Task 5: Evaluation of the Class
The class „New Media in Foreign Language Education“ was a very unusual, but interesting class. It was supposed to develop and train competences in the field of new media and their usage in the English classroom and introduced the class to a lot of interesting and useful tools, options and ideas for future teaching. Setting up an own webpage with weebly.com was very useful to organize the assignments of the class and it trained the use of such web sides. Also the collection of the tools used in class was quite good. Besides from weebly.com, tools like “delicious”, “netvibes” etc. were introduced, but also useful methods of working with new media in everyday school life. The tools introduced were only used in separate sessions of class, but it would have been good to have an overview about all these web sides and tools used in class and their purpose. For example, in one session, consisting of a group work with different tasks, such as creating a comic or a timeline, several tools had been chosen to work with, but because of the limited amount of time in class, not everybody was able to use every tool and do every task.
Another interesting aspect of the class was the field trip to Martin Luther Schule where the group learned about the every-day use of media in a school. It was a little bit surprising that the school does not rely on new media that much, but mostly uses the “Mitteilungsbuch” to communicate between teachers and only deals with new media in certain fields. But the deputy headmaster who showed the class around explained interesting facts about the usage of media, such as an interactive whiteboard for natural sciences and art, but also the “Digitale Schultasche” which is a very good method for students to get involved with certain tools and programs. Along with that, the third task of the course was very interesting and practical. It was good to have two certain budgets for buying media equipment for a school and to try to set preferences and priorities according to the money available.
All in all, the seminar introduced a lot of new ways and methods for future teaching and showed how to deal with new media in school. It trained media competence and the right usage of certain medial aspects. Also equipment as the interactive whiteboard was introduced and one learned how to use it, which will be very important in the future development of schools. And besides all the introduced media, critical aspects of new media were discussed in the seminar, especially according to internet security for students, which is very helpful and necessary in these days. But not only was the seminar helpful according to the students future career, it also was a lot of fun to deal with the certain aspects of new media. Finally, one can say that it was a good seminar.
Another interesting aspect of the class was the field trip to Martin Luther Schule where the group learned about the every-day use of media in a school. It was a little bit surprising that the school does not rely on new media that much, but mostly uses the “Mitteilungsbuch” to communicate between teachers and only deals with new media in certain fields. But the deputy headmaster who showed the class around explained interesting facts about the usage of media, such as an interactive whiteboard for natural sciences and art, but also the “Digitale Schultasche” which is a very good method for students to get involved with certain tools and programs. Along with that, the third task of the course was very interesting and practical. It was good to have two certain budgets for buying media equipment for a school and to try to set preferences and priorities according to the money available.
All in all, the seminar introduced a lot of new ways and methods for future teaching and showed how to deal with new media in school. It trained media competence and the right usage of certain medial aspects. Also equipment as the interactive whiteboard was introduced and one learned how to use it, which will be very important in the future development of schools. And besides all the introduced media, critical aspects of new media were discussed in the seminar, especially according to internet security for students, which is very helpful and necessary in these days. But not only was the seminar helpful according to the students future career, it also was a lot of fun to deal with the certain aspects of new media. Finally, one can say that it was a good seminar.
