The school is also going digital

Anyone with school-age children has experienced the state of digitization in German schools firsthand in recent months: The whole spectrum was represented, from "It's already working quite well" to "It's not working at all".

The Center for Teacher Education (ZLB) at the University of Kassel has also been closely monitoring how schools are dealing with the Corona pandemic, particularly with regard to digitization. "What many teachers achieved in this difficult situation was extraordinary and deserves great respect," says Prof. Dr. Rita Wodzinski. She has been vice chair of the ZLB since June 2017 and also heads the project "Professionalization in the Kassel Digitization Network," or PRONET-D for short, together with Dr. Kathrin Ziepprecht and Dr. Monique Meier.

The project continues the guiding idea of "professionalization through networking" in teacher education from the other PRONET projects with regard to digitization. The PRONET projects at the University of Kassel are part of the Quality Initiative for Teacher Education, which was launched in 2015 by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). In 2020, a new funding guideline was added for this purpose, which supports projects that promote digitization in teacher education.

"Our PRONET-D project started in March 2020, right at the beginning of the Corona restrictions," Wodzinski reports. "Just like many other projects, everything was under the shadow of the pandemic in the initial phase," says the professor, who heads the Didactics of Physics department at the University of Kassel.

"For the conversion of teaching to digital formats at the university, the Service Center for Teaching did an excellent job - after all, the colleagues there were already well positioned in terms of digital teaching and created many more offerings within a very short time," she describes. "As for the schools, we pointed to the Schwyz University of Education, which created an excellent wiki on its site 'lernentrotzcorona.ch'."

Networking instead of reinventing

She also sees this form of assistance as a guiding principle of the PRONET-D project: "The point is not to constantly reinvent the wheel, but rather to share the knowledge already available among the various players," says Wodzinski. At the beginning of the Corona pandemic, this didn't work out so well in schools: "Every school and, in some cases, every teacher developed their own model for digital instruction, which inevitably led to a lot of friction and uncertainty on all sides," she says.

Nevertheless, she also sees positive aspects in the reaction of schools to the Corona pandemic: "The rapid changeover has ruthlessly exposed what works well and where there is still room for improvement." However, it should not be forgotten that the idea of good teaching with regard to digitization is of course different from the complete replacement of direct contact.

In order to provide greater support for the topic of digitization in schools, the project is taking action on several levels: On the one hand, work is being done on media development, for example, to implement intelligent digital feedback systems; on the other hand, new concepts are being developed for the effective use of digital media for learning, which often relate to both the university and the school. For example, students are testing the use of digital media in various projects - these include explainer videos, virtual classrooms, and web-based text editors. The students, in turn, test these learning environments with students. "In this case, we talk about so-called didactic double-deckers," Wodzinski describes.

With the help of these didactic double-deckers, the prospective teachers are to experience firsthand the settings in which digital technology brings learning benefits, while at the same time being put in a position to integrate digital tools into their lessons in a meaningful way later on.

All of these projects are accompanied by subject didactic or educational research. The seven subprojects cover a wide range of subjects and extend across all types of schools, while an eighth subproject is used for cross-subproject accompanying research.

Hopes for the DigitalPakt

In Wodzinski's view, it is not yet possible to predict when the results of the project will reach the schools. "The status quo at many schools is still that the basic infrastructure is lacking," explains the professor. In particular, she sees the slow broadband connections in many places as a problem: "The greater the proportion of digital teaching, the faster the comparatively slow Internet connections reach their limits," she states. The result: long loading times, jerky videos and choppy online meetings. "That's where the patience of many users quickly reaches its limits," says Wodzinski.

She is pinning her hopes on the DigitalPakt Schule (Digital Pact for Schools), which was adopted by the German government last year. The DigitalPakt provides a total of five billion euros in funding for the German states. "The aim of the DigitalPakt is to create the infrastructural basis for digital education in German schools and to provide investment aid as a kick-start. Eligible for funding are, in particular, broadband cabling within schools all the way to the classroom, WLAN coverage, and stationary end devices such as interactive whiteboards," according to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

For Hesse, around 372 million euros are available in the federal program's funding pot. Since the state government has decided to increase these funds even further, around 500 million euros can be drawn down by school authorities over the agreed five-year period. "Some schools and school boards complain that applying for funds from this funding pot is time-consuming and complicated - but our hope is that at the end of the five-year funding period, there will be a noticeable increase in digital capabilities," says Wodzinski.

Physics teachers as involuntary IT administrators?

One problem that she believes still needs to be addressed is the lack of technical staff in schools. "If there are enough laptops and tablets, digital whiteboards and a fast Internet connection, that's obviously a big step in the right direction - but a crucial question on a day-to-day basis is: Who will take care of the correct setup and, if in doubt, troubleshooting?" says Wodzinski.

Even if a colleague can help with technical issues, Wodzinski doesn't see that as a permanent solution. "That's why, from our perspective, it's very important to think about how to organize technical support at schools," she says.

Taking the results to the wider community

PRONET-D project staff have also thought about how they will later disseminate the findings from the various subprojects to schools. One way is to involve schools directly as part of the project itself. "In addition, we have also established channels with many schools in the region, for example, as part of the 'Uni4School' program," Wodzinski describes. Via the corresponding ZLB website, schools can find out directly about topics on which the University of Kassel offers further training or assistance. Overall, Wodzinski is optimistic about the future: "If we see digitization as an opportunity, then both teachers and students and parents can benefit in the end!"

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More info on the PRONET-D project, on the topic of "Uni4School" and on other offers from the Center for Teacher Education can be found on this website:

https://www.uni-kassel.de/zlb

Text: Markus Zens