The digitization of education offers material for discussions. Both parents and representatives of politics, education, business and the media world unanimously state that there have been omissions for decades. We now have to catch up on this – but we have to do it the right way.
The plan to digitize German school education is often viewed as a temporary challenge that one wants to master at some point. However, this approach does not do justice to the matter – because the digitization of education is an ongoing task.
Providing a powerful digital infrastructure and equipping schools with tablets and software solutions is just the start.
The actual task is much greater: It consists of establishing technical and logistical, but above all didactic-methodical standards for schools and continuously using and developing them.
After all, the world doesn’t stand still. Operating digital standards also includes sustainably promoting the digital skills of teachers and providing schools with permanent professional IT support.
School digital pact: gap between well-intentioned and well-done
In principle, schools are to be equated with companies. You have a workforce, management and day-to-day operations. So it is obvious that they should also have an IT department.
Schools can often only dream of this. Because when it comes to digital matters, school management is often left to fend for itself.
They are required to first report their digital needs to the respective school authorities and then create a media development plan (MEP). However, it is not always obvious at first glance what exactly it must contain.
There is ambiguity with regard to IT support, for example, because it causes running costs. The school authorities fear that they will be left alone with these costs once the current support programs have expired.
As a result, they mainly order hardware and software. This probably explains why only a fraction of the 500 million euros that the federal government made available for school IT administration in November 2020 has been accessed so far.
From this it is already clear how little expedient it is to want to digitize the school education system with limited funds or programs.
The digitization of education is a task for society as a whole
This is not to say that the reason for the sluggish digitalization of education can only be found in excessive bureaucracy and that politics alone is responsible for it.
In fact, there are many more responsible actors – and they are all called upon to approach the matter differently than before.
If the digital transformation process is to succeed, everyone involved – i.e. school authorities, teachers, parents, the ministries of education and universities as well as global solution providers (or the economy in general) – must do their part.
It is still possible today to complete a teaching degree without ever taking a course on the subject of digital teaching media. This is no longer up to date.
Modern teacher training must take into account the innovative dynamics in the field of educational technologies. Experienced as well as prospective teachers have the duty to deal with the possibilities of digital knowledge transfer under the primacy of pedagogy.
>>Read here: Advisors to the Ministers of Education call for greater digitization of teaching
In fact, the digitization of education is a task for society as a whole. Each group has its task:
politics
Politicians must understand that the funding program philosophy does not go far enough. Instead, standards are needed for a sustainable school; In addition, the training of teachers must be supplemented or expanded to include digital topics.
The digital pact is a good approach, but it must not expire at some point, but should be made permanent.
Business
In addition to hardware and software, business must also provide comprehensive IT services for educational institutions (including hotline, remote maintenance, etc.).
This service must enable schools to fully exploit the potential of new media and offer digitized teaching without technical failures. IT service should become an integral part of digital education.
schools
Teachers must have more confidence in dealing with digital technology. Today there are far-reaching opportunities for adults to familiarize themselves with digital offerings.
Teachers who have some catching up to do should use them. To do this, however, they need an appropriate infrastructure.
And, of course, you shouldn’t burden them with acquiring the necessary digital skills in their free time and on their own initiative. Further training should be integrated into the teaching load.
parents
Parents need to take the issue of media education seriously and accept that digital technology has a permanent place in schools today. It must be the common educational goal of school and legal guardians to give adolescents sovereignty in dealing with modern media.
Such sovereignty not only includes the safe operation of digital devices, but also, for example, the conscious use of social networks.
Model Denmark: Every school has its own digital budget
The corona pandemic has revealed how far behind we are compared to other European countries.
Things are certainly not as bad as they were in 2018, when Germany only came 76th (out of 78 countries surveyed) in a special evaluation of the worldwide PISA data on the digital equipment of schools. However, we still have some catching up to do.
This becomes particularly clear when we compare ourselves with Denmark, a model country with regard to digitized knowledge transfer: There, teachers are equipped with digital service devices and the availability of WLAN in schools is practically nationwide.
Accordingly, digital media are used four times as often for school-related purposes as in Germany. The Danish lead is not only due to better foresight (Denmark began investing heavily in school digitization as early as 2012).
It also stems from the fact that the decision-making paths in our Nordic neighbors are considerably shorter than in ours. In Denmark, for example, every school has a budget for the purchase of digital teaching aids, which it can use according to its own needs.
The digital transformation process in the education sector is so complex that it cannot be scheduled for a specific period of time. It’s not about mastering a project, but about making the teaching of school education contemporary, now and in the future.
This requires staying power – and short paths when applying for funds.
The authors:
Stefanie Kreusel is Group Commissioner for Digital Education and Schools at Deutsche Telekom and a member of the Supervisory Board.
Heinz Peter Meidinger is President of the German Teachers’ Association.
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