To get an impression how the use of new media is realised at school, we are going to visit the Landschulheim Steinmühle. Hence we have to think about questions which may interest us.
1. What do the teachers theirselves think about the use of new media? Does the preparation of a lesson including new media dedicate much more time, than preparing a lesson without new media?
2. What about the financial aspect? How is equipment financed at LandschulheimSteinmühle?
Since I have to leave earlier, I hope to get the questions answered anyway.
OK, now after three weeks of holiday I come to the point of trying to answer the questions.
Where shall I begin… ok…
First of all to the first question:the teacher’s thoughts about the use of new media.
We had the chance to ask Mr. Nitzke and Mrs. Sperl who agreed to answer our questions. Both teachers appreciate the use of new media in their lessons. They see big advantages in using new media in class. Especially in English and in Science classes it gives the chance to give interdisciplinary lessons, as in the Australia project about which the pupils will get to know everything about Australia both in all lessons and in different ways virtually. As we heard, new media is used by a lot of teachers at this school, including Unterstufe up to the Oberstufe. Of course the use of new media depends on the level of knowledge of the pupils, so that in the Unterstufe they start with the standardization with guided researches and in the Mittelstufe the new media is based on their computer science lessons. Only in the Oberstufe the pupils have to do unguided researches at school and also at their home. At this level then it is taken for granted that the pupils are able to give a powerpoint presentation. So one ca say, that almost all teachers see advantages in using the new media in their classes and not just only in the Oberstufe but already in the Unterstufe. In ddition to that it is important to know that all the teachers at Landschulheim Steinmühle get well prepared to be able how to handle a beamer and other technical equipment they need.
Equipment:
Of course it is evident that every school has to provide the equipment to use new media. Concerning the equipment at this school we got to know the computer-lab which is provided with 24 notebooks. Furthermore we found out that there are two more mobile stations which are also equipped with notebooks. In almost all rooms there are beamers installed and those rooms which are not yet provided with beamers will get one in the near future. So one can say, that the equipment matter can not be considered as a real excuse for not using new media.
Ok, now to the second question: the financial aspect.
This question was answered really quickly by Mr. Nitzke. All the equipment is either financed out of the tax money or by contributions, as the notebooks in the computerlab for example which were dispensed by a company of the region Marburg.
All in all one can say, that it was really interesting to see in practice how new media is used at school. Especially the fact to hear that teachers are not always afraid of using new media, but also see advantages.
a mobile laptop station
