When I started to make up my mind about it, I realized quite soon that it is really difficult to find something which is creative, new and interesting.

But after a while, an idea of a project flashed into my mind and became my dream project. In the following, I want to present it briefly:

Firstly, I would like to describe some general guidelines about my dream project.

In general, German schools offer exchanges between German classes and foreign classes (schools) at the time of 9^th grade, for example exchanges between France and Germany or Great Britain and Germany etc. I would like to put my dream project into practice with 9^th graders, because my dream project will mainly be based on an exchange between a German class and an English (British) class.

I would like to create a virtual newspaper with my students.

In order to do that, my class will have to use a blog, such as wordpress, which we got to know in our New Media course. Additionally, our British exchange class will also make up a virtual newspaper by making use of a blog. Every student, regardless if German or British should write one short article every week. They might also include images or short videos. The German students ought to write their articles in English, whereas the British students pen it in German. Consequently, one “newspaper” will be published per week. The topics of these articles may be the following:

What have I learnt throughout the week? What has been most striking to me?

Presentation of research project, which the student had to do in class.

Apart from that, students can also include “usual” newspaper characteristics, such as a weather chart, cartoons, a horoscope or the stock exchange. As homework during the weekend, students will have to comment on two articles of their class mates. The following week they will also write articles, but this time they will assess critically two articles from the exchange class. In other words, students will be asked to comment fortnightly on two articles of the other group. The first part of the in-class unit will be about gathering current knowledge of the students concerning the other countries. As to do this, traditional methods of teaching and new ones will be combined.

Firstly, students will be asked to collect some first impressions on the other country. In this step, students will first write their own thoughts down (single work, some minutes) and secondly collect and discuss their findings in a group of 5 to 6 students (group work). The results of that discussion will be presented on a poster, which has to be prepared by each group. Afterwards, each group will present their poster to the rest of the class.

Another aspect would be that my students and I will talk and discuss about the themes we will prepare before the exchange actually takes place. They may add topics and we will examine which of these will be prepared in class as teacher oriented lessons, which will be organised in Power Point presentation by a student or which will be arranged in group work presentations in class (with short internet research and posters as helping hand).

This first preparation of the exchange will result in the creation of a “real newspaper”, which should include photos of the class, some general facts of everyone, their expectations, hopes and wishes for the actual exchange and some first ideas about what they will deal with during the following lessons. This “real” newspaper will be printed and also send to the exchange partner. That means that the German class will receive the newspaper of the British class and vice versa. They may also comment on articles in this newspaper.

If students have to prepare presentations, they will have the chance to use the Internet and particularly the tool of skype. They have to communicate with one student of the other class in order to get the information they need. It will be like a “business meeting” where they have to exchange thoughts. Apart from that, students will also be allowed to talk about other topics, but that time frame will be shorter. (This last aspect is only included in order to give students the possibility to be in a natural talking situation where they feel comfortable.)

During the actual exchange and right after it, students of both classes will write articles again. But this time, they will evaluate the current events. In other words, they will deal with positive and negative aspects of the exchange. Again, photos of themselves, the landscape or of the sightseeing plus extra material can be added. These articles will be collected in a second “real” newspaper, which will be printed twice (one for each class). After the actual exchange, students and teacher will evaluate the whole experience and students will then write their final statements in the blog. The topics for these articles might be:

What did I learn? What has been new/ old to me? Which aspects have been striking and why? Would I like to return or even live there? And if yes, why?

In the last part of this project, students will create a third little newspaper with their final statements, thoughts etc. This newspaper will also be printed and send to the respective group in order to frame the whole exchange. That means that every class can see the development of the other one and additionally they have a nice souvenir. Furthermore, language skills will be improved throughout the whole writing process, regardless if it is online in the blog or “offline” in the “newspaper”.

Last but not least, students might prepare a power point presentation on their reception of the whole exchange (including lessons) and show it in school; for example on a parent-teacher conference or on school festivities.

I would like to show the different aims of my dream project and some other steps in greater details later on in my term paper.

I did an interview with a student from 12th grade. It was quite interesting to see how he desribed New Media use in his school. In the following I would like to show some of his answers.

First of all, I wanted to know what he thinks about the current situation of Media use in his subjetcs.
He told me that New Media is not used very constantly by teachers with their classes. It always depends on the current topic in a subject and it appears quite often that teachers do not include New Media.

In a second step, I wanted to know in which subjects in particular he uses New Media in class.

I was striking to me that it was mostly integrated in language classes as English. When it comes to the term paper of 12th grade, teachers do use New Media with their students. Either they give a task to their students and let them do research on it,or students can work independently on the topic of their term paper.

The student, I did an interview with told me that he thinks it is quite useful to include New Media in his language classes.

But he also said that the usage of New Media is rather rare and it seems as if lots of teachers either do not like to work with it or they “blank it out” somehow.He argued that there could be more possibilities to profit from New Media.
In addition to that, my interview partner mentioned that most of his subject do not include New Media at all; for example sciences as chemistry or physics.

As a last question I wanted to know how he would like to use New Media in his subjects. This question seemed to be difficult to answer, because he could not really think of New Media usage in subjects like physics or biology or maths.
Nonetheless, he stated that New Media could be used more consistantly in terms of research. Besides, New Media could also be used in sciences by showing clips of certain phenomena or in order to show how good presentations should look like.Finally, he said that New Media is used appropriately in language classes, but could be improved in all subjects in order to provide students with better skills.

After my interview I was quite satisfied with my answers, because I could see how New Media usage in school has already changed.

Is there any indication that teachers use Media and especially the Internet with only elder classes? In other words, does the usage of Internet depends on the age of pupils? Or can we suggest that every grade uses the Internet with the same quantity?

Furthermore, I wanted to know which steps have to be done in order to call a school a “Media school”? Are there any at all?
Can every school call itself “Media school”?

Finally, I asked myself how these Media tools can be financed and if there are additional courses for students (+teachers) to learn the appropriate usage of these tools.

I hope that all these questions can be answered.

In this blog entry I want to show how my grammar school called “LeG Uelzen”, used and uses New Media.

Now:

Firstly of all, I started my research by consulting the homepage of my old grammar school in order to find out whether they included New Media in school life and particularly in lessons. Unfortunately, the homepage was still under construction in many different areas and that is why it has been really difficult to get useful information. What I found out was the following:

“Das Lessing-Gymnasium ist im Bereich der modernen Technologien gut ausgestattet.”

After having read through the homepage, I came to the conclusion that my research was unsufficient and that I needed more sources in order to get a general idea on how New Media is used today. Furthermore, the statement from the homepage was not really clear. Therefore I asked current students to tell me something about their experiences with New Media in school. I got to know that there are several fields in which New Media and especially Internet is used.

The first important aspect to be considered is that my old grammar school has only one particular computer room. Besides that, students can also use the computer and Internet in another room, which is right next to the library.

Moreover, every student at a certain grade can get the so-called “Internet licence” (“Internetführerschein”). With this “ID card” students are allowed to use computers in the library independently. In order to do so, they have to participate in a little computer course in advance and furthermore, they have to fill out a form. One teacher is responsable for these courses and these forms.

The so-called computer room on the other hand, is usually closed and is only used by teachers with their classes. If a teacher wants to use this room, he/she has to sign up for it on a list. Additionally, one can say that most of the time this particular room is used by older classes and their teachers.

I would like to give the example of students from the 12th grade: They use this computer room in order to do research for their term papers (“Facharbeit”), because every student is supposed to write a term paper in one of his two major classes.

Besides, teachers also use it in order to give students the chance to collect information on a certain topic, which would go beyond “usual homework”.

Teachers also make use of this room when they either want to introduce a new topic or during a teaching unit. That means that they either tell students to look for some first information on a new unit or that they tell them to do research in order to deepen a certain part of a unit. The same holds true for the students of the 13th grade.

It becomes obvious that teachers use New Media more often with older students. Younger classes are not really introduced to New Media and might only know it by using their “Internet licence”.

Then:

When I thought of my own schooldays, it became clear pretty soon that New Media had not played a big role in my lessons at all. I remembered that the first years at my grammar school had been without any New Media. Teachers had not been skilled for it and the only tools they used had been the black board and the overhead-projector.

After a while, a former break room was transformed into computer room. It was always open and that gave us the opportunity to write e-mails or to look things up in our breaks or free periods.

But I have to admit that I really used these computers when I already went to higher classes, meaning from 10th grade to 13th grade. In addition, I also had to get the Internet licence before I could use the computers, but at that time we did not have a real course. It was rather one afternoon when the teacher taught us some things. In retrospective, it was rather ridiculous, because we had not learned anything,but we got the licence anyway. Nowadays, it is much more difficult.

Some years later, they constructed the other computer room. But I think we never really worked their with our teachers.

The tool of Power Point also was not really common in my schooldays. I only remember that some of my schoolmates made use of it in the 12th and 13th grade. Sometimes it also had been connected with films and other tools.

All in all, I come to the conclusion that New Media is much more integrated in school life and lessons than some years ago when I started grammar school. But nonetheless, it is mostly used with older classes, because teachers are able to do “free research” with their students. The latter do not need a helping hand and therefore the teacher has less things to do. There is also a higher usage of tools like Power Point etc.

My experiences fit the ones of current students that New Media is not really used in younger classes. To my mind, it would have been nice if I had had some more New Media in my schooldays. Finally, I believe that my grammar school might still improve a bit when it comes to New Media.

Find (online or in a magazine) a report on a teaching project with the New Media that you really liked and you think was a success (not the one you had in-class) and explain it to your readers.

I found a website, which I would consider really worth looking at. In the following, I would like to present this teaching project, the role of the students and the teacher and the use of “Old” and “New” Media.

The website already convinced me right from the start as it is structured with two languages. That means that every aspect is described in German AND in French. One could ask: “Why that?”

The institution of the “Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk” wanted to increase the number of pupils, who learn another foreign language. That’s the reason why the responsables invented the project called “Tele-Tandem”.

In this project, one class (school) from Germany works with another class (school) from France. When I read through the website, I realized that we had similar ideas in class when we had to create a poster. At that time, we should think about “the usage of the Internet by groups of pupils” with regard to intercultural and cooperative learning. We thought about an online preparation of an exchange between classes from different countries. That included research on general information about “the others”, but also creating webblogs, communicating via chat or e-mail.

The project “Tele-Tandem” included most of these aspects as well such as: “classical” lessons (teacher provides students with information about the other country), preparing and accomplishing chats and talks via webcam, using e-mail to stay in contact.

A general outline of the “Tele-Tandem” had been set up in advance by the teachers of the two classes. During the whole exchange, they stayed in contact in order to communicate about the next steps. This project should show the contrast between a “meeting situation” (->exchange) and the classical “class learning situation”. Besides, it should bring up a social and intercultural dimension and pupils would get in contact with “authentic communication”, which is one important aspect in second language acquisition.

This “new” situation (“meeting s.”) does not only enlarge the general knowledge of the students, but also improves social competences (e.g. teamwork,communication and interaction) or media competences (Power Point, Computer) . In order to create a successful project/exchange, everybody has to participate and therefore communication is needed.

The project has been divided into three parts:before the exchange, actual exchange, after the exchange

In the first part, the two classes had a conversation via webcam and worked out warrants of apprehension by using a digital camera. Furthermore, they designed a programm for their exchange and accomplished a chat in order to prepare and talk about the “real” meeting. The second part was the exchange between these classes and their teachers.

After the exchange, the two classes created several games in order to reflect their impressions. Moreover, they prepared and held another meeting via webcam. And last but not least, they send vocabulary lists to their exchange class via e-mail.

The role of the students: The project “Tele-Tandem” showed quite clearly the development of the students. In the beginning, the teacher had to explain and help a lot ; for example computer knowledge. After a while the students started to work on their own and it finally led to the autonomy of the students. That had also been one aspect I remembered from one of our online sessions (->”guided to free research/learning”). Besides, there have been three different methods of interaction between pupils:1. interaction of one German and one French pupil, 2. mixed groups of French and German pupils or 3. groups of one language (either German or French).

The role of the teacher: Firstly, both teacher have to organize and guide the whole exchange. They have to communicate with each other and they can dispense some tasks to students after a while.

The usage of “Old” and “New” Media: What I found striking was that these two classes did not only use “New Media” in their project, but on the contrary, they also included “Old stuff”. While reading through the website, I got to know that they also designed posters with their impressions or index cards with vocabulary. The latter have been scanned and sent to the exchange class.

In a nutshell, I think that this project is a success, because both sides can have their profits out of it. Pupils get to know other countries, enlarge their competences and learn how to use technical equipment correctly. I was also really surprised by the fact that they did not only use Internet (and so on), but also Power Point, Scanner etc. Besides, the exchange had been done with classes of primary schools. To my mind, one could also transfer it to 8th or 9th grade, because the knowledge of the second foreign language is not that high. Usually, German secondary schools have an exchange during that period of time. Finally, I think one could also adapt it to English-German classes.( “Tele-Tandem” had been French-German)

If you are interested in this project:

http://www.tele-tandem.org/material/aktivbi/aktivbi02.html

The first point to mention is that this online unit about “Internet Research” did not only give new useful ideas about research to me, but also deepened my prior knowledge on how to use the Internet appropriatly for myself but as well as a future teacher with my students.

 The online session opens with a general overview of the advantages and disadvantages of Internet Research. I would like to start my entry by commenting on these “two sides” of Internet Research.

Nowadays, more and more students do use the Internet in order to collect information on a certain topic. It happens that consulting books for gaining information becomes subordinate. Lots of people, and especially students, like the idea that material can be collected easily, that the access is simple and that you can work independant of time and space. Using different search engines helps to look for information more precisely and helps to avoid an overflow of data.

But at the same time it also should not be forgotten that Internet Research bears lots of dangers and therefore has also got some disadvantages. By doing data collection via the Internet, the student (or user in general) has to be aware of the fact that given material could be outdated or questionable.

Furthermore, it might happen that you are flooded with information and that you cannot really separate the relevant from the irrelevant. Besides, most of the time the given information is not evaluated and that might lead you on the wrong track. Another big danger and disadvantage of Internet Research is plagiarism, which may happen easily if students only collect data without citing its sources.

As already hinted at, there are several different tools in order to search information, such as search engines, meta-search engines and catalgues. Each of them might be useful, depending on the topic you are doing research on. The online session from the VCT-platform also gives an overview of other means of research tools, such as linklists, Wiki-websites or online dictionaries.

The second big part of the online unit deals with the extra skills students should have in order to gather data correctly and easily. Firstly, students could use the Boolean logic, meaning the three operators: OR, AND, NOT (f.ex.: dogs OR cats, dogs AND cats, dogs NOT cats) . With this method it becomes easier to look for specific material, because you can sort things out. Another useful skill is doing research with specific symbols, such as +, – or ” “. The latter is quite useful when searching whole sentences.

But there is more to it than just knowing how to browse for infomation. Students should also be aware of the quality and reliability of the shown content. In other words, they should know how to evaluate information. While collecting data, it is important to know: who is the author? what is his/her opinion? which sources have been quoted? and how updated is the shown information?

What might also indicate a good source is the correct language or orthography. If a website is weak in its language, its also rather nonprofessional and unreliable. The last important skill is how to quote sources correctly. As future teachers we have to inform our students that it is their duty to indicate their sources, because otherwise they might commit plagiarism and get into trouble. It will also be a big part for them in their future life; at least if they want to go to university and have to write term papers. There are still lots of students who commit plagiarism, because they do not quote appropriately.

The last topic of the online session deals with the methodology of Internet Research. This means that teachers have several possibilities to teach data collection. We as future teachers can decide whether we want to use guided, half-guided or free research. It may depend on the knowlegde of the class concerning the usage of Internet or on the time period of teaching (i.e. research as an introduction to a certain topic).

In a nutshell, I have to say that it was quite helpful to read through the online session in order to deepen my knowledge and to get some new ideas. What I consider the most important aspect is that we as future teachers have to inform our students about the pros AND cons of Internet Research. It may always be good to consult books and magazines as well in order to get a wide range of different points of views. So an encyclopedia may also help to find information; not only Wikipedia which may also contain wrong ideas.

Furthermore, the Internet is not always necessary, for example if you only need general aspects such as history dates, country description (i.e. spoken languages, size etc) And finally, students have to get a helping hand on how to evaluate and quote sources. But we as future teachers have also to be skilled in “Internet Research” in order to show our pupils how to work correctly. So everybody should ask himself/herself: Am I a good researcher? I would consider myself a researcher, who can still improve a bit.

In our last in-class meeting, we were asked to work in groups on specific questions concerning internet usage and the usefulness of certain learning methods. Afterwards we should go around and have a look at each of the other posters. (Like in a gallery )Our blogging task for this week was to write an entry on the posters we had created.

As I started to think about the four different posters I had seen, two of them came to my mind quite quickly. The first one was the poster concerning the “Drill&Practice” method in learning situations. The task of that group was to explain why drill & practice software is still distributed. And secondly, they should clarify if they think that it is useful.

Firstly, I really liked the animations of a heart and a lightbulb. It was not only a great idea, but also a helping hand in understanding what they tried to convey. As far as the content is concerned, I would say that it was good to indicate the two kinds of learning. I would agree on the fact that the “drill&practice”-method is useful when it comes down to vocabulary, history dates and anatomical terms. This “learning by heart” does not really demand a deep understanding on the subject. As a learner you just have to internalize facts, but you do not have to “waste time” in trying to understand them.

The group tried to illustrate with the lightbulb that the “Drill&Practice”-method is not useful in all contexts. I also think that not every subject in school can and should be “learned by heart”, but on the contrary with a sense of understanding. The group mentioned topics such as maths, text work and grammar. Others like chemistry or physics should also be learned “with understanding”. There has to be an overall knowledge and understanding of what is important in order to transfer it to other exercises (like in exams).

When it comes to languages, I would say that it might be right on the one hand that pupils can learn vocabulary with the “Drill&Practice”-method, but that on the other hand grammar cannot be learned like this. They have to understand the rules in order to produce correct sentences. We ,as teachers of at least one language, have to bear in mind that we explain to our pupils that they cannot always learn for exams by doing dull memorization of facts. Sometimes it is important to understand complexes and not only little parts. This method still exists, because it has some good arguments such as less time consuming, one can learn things by heart and the teacher might be less stressed.

All in all, I think that the group did a very nice job with their poster and it became clear that the method should be used wisely. Not every subject/topic is appropriate to be learned by “Drill&Practice”. So I would “buy” their poster.

The second poster I remembered dealt with the question whether computer skills are more essential than knowledge, social problems, reading etc.

The first point to mentioned is that the structure of the poster was quite clear. But I remembered this poster because of its content. I think that the group is right to say that new media is becoming more and more important and that computer skills are often required. But it is also important to know what is going on in the world, how to behave with others and to have other skills. What is worth having computer skills, when I do not know what had happened in the past (history of countries). To my mind, we have to bear in mind that other skills in literature, history, maths and others are way more important than computer skills. The latter might be a plus, an addition, but they cannot replace general knowledge. I would agree with the group that computer skills should not be overrated, but I would go a step further by saying that we do not want to become “experts in computer, but idiots in social behaviour and general knowledge”.

In a nutshell, I liked the ideas and the illustration of the group. They succeeded in showing the important aspects of both sides.

So firstly, I started to think about the Behavioristic Approach, which focuses on “objectively observable behaviours”. That means that behaviorists only take into consideration what they see as a reaction to a certain stimulus. Consequently, they do not examine what is happening inside of the individual; meaning the processes in the brain.

Furthermore, the Behavioristic Approach prefers the method of “Drill and Practice” and this one suggests that an individual will only learn something by repeating it all the time. The brain is considered as a “tabula rasa” or “black box” which has to be filled with information.

The second theory is the Cognitivistic Approach and this one mainly focuses on thinking and comprehension processes. This approach argues that one individual may acquire information best, if he can built it upon prior knowledge. Different to the Behaviorists, the Cognitivists focus on the sef-reflecting processes, problem-solving and reasoning abilities of an individual. A person should understand the information and not only memorize it. As the “explorative learning” is the most important method in this approach, it becomes obvious that the individual and his learning is in the center of interest to Cognitivists. This particular form of learning demands curiosity and interest of the learner and lets him explore and develop on his own.

Thirdly, the Constructivistic Approach explains learning by saying that the individual constructs his own understanding of the world by reflecting experiences. Moreover, supporters of this theory argue that one should not learn isolated facts, but on the contrary should see parts (facts) in the context of wholes. The Constructivists also claim that knowledge is constructed by the learner and NOT instructed by the teacher. (Rather learning is arranged by the teacher)

After having seen all these different theories, I come to the conclusion that the Behaviorism is too old-fashioned and limited when it comes to learning. We cannot consider our mind as a black box, which has only to be filled with information. Besides, we could only use the material we have already repeated and nothing new.

What I support about the Cognitivism is that it does not only rely on the observable facts, but also notices the mental processes of the individual. Additionally, this theory puts the learner in its research center and makes us aware of the fact that one has to memorize AND understand information.

When it comes to the Constructivism, I have to admit that I agree on the one hand with the fact that one should not learn isolated facts, but putting them in a context, but on the other hand I would disagree with the statement that one constructs knowledge out of own experiences. I think it is dangerous to argue in this way, because errors may occur and without any “external reflection” (other point of view) these might stay forever.

In a nutshell, I would say that every theory had its pros and cons depending on its time. I would prefer the theory of Cognitivism, because it sees the external and the internal processes of the learner.

To my mind, it is not appropriate to generalize on teenagers and their usage of the internet and networks like “facebook” and others. It might be true that there are teenagers who spend most of their spare time surfing on the internet and forgetting the outside world. Nonetheless, there are also others who only try to use the internet as a research source and some networks as communication platform. Furthermore it could be argued that other cultural aspects such as literature, films etc do not receive the attention they should get, but on the other hand internet and networks can help teenagers/students in order to find their role and position in the society they live in.

So I would come to the conclusion that internet is getting more and more attention nowadays, but that we should not only consider the negative aspects of it. It depends on every single person (student) in what way and in what quantity he or she wants to use the internet. Nevertheless, other areas of culture (books, films etc.) should also be integrated in life. In order to achieve this, students, teachers, family and the society should work together. I would disagree with the expert who argues that the teacher has the whole responsibility in helping teenagers to “access to the adult world”.

here is my first own blog. I will show you my blogging tasks of my “New Media” course, comments and some other things. I hope you will enjoy my blog:)

Have a nice day

Sarah