Teachers are the heart of what we call education. A teacher who knows how to use artificial intelligence effectively is less fatigued, has more time for creativity, and can provide better support to each student. This leads to happier children who experience a more individualized, engaging, and effective learning process. In this way, a school transforms into a space for genuine development for everyone.
Yevhen Kozolup, Course Instructor for the Secondary Education Program
In collaboration with Google and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Beetroot Academy has developed a modern training program for Ukrainian educators, spanning pre-school, secondary education, vocational pre-university education, and higher education.
The program lasted six weeks and covered the entire educational process, from idea conception to implementation. The Beetroot Academy team created educational materials for 16 events, which included online sessions, practical workshops, and Q&A sessions. We focused on course topics, scenarios, presentations, and theoretical guides for participants.
Special attention was given to selecting speakers—practitioners who work daily within the Ukrainian education system and have firsthand knowledge of its workings. All training sessions were conducted with an emphasis on quality, accessibility, and practical benefits for each participant. We made every effort to ensure that the program was not only relevant but also highly applicable, allowing for easy integration into real teaching practices.
The program began with a straightforward approach: participants were introduced to the basic principles of working with artificial intelligence and learned how to formulate their initial queries using Gemini. Gradually, we developed an understanding of how AI can assist teachers, not as a replacement, but as a supportive tool.
In the subsequent stages, educators became proficient with more than ten digital tools and learned how to create comprehensive educational materials, including notes, visual content like graphs and videos, presentations, and interactive tests. Special attention was given to the ethical, safe, and responsible use of AI within the educational environment.
As a result, thousands of Ukrainian teachers are already applying the skills they acquired in their daily work, whether at schools, colleges, or universities. Some of them have even joined the Ukrainian Google Educators Group community, where they continue to grow, share experiences, and support each other in the digital transformation of education.
Firstly, I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the participants were open to gaining new knowledge and eager to change their approach to working with students in the age of artificial intelligence from the very start. However, it was clear that for some of them, AI was a completely new concept; they had only heard about it but had not yet used it. Did this pose a challenge? Not at all! Our classes were conducted in an incredibly productive atmosphere. The participants engaged in real-time tasks, learned how to formulate their own prompts, and explored various AI tools. As a result, everything progressed smoothly. Given their extensive experience with students, by the end of the program, participants were already proposing ideas for integrating AI into their teaching practices.
Yevhen Kozolup, Course Instructor for the Secondary Education Program
In my opinion, the most significant shift during the course was a change in perspective regarding the use of artificial intelligence. At the beginning of the program, the participants' chat rooms were filled with some caution, but as each lecture progressed, more and more participants began experimenting with the tools independently, sharing their discoveries and initial successes. One of their favorite discoveries was Google's NotebookLM, a tool that greatly simplifies working with educational materials. This was especially appreciated by those who had to navigate a large number of new regulations in education, as it made working with texts much faster and more convenient.
Artem Artyukhov, Course Instructor for Pre-Vocational and Higher Education Institutions
We carefully selected our speakers, all of whom possess not only technological expertise but also a deep understanding of the Ukrainian educational landscape. Among them are award-winning experts from the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine, such as Anna Velychko. We also invited Oksana Pasichnyi and Artem Artyukhov, both co-authors of state recommendations for integrating AI into secondary and higher education. Additionally, we included educational specialists who actively implement and teach artificial intelligence to students every day.
Honestly, I was most impressed by how quickly the participants learned and explored the new tools. Especially those who initially said, "I don't know anything about AI." Within just 40 minutes, these same teachers were creating their own apps, generating activities for children, and even discussing the ethical aspects of using technology. It wasn't just training; it was a genuine shift in thinking.
Anna Velychko, Course Instructor for the Preschool Education Program
I was particularly struck by the unique "math" of the course. At first, even our online platform wasn't prepared for the number of teacher participants. Not only did computer science and mathematics teachers join, as expected, but so did specialists in literature, music, and physical education. This broad range of interest and a deep awareness of the need for change in the AI era reaffirmed that Ukrainian teachers are remarkable. They are eager to learn, adapt, and lead others.
Yevhen Kozolup, Course Instructor for the Secondary Education Program
The outcome has been significant. Thousands of educators across Ukraine have received practical tools to make learning more modern, engaging, and effective. We are proud to have played a role in making this journey possible.
Participants in the program have joined the Ukrainian Google Educators Group community. This is a space where educators can exchange experiences, support one another, share ideas and resources, and continue their professional development beyond the course.
We believe that technology should serve the benefit of people. Education is a key area where tools like artificial intelligence can deliver tangible results: saving time, enhancing interaction with students, and introducing new formats for presenting material.
Based on my experience, I can confidently say that the skills educators acquire during the course allow them to spend more time on deeper and more personalized interactions with their students. The educational process will become much more interactive, and the creation and adaptation of materials will be faster and more flexible. Tasks that used to take days or even weeks can now be completed in just a few hours. A teacher who knows how to work with AI is like Tony Stark in his Marvel costume: powerful, efficient, and technologically equipped. I encourage everyone to try on this "suit" and use it to bring about positive changes in their educational or scientific fields.
Artem Artyukhov, Course Instructor for Pre-Vocational and Higher Education Institutions
Mastering artificial intelligence tools provides teachers with not only new opportunities but also enhances their confidence in their abilities. They evolve from being mere users of ready-made solutions to becoming creators of content, ideas, and curricula. This shift significantly reduces routine workloads, saves time, and, most importantly, opens the door to innovation. If we have more educators like this, Ukrainian education will transform into something more modern, flexible, and vibrant. This is precisely what our education system needs today.
Anna Velychko, Course Instructor for the Preschool Education Program
This program was made possible through the cooperation of the Beetroot Academy team (Bohdan Moskalenko, Anastasia Shuplat) with the Google team (Anastasia Barna, Iryna Bishko, Orest Bavda) and the CFC Big Ideas team (Yelyzaveta Lutska, Mykhailo Katz, Polina Dyachenko, Sofia Kohut).
The Beetroot Academy team is dedicated to developing projects that enable people to master advanced digital skills, regardless of their age, profession, or level of training. We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Google on this significant initiative and are already planning new projects.
Stay updated by following our news and joining our community. Let's work together to create inspiring and transformative education.
Not quite unusual for computer fonts, Times New Roman has been around since before computers became a thing. The British newspaper The Times commissioned it in 1931 as a retro update from a regular 19th-century font to something more solid with a strong 18th-century vibe. Old broom sure knows the corners (or so the saying goes), but you can see how the font may feel outdated in the 2020s.
It would not be a stretch to say Times New Roman looks ancient, as we already know it was designed this way. Even Roman in the name is a nod to the Italian school of printing from (15th century!). Seeing old-fashioned characters on a groundbreaking visual device, CRT screen, was weird enough. Now that we have modern LCD screens with much higher resolution and fidelity, a font capturing aesthetics from 300 years ago feels crystal odd.
Fonts classification is usually much more objective than old-fashioned or modern. One reason why Times New Roman may give an archaic vibe is that it is a serif font. All letters (or other characters) come with decorative lines, which range from very subtle to indeed something you would see in an 18th-century newspaper. Note how you can’t see any tails on the letters in this article—or almost any website created in the last 10 years.
Serif and Sans serif versions of Inria font from Black[Foundry]
Times New Roman, much like a lot of newspaper fonts, is rather narrow. It is a mostly business decision: you gotta fit in as much text on a page as possible—even during the times (ha-ha!) when the ratio of ads to stories was much lower. At the end of the day, all publications did that and it’s not like many people would’ve changed morning newspapers just because one is a bit easier to read than the rest.
Computers, however, do not have the same limitation. You don’t pay more for publishing an article or sending a document with much more reasonable line spacing and kerning than the average Victorian newspaper. If it’s the intermediary audience (e.g. client that commissioned an article) that needs to save costs, they can always change character size or pick a narrow font themselves.
Furthermore, the mobile boom is not helping narrow fonts like Times New Roman. Most devices connected to the internet now have a vertical layout. Trying to squeeze in extra characters on screens with little horizontal space will bring nothing but frustration for the reader. Interestingly, The Times had to adapt similarly in print: they had to create yet another Times New Roman-inspired typeface after moving from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004. These days, a narrow font is a compromise on usability that you don’t actually have to make—and people would appreciate it if you didn’t.
One could argue that a document in Times New Roman screams laziness or indifference. If the sender didn’t change the default option to something more balanced, it communicates that they either did not want to make your experience better or did not bother to do that. That kind of attitude does not help to secure a job or scholarship.
On the other hand, certain institutions would have you use nothing but Times New Roman. Some universities strongly encourage if not outright mandate the use of Times new Roman for papers, and so do scientific journals. Older government forms coming as templates to be filled out in Word would not play nice if you try to change the font. That being said, such restrictions are getting scarcer, especially with the rise of Mac. The OS and default office-like apps there have a default font different from Times New Roman (and a new one every few years at that).
The current default font on MacOS
Summing up, the cardinal sin of Times New Roman is defaulting to it without consideration. The font is a must in very few scenarios, but you see it much more often than that. Even Microsoft agrees something has to change: the default font for Word has been Calibri since 2007.
The above-mentioned Calibri is a spiritual successor to Times New Roman. It is now the default font for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. It is a sans serif font (no decorative lines) that looks perfectly fine on both screens and paper.
If you want to ditch the default and stay sleek, Georgia is a great option. It is a serif font but letter strokes are much more subtle than what you see with Times New Roman. Georgia does not look outdated and works better for vertical screens, as it is not too tight on the horizontal space.
Should you feel like going barebones, Helvetica is the right font. It is a sans serif font looking as bland as it gets—in a good way. Helvetica lacks elements that would make it look too modern, but it also has no archaic elements that would make the font too classic. I think we can trust Apple on that: they used a spin on Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, as the MacOS system font for two years.
Somehow, I felt a big future for tech when the Internet connection was provided in my dormitory
I'm from Kramatorsk, Donetsk region. I studied in Kharkiv and was supposed to become a radio-electronic engineer, but in 2001 I understood exactly what I wanted to do. It was the time when the Internet “appeared” in our dormitory. I liked what was happening there and felt a future was behind it. So I switched to web development. I bought some books, and for the next two years, I had the luxury of free time to study without having to work. 2003 I graduated from the university, and within one month, I found my first work as a PHP developer. I was the happiest junior developer who was paid for the work he liked. I remember my first salary — $250 transferred via Western Union from the USA — was like a fortune. Back then, there were no web developers among my friends. Compared to nowadays, it wasn't that hype. But for me, it was evident that this was a future. I told my friends that all the companies I knew would need a website or should be represented online somehow. And I wanted to be a part of this evolution.
Pink Floyd, my lifetime project, and three kids
I was always a fan of the music of the 70s, and Pink Floyd was my favorite band. But there was no website dedicated to Pink Floyd in Russian or Ukrainian. So I decided to do that on my own. I reached out to the person who did the official newsletters about Pink Floyd to help me with that, and long story short — I made a website, and it turned18 recently. This fan website is the most extended project in my life, but I switched it off because I didn’t want to contribute to the Russian-speaking community anymore. The most crucial thing is the following. Remember I mentioned that person who worked on the official newsletters about Pink Floyd? She is currently my wife, and we are bringing up two kids. We used to make jokes that we actually had three kids — our first one was the Pink Floyd website.
From a web developer to a start-up founder
After two years of work in Moscow, I was back in Kyiv. I didn't like living in Russia, so moving back to Ukraine was obvious. At this time, I stepped out of web development, and in 2007 I started my own business. All went well, but the political regime of Yanukovych reminded me of Russia, so we decided to move to Poland and work remotely. Since 2014, when the war started, it has been impossible to run my business in Ukraine.
And after a 7-year break in web development, a dozen hours of upskilling, and 60 interviews, I have found a new job in Berlin as a senior back-end developer. Now in 2022, I'm a co-founder of the tech startup countX, and all my engineering team is from Ukraine.
How I met Beetroot Academy
It was a coincidence and proof that networking rules. One of my colleagues, Alex, also works as a teacher at Beetroot Academy, so I've heard a lot about this online school. When Alex introduced me to Dmytro, CEO of Beetroot Academy, I was ready to start our partnership. He told me about the fundraising campaign on a mission to help Ukrainian people affected by the war start a new career in tech. So I couldn't stay away from it and donated for scholarships — the less I could do in these challenging times. Now seven women from Donetsk and Luhansk regions are studying at Beetroot Academy, and I’m happy to be their mentor.
Why I support tech education for Ukrainians
Ukrainians, especially men who are out of the country, live with the feeling of guilt. My life is safe, but my three classmates are now fighting against Russia, risking their lives. People try to find their own way to help Ukrainians win this war, overcome the consequences and rebuild the country. So do I.
I already had an idea of investing in tech education. That is where I can contribute as a professional and entrepreneur, so I chose to support the future of Ukraine this way. Many Ukrainians affected by war want to enter the tech industry and need an opportunity to do that. Tech education is one of the most impactful and cost-effective ways to help Ukrainians restore their lives and fight poverty after the war ends. I believe our country will be the next tech cluster after Silicon Valley in the USA and Bengaluru in India. Moreover, I want many Ukrainians to be a part of that success story. I contribute to it by donating for scholarships and would like to encourage others to support Beetroots Academy’s mission.
Imagine a house. To have it running steadily, there should be a good foundation, building blocks, proper infrastructure, good furniture, designs, and usability functions. In web development, the front-end developer is somewhere in between the processes as he takes the ideas from the UI\UX team to turn them into clickable websites that work. Back-end developers, PMs, and QAs take care of the other vital parts, such as proper foundation, team and project management, and testing.
So there's actually a front-end and back-end. We won't say which one is easier. Let's just leave one picture here for your understanding.
To light up a room, you have to click the button. Ensuring it is clickable is a job for a front-end developer; ensuring there is a light is a task for a back-end developer. Front-end web development is the art of using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a set of other tools for a website/app for a user to see and interact with them.
Basic front-end development glossary
In front-end web development, there are vital terms you should know. We bet you've heard most of them, so let's just keep them handy in the list below.
Programming languages or codes
For example, HTML
In development, you need to speak a language everyone understands — your machine, your code compiler, your user, and your project manager. Below are just a couple of languages we use in the front-end. They look different to everyone, but mean the same and help achieve the result — have the webpage ready and running.
HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the code developers use to structure a webpage. Remember seeing a webpage made up of blocks, paragraphs, or tables? HTML helps with that. It originates from a code developed by WHATWG some 30 years ago, in 1993.
JavaScript, conveniently referred to as JS, is a programming language considered one of the cores for front-end development. Designed over 26 years ago, it is now used in almost every webpage you see. Even on the Beetroot Academy website, too :) JS is used to create animation, control multimedia, and generally work with dynamically updating content, buttons, banners, etc.
Here, you can also look at some Javascript libraries — jQuery, React.js, and more here on Kinsta, for example.
Front-end development tools
Git, Google Fonts, W3C, and more
Compilers, linkers, code editors are essential for every front-end developer. These are basic tools that you will use in your daily routine — as home technicians use multitools for repairing the leakage, for example.
To name a few, there are Google Fonts to help you work with fonts, W3C Markup Validation Service to validate your code, and many more.
Version control tools are also part of the list here, used for monitoring changes to your code. We guess you strive to make your code better and better each time. Hence, version controls will help manage the evolution of your code as it becomes clearer and more effective. Git is the most popular, and it's open and free of charge.
Design principles in front-end
In front-end development, we use responsive design to ensure our content fits every (or almost every) gadget and looks good on it. Recall how you open a webpage on your iPhone, reopen it on your laptop, and send it to granny's email — and it still looks good on your grandparents' old-fashioned computer? That's responsive design in action.
Design automatically adapts to given dimensions, so all users feel comfortable interacting with the content. The feeling is the key here — because the front-end is mostly about what the user feels while using your web piece.
CSS, closely connected to HTML, is a code used actually to style an HTML doc. It has everything to do with the colors, styles, and other properties.
Looks quite interesting, huh? Now that you're familiar with the basic front-end development glossary, it's high time to learn the front-end. We hope you find this glossary helpful, no matter which tech direction you will choose. Keep it in your saved links to come back once in a while.
Join our next group in May and start learning with tech industry experts to gain knowledge you need to work as a junior front-end developer.
While such languages as Python and PHP have existed for quite a long time, C# is regarded as a young programming language. Danish software engineer Anders Hejlsberg developed it in the year 2000. Today, he still works for Microsoft as the lead architect of C#. Anders Hejlsberg is also known for being the chief architect of Delphi and the original author of Turbo Pascal.
C# was originally named COOL, whereby the acronym stood for “C-like object-oriented language”. Alas, Microsoft could not hang onto this “cool name” because of trademark law.
C# is pronounced, “see sharp”. The name was taken from the musical notation, whereby a sharp symbol points that the written note should be played a semitone higher. The “sharp” suffix has been used by several other .NET languages that are editions of present languages, including J#, A#, and the functional programming language F#.
The base syntax of the C# is similar to C-style languages such as C, C++, and Java. This programming language most directly represents the underlying Common Language Infrastructure (CLI).
If you plan to create apps for the Microsoft platform, you should definitely learn C#. The developers favor this language for being easy to use and well-designed. Also, it is often recommended programming language to use when creating games through the Unity Game engine.
C# used for:
A list of programs and applications written in C# includes Microsoft Visual Studio, Paint.NET, Windows Installer XML, Open Dental, FlashDevelop, KeePass, NMath, Pinta, Banshee, OpenRA.
Here are a few reasons to work with this particular programming language:
The future looks bright for C# because of its popularity, versatility, and existing creations. If you want to have a solid foundation to become a master developer, you should learn this “cool” programming language.
