13th December 2011
Future of New Media.
_ Future. It is not easy to predict, what will happen in the future. Who would have thought 300 years ago, that in the future people can talk to people on the other end of the world with the help of a technical device? Who would have even known what a technical device is? Even for us, living in a society that is kind of governed by the media, it is sometimes hard to understand how this new technology works and even harder to predict how it will develop in the next years. Anyhow I will try to think of the role of new media in schools in about ten years time. In task II I described the media equipment of the Martin-Luther-Schule Marburg. This school and its media equipment can be seen as average and should therefore represent the status quo of media in schools.
I think that in general in ten years time the media equipment will be better in two respects. First, there will be a higher supply of media equipment, so that more pupils can for example work on a computer/laptop on their own. This is because schools will buy new technical devices while the ‘old’ ones can still be used. Second, the media equipment will be up-to-date. Technical innovations that have been made over the years will be implemented in schools successively. However, you have to take into consideration that new media equipment is very expensive, so that I do not expect a very significant difference in the offer of media equipment between now and in ten years. I can rather imagine that the ways of teaching and the in-class activity will undergo significant changes.
Working with the interactive white board, computers/laptops, etc. will no longer be a rarity in every day lessons. New media will be more and more part of the teachers’ and pupils’ everyday life, and thus becomes a central part of teaching. Teachers as well as their pupils will be more acquainted with the use of new media in their everyday life, whereby the use of new media in school will become necessary. On the one hand it is important to raise critical media awareness in order to prepare the pupils for possible dangers and problems with the use of new media and especially the internet. On the other hand pupils need to acquire a high media competence to be prepared for their future life outside the school, where technical skills are expected more and more.
E-Learning Platforms:
I could imagine that some units, or even whole courses, are available on e-learning platforms. These platforms should not only be used as a place to download texts, but primarily to work interactively on a certain topic. They should include introductions to new language phenomena, different types of exercises, various opportunities of application and the possibility to repeat older units. In this way pupils can design their learning process independently and work on language aspects with which they have problems.
In spite of the increasing use of new media and the possibilities to self-study I think that there will always be the need of in-class sessions and teachers. Even if you can work interactively on the lesson material online, there is the need for exchange and discussions with other people face to face. Only by actual discussions about a certain topic and the application of a learned phenomenon new perspectives and ideas open up. The teacher can help if the pupils have any problems or he or she can give new impulses to support the learning process of the pupils.
Laptop Classes:
I could also imagine that, especially in higher levels, so called laptop classes are established. Pupils need to bring their own laptops and work with them interactively in the classroom. In the last years there have been some studies which compared the developments between laptop classes and ‘normal’ classes. The findings supported the demand for laptop classes and a global implementation of new media. Under the following links you can find an example of a study on laptop classes and also concepts of German schools that already teach in laptop classes:
I think that in general in ten years time the media equipment will be better in two respects. First, there will be a higher supply of media equipment, so that more pupils can for example work on a computer/laptop on their own. This is because schools will buy new technical devices while the ‘old’ ones can still be used. Second, the media equipment will be up-to-date. Technical innovations that have been made over the years will be implemented in schools successively. However, you have to take into consideration that new media equipment is very expensive, so that I do not expect a very significant difference in the offer of media equipment between now and in ten years. I can rather imagine that the ways of teaching and the in-class activity will undergo significant changes.
Working with the interactive white board, computers/laptops, etc. will no longer be a rarity in every day lessons. New media will be more and more part of the teachers’ and pupils’ everyday life, and thus becomes a central part of teaching. Teachers as well as their pupils will be more acquainted with the use of new media in their everyday life, whereby the use of new media in school will become necessary. On the one hand it is important to raise critical media awareness in order to prepare the pupils for possible dangers and problems with the use of new media and especially the internet. On the other hand pupils need to acquire a high media competence to be prepared for their future life outside the school, where technical skills are expected more and more.
E-Learning Platforms:
I could imagine that some units, or even whole courses, are available on e-learning platforms. These platforms should not only be used as a place to download texts, but primarily to work interactively on a certain topic. They should include introductions to new language phenomena, different types of exercises, various opportunities of application and the possibility to repeat older units. In this way pupils can design their learning process independently and work on language aspects with which they have problems.
In spite of the increasing use of new media and the possibilities to self-study I think that there will always be the need of in-class sessions and teachers. Even if you can work interactively on the lesson material online, there is the need for exchange and discussions with other people face to face. Only by actual discussions about a certain topic and the application of a learned phenomenon new perspectives and ideas open up. The teacher can help if the pupils have any problems or he or she can give new impulses to support the learning process of the pupils.
Laptop Classes:
I could also imagine that, especially in higher levels, so called laptop classes are established. Pupils need to bring their own laptops and work with them interactively in the classroom. In the last years there have been some studies which compared the developments between laptop classes and ‘normal’ classes. The findings supported the demand for laptop classes and a global implementation of new media. Under the following links you can find an example of a study on laptop classes and also concepts of German schools that already teach in laptop classes:
_Despite all advantages of laptop classes I see some problems that
concern the classical writing skill. One problem is that when pupils start
using the computer regularly to produce texts, they hardly write
something by hand anymore and their motor movements might stop
developing further. Another problem is that pupils might stop thinking
about their grammar, particularly their spelling, because the
spell checker of word processing programmes takes over this task for them.
These problems are disadvantages that have to be taken into
consideration by teachers when basing their lessons only on laptops.
--> In all you can say that the representation of new media in schools will increase in the next ten years. With the help of new media new learning methods and concepts can be implemented in teaching lessons and improve the independent learning processes of the pupils. However, the teacher will still be necessary, even though in a changed role. He or she does not appear as a presenter of knowledge, but as a mediator and a supporter of the individual learning process of the pupils.
--> In all you can say that the representation of new media in schools will increase in the next ten years. With the help of new media new learning methods and concepts can be implemented in teaching lessons and improve the independent learning processes of the pupils. However, the teacher will still be necessary, even though in a changed role. He or she does not appear as a presenter of knowledge, but as a mediator and a supporter of the individual learning process of the pupils.