Johanna Schicker’s Weblog

The week before Christmas we visited the Landschulheim Steinmühle which is a private school in Cappel – near Marburg. We got a guided tour through the school and had the possibility to talk to two teachers in order to answer our question, e.g.:

• Do the students have obligatory lessons on computer skills? If so, how many and what are the students supposed to do?
• To what extent do teachers involve the internet and new media tools into their lessons?

Regarding my first question I was quite positive impressed by the answer: The students at the Steinmühle have to do computer science in grade 6 and 7 and from grade 9 until 11.  In grade 8, 12 and 13 they can choose it as an optional subject. Students get familiarized with the Microsoft office package, have to do text processing as well as learning how to create a successful power point presentation and to work with Java script. Besides that, the main focus is on how to use the internet in an appropriate way and making students aware of the danger of using “SchülerVZ” and “ICQ”. In my opinion, the teacher of the Steinmühle earn a big applause for their exemplary involvement of computer science in school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Concerning my second questions – to what extend teachers make use of new media in their lessons- I was also impressed by the answer of Mrs. Sperl who works as an English teacher. She tries to involve the work with an E-Workbook once a week in order to give especially younger students the chance to improve their language skills and work on individual problems like grammar or lack of vocabulary. Furthermore, Mrs. Sperl appreciates internet research and the use of an online dictionary which should be guided in younger classes and can be autonomously in the upper school. Additionally, the school plans a multidisciplinary project about Australia for next term. Students will have the possibility to do some internet research in order to get some information about the continent and its history and to prepare a power point presentation to present their results and so on.

Mrs. Sperl also mentioned that it depends on the class and the subject whether the use of new media is appropriate or not. But in general, it is a common alternative to traditional methods.

All in all I think that the trip was worth it. I especially liked the idea of “mobile laptop station” which enables the teacher to bring laptops with them into their lessons in order to use the PC room. Furthermore I was impressed by the statement that all the computer science teachers evaluate and revise the syllabus each term in order to discuss current problems of  new media with the students or to familiarize them with new programs etc. In my opinion, students of the Landschulheim Steinmühle can be happy to enjoy such a good computer training. Other schools – especially my old grammar school – should take this school as an example!!!!!!!