What is the situation with the digitization of German schools? When I left Germany 4 years ago, things were in bad shape. Cell phone bans in German classrooms, tablets and laptops were extremely rarely seen in the hands of students during lessons, whiteboards with projectors were still found in classrooms, as were overhead projectors and classic chalkboards. Worksheets, copy templates, and folders were piled up in the staff rooms.
The Internet ran through various servers, but nobody could really explain why and where it actually came from and how the school system was to be digitized.
When I moved to China, I sat in front of my scanner for hours and digitized life in my 40 square meter apartment and put it on hard drives. Everything I wanted to travel with should be available to me digitally and apart from one or two things that I would have liked to have had with me on my far too long trip to the Middle Kingdom, I was perfectly prepared to travel anywhere in the world to be able to teach.
Today, almost five years later, I find mixed feedback in the news about Germany. Some schools seem to have caught up and digitized significantly, precisely because of the Covid-19 pandemic, while others are lagging behind and are barely able to keep up with the 'new' media.
On the one hand, of course, this is due to the financing backlog. If you don't have a well-equipped building, an intact gymnasium, and you've overstretched your book budget, you can't think about digitization or you will inevitably be faced with the question of who should pay for the costs, maintenance of the devices, programming and professional training.
On the other hand, there is also a certain inertia among Germans to commit to digitization, to find suitable systems, to try out new things and to initiate digitization in the microcosm of the classroom. Teachers who are afraid of losing control when learners put their smartphones and tablets on the table, who break out in a cold sweat at the thought of data backup, protection of personal rights, and the use of social media, have probably already resigned themselves and will except for a little research homework, not be able to get anything out of it.
But the counter-movement is already on its way. Teachers with tablets in front of the class, online classrooms like the programs here on the website, podcasts, YouTube videos from teachers and students are already on the way. The digital revolution in Germany's schools will take a long time, but it will come and it will develop slowly at first, but then steadily until every learner in Germany and around the world has the right and the opportunity to continue their education and it doesn't matter whether online, offline, at school, from home, or on the go.
Lifelong learning and digital learning are unfulfilled promises made to my generation and I will strive to continually work to keep those promises for generations to come.
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