First Field Trip to the Martin-Luther-Schule
On the 9th of May we had our first field trip to the Martin-Luther-Schule, where the deputy headmaster Mr. Pichl gave us a general overview about the school's technical equipment and informed us how New Media is used and worked with in class.
At first Mr. Pichl showed us the teacher's room which offers two computers for the whole staff (about 125 colleagues). I cannot consider this equipment to be sufficient, when I think about the increasing use of SmartBoards and due to this the increasing necessity to prepare the lessons with the help of a computer. In the teacher's room there is also other technical equipment (projectors, laptops, cameras or DVD-players) that can be lent online on a special platform. This is a really clever solution to avoid that a certain object might be lent a several times and therefore cannot be used in one or more classes. Something that I consider also quite useful is the digital teaching substitution board.
Most of the classes have a mobile access point for internet. However, the school just offers DSL which guarantees the availability of internet, although its use is highly limited, due the slow speed of data transmission. In the school there are two computer labs which can also be reserved online. To check whether the pupils are working on the computers or not, the teachers of the MLS use a surveillance system which can be used in order to assist the student with his/her work in sending him/her short messages or ihn posting helpful links, where help can be found online.
At the MLS the students are trained in the field of New Media from grade six up to grade twelve. To enable them also to work at home on the computer and to prepare classes, the pupils are equipped with an USB-stick, which offers open source programmed such as open office or geobra. These tools are also used by the teachers, when they work with the New Media in class or in the computer lab.
A lot of classrooms are equipped with flat screens and speakers which can be connected with I pods or laptops to present for instance authentic native speaker English in English classes or to show PowerPoint presentations. There are only two classrooms which have a Smart Board. Although Mr. Pichl appeared to be fond of the school's SmartBoards, he also presented disadvantages (unclear writing, word recognition, unreliability of technique) to us. I think that the idea to offer the school's teachers further training to work with these new tools is quite reasonable. When preparing lessons for a SmartBoard, it might not be obvious that a lot of other thinks have to be considered, as if a classical lesson (blackboard) is taught.
I think the school's way of introducing new Media to the classroom is quite reasonable and can be taken as a good example. When thinking about buying new technical equipment for the school, Mr. Pichl always reflects about whether a new tool is relevant for teaching, whether it can enrich the lessons or whether the students can profit from it. We asked him for instance, what he thinks about the use of mobile phones in class. He answered that mobile phones had a big potential for teaching, but that the advantages cannot compete with the disadvantages (price, cheating in exams, misuse such as ciber-bullying). Every year the MLS organizes the Medientage to inform their pupils about issues that can be considered as important, when working with the New Media such as data protection or copy right.
All in all, I was not really surprised about the availability of New Media in the MLS. Due to my internship at the Albert-Schweizer-Schule in Alsfeld, I already got a good impression about today's school equipment. Nevertheless, I would like to emphasize again, that I really appreciate the way how the school includes New Media in school; with reason.
At first Mr. Pichl showed us the teacher's room which offers two computers for the whole staff (about 125 colleagues). I cannot consider this equipment to be sufficient, when I think about the increasing use of SmartBoards and due to this the increasing necessity to prepare the lessons with the help of a computer. In the teacher's room there is also other technical equipment (projectors, laptops, cameras or DVD-players) that can be lent online on a special platform. This is a really clever solution to avoid that a certain object might be lent a several times and therefore cannot be used in one or more classes. Something that I consider also quite useful is the digital teaching substitution board.
Most of the classes have a mobile access point for internet. However, the school just offers DSL which guarantees the availability of internet, although its use is highly limited, due the slow speed of data transmission. In the school there are two computer labs which can also be reserved online. To check whether the pupils are working on the computers or not, the teachers of the MLS use a surveillance system which can be used in order to assist the student with his/her work in sending him/her short messages or ihn posting helpful links, where help can be found online.
At the MLS the students are trained in the field of New Media from grade six up to grade twelve. To enable them also to work at home on the computer and to prepare classes, the pupils are equipped with an USB-stick, which offers open source programmed such as open office or geobra. These tools are also used by the teachers, when they work with the New Media in class or in the computer lab.
A lot of classrooms are equipped with flat screens and speakers which can be connected with I pods or laptops to present for instance authentic native speaker English in English classes or to show PowerPoint presentations. There are only two classrooms which have a Smart Board. Although Mr. Pichl appeared to be fond of the school's SmartBoards, he also presented disadvantages (unclear writing, word recognition, unreliability of technique) to us. I think that the idea to offer the school's teachers further training to work with these new tools is quite reasonable. When preparing lessons for a SmartBoard, it might not be obvious that a lot of other thinks have to be considered, as if a classical lesson (blackboard) is taught.
I think the school's way of introducing new Media to the classroom is quite reasonable and can be taken as a good example. When thinking about buying new technical equipment for the school, Mr. Pichl always reflects about whether a new tool is relevant for teaching, whether it can enrich the lessons or whether the students can profit from it. We asked him for instance, what he thinks about the use of mobile phones in class. He answered that mobile phones had a big potential for teaching, but that the advantages cannot compete with the disadvantages (price, cheating in exams, misuse such as ciber-bullying). Every year the MLS organizes the Medientage to inform their pupils about issues that can be considered as important, when working with the New Media such as data protection or copy right.
All in all, I was not really surprised about the availability of New Media in the MLS. Due to my internship at the Albert-Schweizer-Schule in Alsfeld, I already got a good impression about today's school equipment. Nevertheless, I would like to emphasize again, that I really appreciate the way how the school includes New Media in school; with reason.
