The project “Remote Schools” aims to connect interested schools in the Southeastern European region and, with the Goethe-Institute’s support, enable school boards as well as German teachers to try out models for goal-oriented and motivated German teaching in remote mode. The aim is to discuss the procedures and methods tested at pilot schools with education partners in a concluding symposium and to convert them into long-term local educational structures.
The Covid-19-crisis and the resulting closing of schools and home-schooling situation has met not only teachers and students with extraordinary challenges, but also the school administration and the ministries of education: How can standard classroom communication be transferred to a child’s room in their own home? How much “online”-behavior can and should you expect from students? How is educational content taught digitally and how can goals be reached in spite of a change in format? And most of all: How can I, as a teacher, motivate my students to learn (German) independently?
Successful socially distanced learning and teaching requires a functional interplay of organization, people, and technology: Schools and teachers must succeed in organizing and creating socially distanced learning; Students and parents need structures for lessons at home, and digital solutions are needed in order to make educational content and exercises available at home and to enable a socially distanced exchange.
Even though the Covid-19-pandemic represents a temporary, exceptional situation: Concepts and materials for home-schooling, independent e-learning and digital forms of communication with students and parents will be of great importance for everyone involved, even after the crisis.
The project ”Remote Schools” aims to connect interested schools in the Southeastern European region and, with the Goethe-Institute’s support, enable school boards as well as German teachers to try out models for goal-oriented and motivated German teaching in remote mode. The aim is to discuss the procedures and methods tested at pilot schools with education partners in a concluding symposium and to convert them into long-term local educational structures.
Please download the German-English brochure on the project with interesting articles and interviews on the subject of distance learning!
During the Covid-19-pandemic, teachers were required to move their previous lessons in physical presence to online meeting rooms within the shortest time. Many teachers have achieved considerable things in this time period, but looking back, the question arises which digital competencies a teacher needs in order to act confidently within the virtual teaching and learning space and to enable holistic online learning. In this module, participating German teachers will analyze their current digital competency based on theDigCompEdu (European frame for Digital Competency of Educators). The frame of reference will serve as both a base of communication and tool for establishing goals with the school administration and higher educational ministries. The areas of competency within DigCompEdu take a central role in this module. Participants develop strategies together in order to evolve their digital competencies in an area of their choice.
Methodical didactic knowledge of foreign language teaching is a central requirement for teachers’ successful lesson planning. This also applies to online classes. Nevertheless, teaching classes in a virtual space requires a different perspective in planning and, through the medium of online teaching, creates new formats of communication for teachers and students. Therefore, this module covers the balance and interweaving of synchronic and asynchronic learning in order to activate students in live online classes, develop strategies for collaborative learning, support learner’s autonomy and working with digital learning materials. Participants will view methodical didactic questions of teaching and learning in the virtual space, get to know tools and ideas for digital classes and develop their own phase of teaching to activate students.
As the term “socially distanced learning” suggests, this form of interaction does not automatically create a sense of closeness or trust among participants. A recurring topic at the moment is social isolation and loneliness as a result of home schooling. Teachers complain that students not turning their cameras on creates a lack of resonance. However, there are methods of creating closeness and establishing relationships even when distanced – both with students and their parents. In this module, participants will deal with the question: How is it possible to motivate students, break through the distance and be actively involved? Feedback methods and suitable channels of communication are also a part of this module.
Online classes and socially distanced learning require organizational and administrative capabilities and structures just as classes in physical presence do, only in a different way. How can performance be measured and exams be conducted online? How are parent-teacher consultations and communication with parents created online? Which technical equipment does a school need in order to establish successful socially distanced learning and how does this relate to data security? These are all new topics teachers and especially school administration must deal with. In this module, participants will exchange best practice examples and find new ways of integrating distanced learning into daily school life, of establishing reliable structures and further developing them through task forces at the school.
During the Covid-19-pandemic, teachers were required to move their previous lessons in physical presence to online meeting rooms within the shortest time. Many teachers have achieved considerable things in this time period, but looking back, the question arises which digital competencies a teacher needs in order to act confidently within the virtual teaching and learning space and to enable holistic online learning. In this module, participating German teachers will analyze their current digital competency based on theDigCompEdu (European frame for Digital Competency of Educators). The frame of reference will serve as both a base of communication and tool for establishing goals with the school administration and higher educational ministries. The areas of competency within DigCompEdu take a central role in this module. Participants develop strategies together in order to evolve their digital competencies in an area of their choice.
Online classes and socially distanced learning require organizational and administrative capabilities and structures just as classes in physical presence do, only in a different way. How can performance be measured and exams be conducted online? How are parent-teacher consultations and communication with parents created online? Which technical equipment does a school need in order to establish successful socially distanced learning and how does this relate to data security? These are all new topics teachers and especially school administration must deal with. In this module, participants will exchange best practice examples and find new ways of integrating distanced learning into daily school life, of establishing reliable structures and further developing them through task forces at the school.
Remote learning causes changes that affect the school development process. This process is institutional and includes areas of organizational development, human resource development, teaching development, cooperation development and technology development. But what has to change in the process of digitization and distance learning? What is behind terms such as “interdisciplinary planning groups”, “professional learning communities” or “resource-oriented coaching”? How can you create structures at school for project teaching and self-organized learning? In this module we will provide answers to these questions and discuss them together.
The digitalization of the learning and teaching world is representative of a general change in paradigms of school-related development: Schools are being requested to adapt to dynamics and changes in the (digital) world and simultaneously help mold it creatively. Schools are becoming mirror images of society, they move alongside it and within themselves. Analogue to this development, expectations of the role of schoolboard administration are also changing: Alongside a stabilizing leading and guiding function, they increasingly lend support to their schools in helping flexibilize processes which enable new (digital) approaches. In this workshop, we will deal with the challenges schoolboard administration faces in times of permanent change, as well as agile management in school administration.
“What we are currently experiencing is often not digital teaching, but digitalized classroom teaching (offline). Teachers try to organize their online lessons with the resources available to them, without having the necessary knowledge and skills. Sustainable and consistent promotion of digital skills is necessary to prevent this development.”
“Everyone is talking about the coming normality. We want to take off beyond the norm. Digitalization in the hands of well prepared schools can be transformational and can take us off beyond the norm.”
“I think that good distance teaching can be a good alternative to achieve the learning goals.
We have to rethink a bit and be brave to try new things.”
“Just as my everyday life is digital, for me, learning is always digital learning. For me as a trainer and teacher, this means above all a lot of creativity, rethinking and experimenting - and having the courage to think and do things completely differently - even if it can go wrong.”
“Just as in face-to-face courses, learners in digital learning formats need time and space to develop conducive relations: only when this works out well can learners handle the subject matter in a cooperative and interactive way. Especially in digital formats, building relations requires special attention from teachers:”
„Right now it’s easy to focus on all the challenges and problems – however, some things are positive an encouraging: increasing digital knowledge among teachers and students, closer relations between parents, teachers and students and an enourmous amount of creativity and engagement to prepare the kids for their future. There is no better motivation for me!“
“Teaching digital skills is no more important today than it was before the pandemic - it was insufficient before and still is. What has increased in a wide range (among teachers, learners and parents) is the willingness to recognize the need to develop digital skills for the professional world of tomorrow and to demand that they be imparted in training and school. This opportunity should be used!”
Remote schooling during and after the coronavirus pandemic
The remote schooling has released a lot of potential in the schools of Southeast Europe in recent months, which is worth pursuing and developing further even after the pandemic.
Digital Skills for Teachers– more important than ever!
The main task of teachers is teaching and supporting the learning of learners. They should therefor (also) have skills to allow them to design their teaching using digital media, i.e., digitalise their teaching.
Profiting from globalized and individually adjustable digital preforms for educational content, able to transform the way children learn and develop skills, the school can preserve its socializing function, strengthen it and even turn it into its raison d'être.
Projects and Blended Learning as Cornerstones of Future-Orientated Learning Culture
The period of digitally supported distance learning has shown, despite all their limitations, the pedagogical potential of digital systems, if they are orchestrated in asynchronous teaching settings so that learning can be increasingly personalised.
Contact
Your contact person for all questions about the project:
Susanne Wunderlich, Goethe-Institut Bulgarien remote-schools@goethe.de
