System For 21st Century Schools

Bratislav Filipović, Founder and Instructor-Coordinator at Academy "Filipović"

System For 21st Century Schools

Thanks to the “School Information System”, the 21st century has also arrived in our educational institutions, where teachers use an electronic diary, electronic pedagogical notebooks, electronic portfolios for student, an e-programme for printing testimonials, a platform for creating school websites, e-libraries etc

Less than nine years ago, with the aim of modernising, improving and easing the work of all participants in the Serbian education system, Academy “Filipović” created the complex “School Information System” programme, which consists of integrated applications intended for all educational institutions of preschool, primary and secondary education.

The unique “School Information System” of Academy “Filipović”, headquartered in Jagodina, covers all working processes in educational institutions, from recording activities and statistics, through records of all participants in the system, automatic generation, printing reports and all documents necessary for the proper management of an educational institution, to communication with the administration and the Ministry, with the possibility of exporting required data.

This system enables communication between colleagues, exchanges of personal documents, textbooks and portfolio works, communication with professional services, parents, administration and the Ministry.

The development of the “School Information System” began in 2009 with the aim of modernising, improving and easing the work of all users, i.e. participants in the education system of the Republic of Serbia.

The School Information System consists of several modules: Electronic diary, electronic pedagogical notebook, Electronic portfolio for teachers and students, E program for PP services, Programme for printing testimonies (flexi), Platform for creating school websites and the E-library.

The School Information System is currently used by 5,196 teachers from 311 preschools, primary schools, secondary schools, music schools and special schools all over Serbia. The system itself is recognised and highly rated beyond the borders of Serbia, by the Union of Directors of Montenegro, directors and teachers from Macedonia, with the intention of implementing parts of the School Information System in their existing systems.

Academy “Filipović” has been participating for 15 years in advancing the computer literacy of teachers, introducing modern IT equipment to schools and organising accredited seminars that have been attended by 30,000 teachers

Although there is a synopsis of programmes with similar or the same purposes, our programme differs greatly from them, because during its development we analysed the needs of employees in education, taking into account their level of IT literacy and all elements that should make their work easier, as well as the benefits of using the programme.

We have enabled them to enter into the same (closed) system their personal portfolio, which marks the use of digital technology and enables the collection and organisation of the contents of several different media forms (audio, video, graphics, text), which serves to record and present acquired qualifications and experiences. It comprises a collection of works published on the internet which documents ideas, activities and achievements, and enables their exchange and use with minimal knowledge of working on a computer. We have enabled teachers, educators and professors of music and special schools to simply use electronic pedagogical notebooks, in which we have incorporated all legally defined standards. Entries in the pedagogical notebook are connected directly to the e-diary, thus we reduced the number of the same entries and thus saved the user’s time.

By entering the e-diary via the pedagogical notebook, we have enabled teachers to easily enter classes, enter the topic of classes from their global or operational plan, with a single mouse click. With this, we have again saved the times of the end-user and simultaneously enabled the use of the same input panel without needing to walk from window to window. Teachers can also use the e-diary to carry out preparations for classes, using all contents that have already been entered into the system. Our system implies easy and simple guidance of children who are with the IOP, which is particularly expressed in special schools.

The system also includes an integrated programme for pedagogical psychological services, which records all actions envisaged by law. Our system is developed in such a way that it envisages any changes a legislator could make.

What distinguishes our system from others is that it is applicable in all types and forms of educational institutions: pre-school institutions, primary, secondary, music, ballet and special schools of a predefined type.

The system enables all competent stakeholders to simply monitor the work of particular institutions. Parents are also certainly seen as users in the system, but also pupils, as there is also a part allocated for student portfolios.

The system enables, via the pupil’s portfolio – provided it is used – monitoring of the work, progress and development of pupils, from preschool institutions to university enrolment. It is clear without the need to list details now that all necessary documentation can be printed out and that the ediary can be converted into a printed (written) document.

We must also note that Academy Filipović deals with the educating of employees in educational institutions and that the number of teachers who have passed their accredited seminars has exceeded 30,000. Academy Filipović has been participating actively in advancing the computer literacy of teachers for 15 years already and has also equipped schools with the latest IT equipment.

At the end of February 2018, the FBIWB 2700A Portable Interactive Board appeared on the market and will be produced in Serbia. This device is actually already known to many schools in Serbia, Montenegro and Republika Srpska as the favourite teaching aid of teachers, due to its high technical performance and ease of use. Alongside the aforementioned countries where the FBIWB 2700A interactive board is known, we also aim to conquer the markets of Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania.