You can only explain something you have understood. This is the guiding principle of a project at the University of Bremen that supports inclusive teaching with digital media at the Oberschule im Park in Bremen-Oslebshausen. Now it has been awarded the Innovationspreis der Sieben Faulen.
Whether arithmetic, stochastics, or geometry – the topics students deal with in mathematics lessons are diverse. How is it possible to convey the learning material in such a way that the pupils really internalize it in a heterogeneous class? In the project, girls and boys in the 5th to 7th grades will develop explanatory videos with tablets, among other things, which they receive as part of the university project. They are supported by students from the University of Bremen and their teachers. “If you want to explain something, you have to understand it first,” says project manager Professor Karsten D. Wolf of the University of Bremen. The explanatory videos are a good didactic method for imparting knowledge, according to the media educator.
“Experience Yourself as Capable.”
It is important to the scientist that the children are not only individually supported with digital exercises, but that they also create their own explanatory videos in groups. “We want the pupils to develop an approach to the teaching topics that is personally relevant to them. The ideal is when they experience themselves as being capable,” emphasizes Wolf. In the digital media, he sees high potential to support internally differentiated teaching, which is also necessary through inclusion today. The aim of the project is to develop innovative didactic methods for digitally supported teaching and learning in schools and to test them in practice together with students and teachers at schools. “In essence, the aim is to support the children individually and to remedy possible learning deficits in the long term. The project also supports their social skills, because to create a video like this, they have to cooperate with each other,” says Wolf. “I am very pleased that our work is now being supported further by this award.”
Cross-School Collegial Continuing Education Planned
The findings and results of the project are to be made available to all schools in Bremen, not only via the state-wide learning platform “itslearning.” Next year, the Oberschule im Park wants to test innovative continuing education formats together with the university in order to further develop digital concepts for other school subjects and to exchange ideas with other schools. “The award confirms that we do not see digital education as an end in itself, but rather as an added value in the classroom,” says school principal Monika Steinhauer. “Digital terminals and carefully selected software are one thing,” says the teacher. However, it always requires a suitable didactic concept, too. The prize money could now be used to develop this further.
The University Assumes Social Responsibility
“We are very happy about this award and congratulate Karsten D. Wolf and his team as well as the Oberschule im Park,” says the President of the University of Bremen, Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter. Together with the mathematician Heinz-Otto Peitgen, the university management had considered how the educational sector in Bremen could be strengthened through cooperation between the university and civil society within the framework of a corporate social responsibility project at the end of 2017. Professor Karsten D. Wolf and his team’s project is a good example of living transfer into society. “The award shows us that this is also the view in Bremen,” says the President.
About the Innovationspreis der Sieben Faulen
The Innovationspreis der Sieben Faulen is awarded every two years in seven categories by the association Die sieben Faulen. It was inspired by the legend by Friedrich Wagenfeld about seven lazy brothers on the Weser. They always created new ideas that made their lives easier, nicer, and more enjoyable.
Additional Information:
Watch a short video about the project http://bit.ly/7Faulen
www.die-sieben-faulen.de/
www.uni-bremen.de/juergens-stiftung
www.uni-bremen.de/peitgen-stiftung
www.uni-bremen.de/en/
Contact:
Professor Karsten D. Wolf
Research Lab “Media Education and Educational Media” (LAB)
Center for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI)
Phone: +49-421-2186-9140
Mobile: +49-157-8507-6065
E-Mail: wolfprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
