VILNIUS TECH contributes to the education of students in the field of modern technologies
In the 2022/2023 academic year, VILNIUS TECH has started an activity aimed at educating secondary school students (from 8th to 12th grade – 14-20 years old) and their teachers in the field of modern technologies.
It was planned as an activity of the ongoing MERIT project and part of the university’s initiative to share knowledge with schools and introduce study opportunities at VILNIUS TECH. The main objective of this event was to motivate students’ interest in advanced digital skills, by introducing secondary school students and teachers to new, advanced information technologies, and their possibilities.
In October 2022, Lithuanian schools were offered a list of possible lectures that started with four thematic lectures that could be chosen, covering the topics of artificial intelligence, data analysis, cybersecurity, and the application of mathematics. More than 20 schools showed interest in these thematic lectures. About half of them were from the Vilnius region, so VILNIUS TECH teachers visited these schools and conducted live lectures and practical sessions for students. Live lectures were also held in schools in the Kaunas region. Other schools were from further regions of Lithuania (Klaipėda, Mažeikiai, Tauragė, Rokiški, etc.), so the lectures were conducted remotely.
The lectures included two topics – Artificial intelligence (“Benefits and application of artificial intelligence methods in modern systems”) and Cybersecurity (“Why is caution necessary when surfing the Internet? Techniques used by hackers”). Both were equally popular among schools. In all cases, the school and student feedback were positive and, in most cases, additional, different-topic lectures were requested in the future.
During the presentation in different schools, with a different number of students, the possibility to adapt to more theoretical or practical lectures were noticed. Therefore, lectures were modified to make them more flexible for the lecturer: if the lecture was in computer class, some small practical tasks were given to students, if no computerised places were available or a big number of students participated, the practical task was replaced by Kahoot! or a data collection survey, demonstration of practical examples by the lecturer.
By the beginning of February 16 lectures were organised, where the number of students varied from 20 to 272. In total 929 persons listened to the lectures during the semester.
The activities have a potentially positive indirect effect on:
- Increase perception of VILNIUS TECH and MERIT project as those who work on advanced digital skills and how to share the knowledge.
- Motivation for students to choose a path in computer science, illustrating possible success paths, future tendencies, etc.
More information about it here.
