Blog Task 5: 22th June 2009
Last Wednesday we visied the “Alfred-Wegener-Schule” in Kirchhain; concerning our field trip and the guiding tour I think it is quiet interesting in how far and in what way schools to adapt their way of teaching and their equipment to today’s society and life-style. In the following I’m going to answer the 2 questions I asked in my last week’s post.
(1) The appropriate use of new media in school requires a competent knowledge of different types of media: how is this learning process realized by teachers as well as by students?
This school managed this problem quiet good because they established an information and communication course which takes 6 weeks and is obligatory for all students in grade 5. it is constituted like a crash course to learn the required basic knowledge like Windows, Word PowerPoint etc.. New media should be a part of today’s lesson; it should be seen as a matter of course medium in everyday-use. The technical and factual lessons should be connected with each other to realize this.
Apart from this there are also disadvantages which make it difficult realize. For example the class size of 30-35 students. The teacher loses the overview and they all do something different in front of the computer.
A solution for this problem might be a motivating task which activates and addresses all the students, so that they can do their tasks and learn the handling of the computer and the World Wide Web at the same time.
On the other hand the college and the teachers have to be educated or even upgraded. There is a “Fortbildungsbeauftrage” who organizes the “Weiterbildungskurse” at different schools.
Moreover colleagues help other colleagues themselves; so they offer to train other teachers and if somebody has a deficit in any special field he or she is able to be taught by colleague.
The most common problem is however, that especially senior teachers are overcharged with this innovation or they do not even want to learn the usage of computers in general. They leave this to younger teachers and continue with their alternative teaching method which can also be very effective if you teach your lessons in a appropriate way.
(2) In how far or in what way have the syllabus or the curriculum to be modified or even renewed?
The “Kultusministerium” regulates that the schools do lesson-integrated training of computer science and they want the teacher to train the usage of new media during their lessons.
The schools need adequate equipment, new technology and enough room to arrange such a “high technology classroom” or something like an “Oberstufenarbeitsbibliothek” with new media or a “Lernwerkstatt” as we have seen in Kirchhain.
As far as I can see the syllabus has not to be modified in general, only some details need to be renewed or invented to achieve these goals. For example term projects could be put into practice more often or the topics could be changed to more up-to-date versions but all in all the curriculum stick to its form.
Finally I would say it is more time and effort to restructure the school concerning rooms and buildings to make use of new media than in any other sector but some day all we all will work in a “high-technology-school” and all the momentary and alternative tools will be replaced by new media devices!!
Hi Christin,
you came up with good question. Since the first question is almost identical with mine I will not comment on it.
Nevertheless, your second question is interessting as well. I agree with you that in the near future it will be quite normal to have a school which is highly equipped with computers and other media. Than also the curriculum will be modified according to that use. I think that this process is already in progress.