online educational resources and other educational technologies provided by the European Commission and Finland starting this summer. The platform, called New Ukrainian School Hub, allows entrepreneurs, companies, research bodies and other actors in the EdTech market in the EU and elsewhere, including Romania, to share their resources in hope they will be helpful for displaced Ukrainians in their educational efforts.
The platform includes various types of programs, from educational games to educational management applications, most of them accessible for free by Ukrainians. They can be selected and accessed by means of a series of easy to apply filters which include language, country of origin for the apps, tech categories, subject, target groups (from primary school to adult learners).
Romania, as a country of origin or as a partner, appears with five contributions to the library of resources on the New Ukrainian Schools Hub. They include an interactive material authoring tool, an online educational management platform, a financial Education game, a tutoring marketplace. The List also includes, as being available in Romania, an educational program associated with the game Minecraft.
The full catalog is available on the homepage of the NUS platform https://nushub.org/en/, where filters can also be applied easily according to interest.
New Ukrainian School (NUS) is an initiative co-funded by the Foreign Ministry of Finland and the European Commission, and benefits of the contribution of the European EdTech Alliance, which was established a year and a half ago as a reaction of entrepreneurs and other EdTech actors to the problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the wide adoption of distance/online learning tools.
In an Op-Ed signed by EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel About the Commission’s pledge to support the coming of age for the European EdTech market, she referred to the New Ukrainian School Hub as an example of an online solution aimed at aggregating learning resources for displaced learners from Ukraine:
“During the pandemic, companies opened their EdTech services free of charge to learners, teachers and educational staff. They did so again for Ukrainian refugees. The New Ukrainian School Hub, which gives access to education resources for displaced learners, is an EU co-funded initiative that I stand strongly behind.”
EduCare is a project run by Fundatia Bosch Romania in partnership with Edupedu.ro to provide correct information and data related to education – data that are obtained from official sources and which have been checked. This educational information hub to support refugees will include information about the activities and initiatives of organisations and entities working with this target group. The voice of the community is also heard as the interaction with Ukrainian refugees has to be real and natural.
Information provided by EduCare will be available in three languages (Romanian, English, Ukrainian) so that it can be easily accessed by all interested parties.
Rainer Ohliger and Raphaela Schweiger
Matei Pop