First of all, there are no laptop classrooms, but some computer labs. They are available for every teacher and course and one has to register for the use in a list beforehand. Additionally, every teacher can use WLAN in every room of the school. The whole equipment is financed by the state of Hesse.

Students start working with the computer at grade 5. They have to take part in a project for six weeks in which they learn the basic principles for working with a computer. After that, several methods (like e.g. how to work with blogs) are taught in combination with the different subjects.

What is special about the Alfed-Wegener-Schule is that they have a Lernwerkstatt. This is a room in which several different media is situated and be combined for research and learning. In this case, the room combines a library, several computers and some separated rooms to work in groups without disturbing the other students. The room is highly frequented and makes working with larger classes much easier.

For the Oberstufe exists a similar room which is called the OAB (OberstufenArbeitsBücherei). This is a combination of a library, several “Computerinseln” and a larger table for group work. It also includes a smartboard which unfortunately is not used very frequently since it is moveable and therefore it takes some time to set it up.

Now, let’s come to the questions we posted some weeks ago to prepare for the trip:

1.            Are there any introductory courses as well as further training on the subject of new mediafor teachers?

When they began to set up rooms for the teaching with new media, every teacher was trained to become familiar with the technology and how to make use of it in classes. This happened about seven years ago and today nearly every teacher makes use of the new media classrooms. But if any teacher feels the need of support or instruction, they can always ask for it.

2.            How many teachers use new media in their English classroom and how frequently is it used in the course of a school year?

We did not get any concrete numbers but almost all of the teachers make use of the computer labs very frequently. Nevertheless it is not too hard to register for the room one or two weeks before you want to make use of it. Additionally, many teachers use new media for projects so that computers are used over a larger time span during the course of a school year.

3.            Do younger teachers use new media more often than older ones?

In general, this is true. Some of the older teachers are inhibited and feel that they are not trained enough to use new media in their classroom. Others do not want to learn about the usage of new media since they leave school in a few years anyway.  Besides, one can say that some teachers use the computer labs too often while others use them too little.

4.            Is there sufficient equipment and is it working properly?

Some of the rooms are being renovated at the moment, so that one can say the equipment is up-to-date. Nevertheless, students have to work in groups of three or four sometimes, which many teachers do not see as a problem but as an opportunity. Today, the school does not even have to maintain the computers by itself but there are two supporters which are employees of the county and can be called any time. Therefore, nearly all the computers in a room are in order.

5.            How do students react to new media in the English classroom? Do they have more fun and learn better or are they distracted more easily?

Unfortunately, we did not get the answer to the first question but we were told how students are stopped from getting distracted. The teacher’s computer contains software which allows him to see all the screens of the students on his own one. Most of the teachers then project this screen on the wall so that the whole course is able to see it. According to experience, the students start to correct and advise themselves and no one will visit web pages with adult content since they find it to embarrassing that everyone can see what they are doing.

“A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet.”

Our most important question afterwards was how to actually create a WebQuest when you are not familiar with HTML. But we soon realised that the technical basics can be quite elementary, if you decide to use either a special programme for creating WebQuests or simply create a blog.

The following links show you programmes you can use for free to create your own WebQuest. The first one is a little bit more complicated, because you have to become a member to get access and furthermore there are different advertisements displayed on your later WebQuest. You should choose the second option when you simply want to create a WebQuest that is not too fancy. The advantage there is that you do not have to register and the process of creation is rather short.

Option 1: http://wizard.webquests.ch/

Option 2: http://www.aula21.net/Wqfacil/webeng.htm

Of course you can use a blog for your WebQuest as well, but it is slightly more work to do and you always have to create a new blog when you want to do a new WebQuest. In addition, if you have a topic that you want to base your WebQuest on it is always helpful to look for an existing WebQuest on the internet. You can find different WebQuests on www.lehrer-online.de or by using search engines like google.

Finally, we will give you three examples of WebQuest that we considered appealing.

WebQuest on Shakespeare: http://questgarden.com/12/41/2/051211180136/t-index.htm

WebQuest on Ireland: http://www.student.uni-oldenburg.de/karsten.sill/irelandwebquest/

WebQuest on the American Dream: http://wizard.webquests.ch/dreams.html

We hope that we could give you a short overview about WebQuests and maybe even encouraged you to use a WebQuest in your lesson as well!

1) visualisation

2) didactic aspects

3) reliability

4) age of target group

5) level of education

6) the content-relatedness

7) trained skills.

We found a lot of entertaining but rather inappropriate games. But one webpage we found quite useful. So we would like to comment on this: http://www.learnenglish.de/gamespage.htm. Our evaluation according to the criteria mentioned above, looks as follows:

1) The opening page looks quite simple and uninviting. It is poorly structured and full of advertisements.

2) The games themselves are colorful and thus motivating. Most games remind of popular games and quiz- shows like “hangman” or “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”. There are useful hints that help the student to solve the problems. Moreover the students are encouraged to be active themselves.

3) Because the website does not give any information about respective sources, you should be careful when using it and as a teacher check the games before you present it to your students.

4) The games are not structured according to age and you should find suitable games yourself. Nevertheless there are games for every age bracket.

5) As already pointed out you should be careful when using the different games in class. All in all, it makes more sense to do the games with classes who are on a lower level, because most exercises are relatively easy (e.g. students play hangman with animal names).

6) The page is divided into clear categories like games (for example “hangman”), quizzes that are mostly concerned with content- questions and tests (for example about homophones or spelling). In the “main menu” you find general information about the English language and the country and its culture itself.  From our point of view this site offers a very wide range of different things to learn and read. This might be confusing. Moreover the categories are quite “seperated” from one antother. Either you choose to do a task on grammar or have a look on English shops in the form of pictures. Thus, the different categories are not integrative. There does not seem to be an underlying general concept or clearly defined aim of this website. Nonetheless, if you don’t know what you want to look for, this site might provide a comprehensive insight into British life.

7) As the webpage says in the very beginning, most of the tasks are designed to train vocabulary and grammar skills. Especially the different “hangman” games are helpful to enlarge your students lexicon. Other games like e.g. “A, an or nothing” can be seen as an alternative to gap texts to practice the use of determiners. Additionally, every game advances your students reading skills since they have to read the instructions and tasks. “Hangman” also encourages writing skills since you have to spell the answer correctly. One game, which is called “Homophones” even trains listening skills because the player has to find two words that sound the same but have a different meaning.

We hope our little evaluation was helpful. If you have gotten curious now, please feel free to explore the game-page yourself.

1) Are there any introductory courses as well as further training on the subject of new media for teachers?

2) How many teachers use new media in their English classroom and how frequently is it used in the course of a school year?

3) Do younger teachers use new media more often than older ones?

4) Is there sufficient equipment and is it working properly?

5) How do pupils react to new media in the English classroom? Do they have more fun and learn better or are they more easily distracted?

We will let you know how the teachers answered to the questions and how our own impression of the school was like! Stay tuned!

Now you are ready to set it up!

Plug in all the power cables! Now it is time for the VGA cable: Plug it into the computer or laptop first and make sure that you use the input signal. Now plug the other side into the video projector. If you want to use the speakers, you can plug them in as well.  So now the plugging is done!

It is time to switch on the beamer! There are handy feet under the beamer that you can use to adjust it correctly.  The VGA cable isn’t working? Sometimes you have to use a special combination of keys (e.g.  Fn+F5) to activate the VGA output. If you see a picture, make sure that it is sharp by using the focus.

Yeah, you finally made it! Congrats!