Reinhard Donath – Lehrperson, Befürworter und zugleich Kritiker neuer Medien im Unterricht steht 30 Studenten in einem Live-Chat Rede und Antwort.

Insbesondere die Rolle neuer Medien im Unterricht und Schule wurde diskutiert, so dass die wichtigsten Aspekte im Folgenden zusammengefasst dargestellt werden sollen: Welche Rolle spielen neue Medien im heutigen Zeitalter in einem learning environment?

Mittlerweile haben alle Curricula Aspekte neuer Medien integriert und folglich sind rein dienstrechtlich gesehen alle Lehrpersonen dazu verpflichtet, diese auch in dieser oder jener Form einzusetzen. Aber in Bezug auf diesen Aspekt kollidiert natürlich die Theorie mit der Praxis: Aufgrund von fehlender Kreativität oder der einfachen Ausrede, man wüsste nicht wie es funktioniere, sind neue Medien längst nicht Gegenstand des Lernprozesses. Lehrer müssten genau aus diesem besagten Grund an die Hand genommen werden, so Donath, und gezeigt bekommen, WIE sich Unterricht und das Lernen durch medialen Einsatz verbessern könne.

Es zeigt sich, dass der Einsatz neuer Medien innerhalb des Klassenraumes sehr stark lehrerabhängig ist. Ebenfalls ist es eine Frage der Motivation und der Schwerpunktsetzung der Schulen, inwiefern diese medientechnisch ausgestattet sind. An dieser Stelle kann durchaus ein Vergleich zwischen Alfred-Wegener-Schule und dem Gymnasium Ulricianum in Aurich, an welchem Herr Donath wirkt, in Bezug auf Ausstattung gezogen werde: Die AWS verfügt über ein Smartboard, welches bislang fast ungenutzt blieb, während das Auricher Gymnasium über 54 Smartboards in insgesamt 54 Klassenräumen verfügt – ein klares Indiz dafür, wo Reinhard Donaths Schule ihren Schwerpunkt gesetzt hat.

In our yesterday’s session, we discussed an IT program concerning new media which could be realized at a fictive school.

We were separated into different groups in order to think about an appropriate IT profile. The course instructor gave us a list with items which were already installed in that school, such as computer rooms, portable projectors, laptops and a school cinema.

Every group had to think of five aspects which should be included in the IT profile of the school. Afterwards, the groups discussed their ideas with another group and in the end five items were chosen from the variety of ideas which were offered by every group. Here, you can find five aspects which we considered to be most important in our school profile:

1. Computer Driving License (including rules)

Every student at school should be able to work with a computer and the new media. This includes, for instance, writing e-mails or blogging. This should be finished by the end of the 10th class. To assure this goal, the school offers the students the possibility to gain a computer driving license. It will be taught in extra lessons.

2. Teacher Training (obligatory)

Students can’t receive their Computer Driving License without professional support. Due to the fact that many teachers at schools are not familiar with new media themselves, it must be guaranteed that they get a new media training taught by external instructors.

3. Subject Specific Curricula (new and old media)

The curriculum for every subject must be revised so that the use of the new media becomes a fixed element in the curriculum. Naturally, we don’t want to replace all traditional ways of teaching by the new media so they will be also considered in the new curricula.

4. Evaluation

Evaluation is an important part if new ideas and concepts are introduced. The progress of the IT program must be supervised and evaluated so that its success can be assured.

5. Media access for all students

The new media facilities must be accessible for all students. In fact, it is necessary to own a sufficient amount of computers and laptops for all students of the school and to make sure everyone gets the possibility to work with the new media. Furthermore, it would be desirable if the whole school area could be provided with Wifi access.

(a little laptop for every student which could be used during lessons to work with learning software and to do research on the internet – an expensive project, but useful and future-proven.)

Last week, we had our field trip to Alfred-Wegener Schule in Kirchhain. We all learned many new things and were able to find answers to our questions. What is more, we were really impressed by the Lernwerkstatt. What is meant by Lernwerkstatt? You have to imagine a room which includes both computers and a library in a very modern and open design and which purpose it is to provide the pupils with the opportunity to read, surf, look up new things, work in groups as well as individually.

1. Which facilities does the school have to enable the learning and teaching with new media?

The school has several standard or traditional computer rooms. Furthermore, as already mentiond above, there is a new building with a mensa and a Lernwerkstatt. In the wing for the Abitur students, there is another room with PCs (all arranged in small “islands”) and a mobile smart board. Additionally, the school wants to buy another fixed smart board for this room in the future. There are also some laptops at the school but unfortunately not enough for a whole class. Furhtermore, the school is provided with a digital substitution schedule.

2. Is there enough equipment for ALL pupils?

The PC rooms are so big that two pupils should be able to work on one computer. The smart board, according to our guide, is not used very often. On the one hand it needs a lot of time preparing it and on the other hand, a lot of teachers do not know how to actually use it. In our opinion, the Lernwerkstatt and the room in the Abitur student wing seemed a bit too small in regard to the amount of computers. However, we think more computers would have been too expensive.

(On this picture you can see one of the school’s modern concepts – the connection of traditional and new media!)

3. How well are the teachers trained with computers and other technical gear?

The teacher who gave us the tour mentioned that the teachers are trained well enough to do lessons in the PC rooms. But honestly speaking, we doubt that a bit. We simply cannot imagine that all teachers are that well trained (especially the older ones). Take the smart board for example: A new technology is available, but no one uses it – maybe an introduction would help.

4. How often is the equipment used and in which subjects is it used most?

It was said by the teacher that he himself uses the equipment very often, especially in English and Informatics, but even in Physical Education. In Informatics, the computers are used every lesson and in English especially when working on projects with a certain class, e.g. blogs.

5. How much is such equipment and are there possibilities that every school can be provided with new media?

Unfortunately, we did not get an answer to this question. But we personally think that all schools are spending more money on new media education.

6. Does the school finance its new media equipment from own resources?

The school cannot finance all the media equipment from its own credit, but since the German government has spent a lot of money for the “Bildungspaket”, every school has received a certain amount. Actually, the schools are free to choose what to do with this money and the Alfred-Wegener-Schule decided to invest the money in new media equipment.

(On this picture you can see the teacher who gave us the tour as well as some fellow students -

all located in the Lernwerkstatt!)

Visiting Alfred-Wegener-Schule in Kirchhain was a great experience, especially in order to connect the theoretical knowledge we have acquired in our university’s course with practical experience.

So thank you very much for giving us the possibility to do this research!

In our today’s session we have taken a look at educational software – Which key aspects have to be considered when planning a lesson with educational software?

1. What kind of educational software is it?
2. What can be said about aspects of design?
3. For which age group is it suitable?
4. What are the advantages?
5. What are the disadvantges?
6. In which context can the software be used effectively?
7. How can the quality of content be evaluated?

Bookworm

(Source: http://www.popcap.com/games/free/bookworm/?icid=bookworm_HP_OL_6_8_19_08_en; 17/11/09)

1. Bookworm is a kind of puzzle game software in which words have to be created by connecting letters to each other in some way. They can be selected by clicking on them

2. What can be said about the design:

• The game surface is not in the centre of attention due to the fact that there is too much distracting advertisement.
• The surface as well as the font size are too small.
• The game’s appearance is too colourful.

3. The software is basically suitable for all pupils of all ages. However, we would recommend it to pupils from class 5 to 10.

4. A great advantage of this software is that it provides the user with hints how to get started with the game and how to reach a higher score. At the end of the game, an overview of the achievements is given (i.e. longest word, highest score).

5. However, some disadvantges of using this game in class are:

• The user is automatically directed to the German version of the game.
• Words must be known in advance in order to find them. Therefore, the game does not encourage the creation and learning of new words.
• No further explanations of the created words are given (e.g. phonetic transcription, audio example).

6. In which school context can Bookworm be used? In addition to all disadvantages of this educational software, we could not possibly think of an appropriate context in which this game can be used effectively.

7. One of the key aspects which must be taken into consideration is the quality of content:

The content of the software only focuses on words which must be known by the user in advance. This is the only content offered by the game. For an advanced learner of English language this content might become boring after a little while. A beginner, on the other hand, might be quickly overstrained.

Overall evaluation: ♦♦♦♦♦

Tomorrow, we are going to have a field trip to the Alfred-Wegener-Schule in Kirchhain in order to learn how new media is used in practice.

We are sure, it will provide us with many helpful ideas how we could use new media in our own lessons.

Questions concerning this trip:

1. Which facilities does the school have to enable the learning and teaching with new media?
2. Is there enough equipment for ALL pupils?
3. How well are the teachers trained with computers and other technical gear?
4. How often is the equipment used and in which subjects is it used most?
5. How much is such an equipment and are there possibilities that every school can be provided with new media?
6. Does the school finance its new media equipment from own resources?

The following list gives you an overview what equipment is generally needed for a presentation and which preparations have to be made to set it up properly:

Equipment needed:

• Laptop
• Video projector
• (Power and network) cables
• USB flash drive
• Internet access*
• Loud speakers*

Video Projector Setup:

• Plug the power cable into the computer.
• If you need an internet connection, connect the network cable to your PC.
• Choose the right VGA plug socket on the video projector (video input).
• Plug the VGA cable into the projector and the other end into the computer.
• Plug in the power cable of the video projector.
• If you want to play a video or music file and want to use sound, connect the speakers to your PC.
• Everything should be set up now.
• Turn on the projector FIRST.
• Adjust the image if necessary.
• Start your computer.
• If the projector does not show any picture, try the key combination FN + F5 to activate the video output of your computer.

After your presentation, make sure NOT to unplug the projector straight away, switch to standby first in order not to damage the light bulb.

*= only if required for presentation