17th May 2011                                    Task 2: Field Trip

During our last weeks session, 10th May 2011, our New Media class visited a school in Marburg to take a closer look at their media equipment and to figure out to what extent present day schools are provided with media. Thus, we found out how new media is used in todays schools.  
For this meeting our lecturer had arranged an appointment with a young teacher of the schools teaching staff, who gave us a guided tour through the building and the different classrooms.

We started our visit with the staff room on the ground level. The staff room contained two computers for the schools media booking system. This system offers the possibility to book media equipment, such as projectors, laptops, DVD players, overhead projectors, or even the computer laps beforehand, to make sure that they are still available. Consequently, it is also possible to find out which equipment is not booked yet and, therefore, available for own usage. Furthermore, the teachers use the system to enroll class tests to make sure that the pupils have no more than three tests per week. Additionally, the staff room comprises a media cabinet. This cupboard contains various useful types of new media equipment, for example, projectors, laptops, loudspeakers and a so called PW-presenter (created by the Politics and Economy department). This is a big suitcase where they attached one projector, one laptop and speakers to have everything joined together in one suitcase which is really handy for taking it to the different classrooms.

In the hallway and in the teacher´s lounge are flat screens which provide the sickness cover schedule. This schedule is also available online for students and parents. But online it is not possible to find out which teacher is missing.

Our next stop was the library which included many different types of books as well as four computers with internet access.  The pupils are allowed to use these computers during their breaks or free periods. This access is only possible if the students register with a specific ID containing the signature of a parent which permits internet usage. Our guiding teacher told us that there are still some pupils who are not allowed to use the internet access due to parents concerns. Nevertheless, it is always allowed if the students use the computer and internet for in-class sessions and, therefore, for important research and under the strict supervision of the responsible teacher.

On the opposite side of the hallway we took a look at the photocopy room of the school. They own three copy machines and every teacher is provided with 2500 photocopies per term. Especially for literature based subjects it is really difficult to make all necessary copies for the overall 1200 students of the school.

Afterwards we visited different classrooms of the school and observed how these rooms are provided with new media equipment. The school has 7 classrooms (ca. every second classroom) equipped with a media cabinet which contains all the needed media equipment, such as, a flat screen, loudspeakers, a laptop. If necessary the teachers are able to switch classrooms with a neighboring class to have access to a cupboard for their teaching unit.

Furthermore, the school owns a laptop carriage which has enough laptops for one class aivailable. The difficulty with this wagon is that teachers tend to forget to plug the laptops in after the usage and, consequently, the next teacher needs to take the whole wagon into class which gets really complicated if they need to switch levels within the building.

The whole school has two SmartBoards, whereas, one of them is only for the biology department. The second SmartBoard is available for other classes. Pupils and teachers are able to work with it during classes and even during the breaks to achieve a good knowledge of how to use this new media tool.

For completing our field trip we took a look at the two computer laps of the school. It is possible for teachers to use the two rooms either together or separately, since they are only divided by a movable wooden slide door. The computer equipment of these rooms is new and most often two pupils share one computer during class. The teacher´s computer is provided with the Master-I-Tool which is necessary for using the computers with a whole class. The teacher is able to have an overview of each computer on his/her own screen to observe what the students are doing and when. Using this tool the teacher is able to blog computers if pupils are using irrelevant pages, such as, facebook, studivz, twitter, etc. during class and, furthermore, he/she is even able to continue what the affected pupil was doing on the computer before.

As a conclusion I can say that our field trip was really interesting for me. First of all I was surprised how well equipped the school is compared to my own school some years ago. Thus, I was able to observe that the availability and the usage of new media equipment has increased in present day schools. But during a conversation with the teacher at the end of the field trip it got clear that the equipment is still not sufficient.

    (Old school equipment is replaced by new media equipment bit by bit)

The city of Marburg provides 100.000€ per year for new media equipment for all of Marburg´s schools. Considering the costs of ca. 4000€ for only one SmartBoard this amount is not enough. But, nevertheless, the schools will get better equipment bit by bit since due to the national curriculum the usage of new media gets more and more important within teaching plans.

Thus, from my point of view it was really surprising to hear that the minority of teachers are able to actually use the provided media equipment. Furthermore, advanced training regarding the use of media equipment are not well attended.
Considering the fast development of media, in my opinion, teachers need to develop a stronger interest and willingness for the usage of media within class.

For me the field trip pointed out that it is really important to get to know all the different tools of new media which makes the course New Media at university necessary for future teachers.