SYou operate the smartphone with virtuosity. When it comes to using digital media, students are way ahead of their teachers. At least that’s the cliché. But does someone posting snapshots, memes, and funny videos on Instagram and Tiktok mean they know something about computers and information technology? Günter Howand is skeptical. “The digital natives no longer look under the hood,” he says.
Howand has been teaching students how computers work for more than forty years. First as a teacher at primary and special schools, since his retirement as a freelancer at a media center. His first computer was a Commodore 64. Since then, technology has advanced rapidly and Howand has tried to keep up.
Four 3D printers are on the shelf behind him. Circuit boards, cables and kits lie in front of him. Howind shows how to set them in motion with motors and commands. Add a Lego man and the remote-controlled car is complete. Howand believes that there is not enough time in Hessian schools to convey such content in a playful way. Hesse is “very far behind”, because an optional course in computer science at the upper level is not enough. “You can start with basic IT education in the third and fourth grade,” he says.
Invitation to try
But this requires not only political guidelines and resources, but also qualified teachers. In order to reduce teachers’ fears of contact, the city of Frankfurt has now opened a learning center where teachers are trained in digitization and computer science. The room called “Maker Space” in the basement of the education department looks like a workshop. Screwdrivers, hammers and other tools hang on the wall, a soldering iron stands on the table. That’s on purpose, says Merten Giesen, who heads the media center. “This should invite you to try it out. You learn by doing something and realizing your own projects.”
For example, the teachers try out for themselves how to build small circuits, close circuits and program simple devices. “Research-based learning” is what Sylvia Weber (SPD), head of the education department, calls this and adds: “We need teachers with a different attitude than we are often used to.” Because especially when it comes to technical content, many teachers first have to admit their incompetence and be ready to to go new ways and to learn new things.
“What many teachers don’t have is the courage to do something new,” says Giesen. In the “Maker Space” the teachers learn in small groups how they can easily integrate computer technology into their lessons. With the help of a vibration motor, a battery and a capacitor, the head of a toothbrush turns into a creepy crawly that darts across the tabletop. Teachers can also put on data glasses in the room undisturbed and familiarize themselves with the topic of augmented reality without fear of embarrassing themselves in front of their students if not every move is correct.
Experiment independently
It is the first such offer in Hesse. The training courses are offered four days a week in the afternoon, two days of which are taken on by trainers from the Hessian Teachers’ Academy and the Media Center Frankfurt, which cooperates with the city. The project is financed by the city and the state of Hesse.
Ingo Antony, who heads the media department at the Hessian Teachers’ Academy, wants to measure the success of the project based on one principle: “What we do must be visible in the school.” That’s why the teachers can also get kits and others after their training Borrow technical equipment and take it with you to class. Even four 3D printers can be borrowed. Teaching materials are also provided. Because the “worst case” is when the students can’t do anything with the technology in class, says Antony.
In the foreground of the “Maker Space” is the idea of experimenting independently in an open learning workshop and realizing projects. Paul Wege, who teaches at KGS Niederrad, puts it this way: “Grabbing and understanding are so close together.”
