Digital skills are a must and are just as important as reading, writing, speaking and understanding. This is one of the conclusions of the online debate “Digital Literacy – Necessary Skills for Online Teaching” that took place on April 24, 2020. was organized by the Institute for Communication Studies and the Delegation of the European Commission in the country as the final event of the high school competition “Be Media Active”, which marked the European Week of Media Literacy 2020.
Ambassador Samuel Zbogar indicated that the European Commission, aware of the inevitability and possibilities of digital technologies, is developing the Single Digital Market where people and businesses from all member states can compete equally and under fair conditions. In order to exploit the full potential of the common digital market, EU citizens will also need to develop their digital skills.
The high school students pointed out that the new situation due to the pandemic put the digital skills of both students and teachers to the test. The crisis and online teaching showed the weaknesses of the technical equipment of the schools, but also the need for further training of teachers. The students appeal to the teachers to change the current way of teaching and assessment, because the methods of classical teaching are still present: writing homework, taking pictures and assessment. In this way, students are demotivated and easily “bypass” the system.
The Minister of Education and Science, Arber Ademi, said that he is aware of the shortcomings and that one of the priorities is the adaptation of the educational process for such conditions. He pointed out that online teaching is the only solution to which they have adapted despite the confusion of the new situation. He pointed out that in the future work should be done on upgrading the educational processes for such situations.
Apart from the need for new digital skills, the students, professors and journalists who worked on journalistic stories within the “Be Media Active” competition indicated that they acquired journalistic skills that are part of media literacy. The competition received 61 applications from a total of 27 secondary schools and 36 media. From them, six teams of high school students and journalists were selected: PSU SABA from Skopje cooperated with Radio Free Europe, SOMU “Gostivar” with TV Alfa, Secondary School Gymnasium “Mirce Acev” Prilep with TV 24 Vesti, Secondary School “Bogdanci” with TV Vis, High School “Josip Broz Tito” – Bitola with TV Tera and High School “Ismet Jashari” – Lipkovo with the daily newspaper Koha.
