At the end of November, the Bundestag paved the way for the "Digital Pact for Schools" with an amendment to the law. If the Bundesrat also gives its approval, the federal government will be able to directly fund the digital expansion of schools in future. Five billion euros are to be invested in the coming years. But what is the actual status of digitalisation in our educational establishments? An interview with Computing Science didactics expert Ira Diethelm.
QUESTION: Ms Diethelm, digitalisation permeates all areas of life. What does this mean for school education?
ANSWER: We have to take the educational mission of schools seriously, also with regard to the digitalised world. According to the Lower Saxony School Act, schools have to impart the necessary skills and knowledge to enable pupils to master their private and academic appointments. They should leave school as responsible citizens with equal rights to participate in society and develop their personalities. This means that, in addition to the hopefully increasingly natural but well thought-out use of digital devices, schools must above all explain and scrutinise the phenomena of the digital world. This will not succeed without well-trained IT teachers and IT lessons.
QUESTION: As "digital natives", aren't today's pupils good at using digital tools anyway?
ANSWER: Many people think so. But studies show that this is not true. It's about the same as children being able to speak and count something when they start school. But compulsory schooling exists to further develop these initial skills in speaking and counting and bring them up to a level that serves a modern, democratic society. With German and maths lessons and many other subjects, this ensures a solid general education. Similar to these subjects, we must not only prepare children for digitalisation with instructions, but also teach them basic principles such as the rules of the Internet, on which the rapidly changing digital world is built.
Fulfilling our educational mission
QUESTION: Does that mean we need a leading subject in Computing Science nationwide?
ANSWER: Yes, I'm sure you would prefer to be treated by a doctor who has studied medicine. If we want to fulfil the educational mandate, we need quality and quality assurance. Computing Science should therefore be a leading subject that stands alongside the other subjects and that we use grades, for example, to emphasise the importance of this subject. For 30 years, there has been an agreement to ensure basic information technology education across all subjects. This has failed, partly because no one has taken responsibility, neither in schools nor in teacher training.
QUESTION: What does this mean for teacher training?
ANSWER: So far, Oldenburg is the only location in Lower Saxony where computer science teachers are trained for all currently possible school types. But this is just the beginning. We are therefore also enabling students of other subjects to learn the basics of the digital world and to teach outside their own subject. This will hopefully be incorporated into a compulsory module on "Media literacy and digitalisation" for all teacher training students. In accordance with the new requirements for teacher training, all teachers must be able to teach about digitalisation. To do this, they must have the relevant basic knowledge.
Promoting cooperation between research and schools
QUESTION: One of the aims of the Digital Pact for Schools is to provide all pupils with access to the internet in a digital learning environment at all times by 2021 - where this makes educational sense. Is that realistic?
ANSWER: Yes. However, to accomplish these tasks, we need long-term investment - and less bickering over responsibilities. We need new structures and more IT expertise among decision-makers - and a different self-image in the cooperation between the federal, state and local authorities. The latter in particular must move forward into the 21st century. Local authorities must not, for example, artificially limit Internet access in schools to around 20 MBit for 1,000 pupils. Many households for two to ten people have ten times that amount at their disposal. Here we need laws that better distribute power between schools, local authorities and IT service providers, a so-called digital separation of powers.
QUESTION: In a statement for the Bundestag, you write that there is a lack of important research findings in relation to the digitalisation of schools. What tasks should research focus on in future?
ANSWER: Due to the ban on cooperation, i.e. the rule that the federal government is not allowed to influence the school policy of the federal states, the federal government has never promoted practical research in and with schools - unlike with extracurricular or vocational activities. We therefore do not know, for example, which concepts for digitalisation in schools would deliver good results. The federal government should therefore promote cooperation between research and schools - for example on the topic of how children can be prepared for the replacement of the leading medium of books by the leading medium of computers/Internet. And we need to develop and disseminate appropriate concepts and teaching materials.
ABOUT THE PERSON: Prof Dr Ira Diethelm has held the professorship for Didactics of Computing Science at the university since 2011. In several research projects, she develops and researches teaching materials and methods for Computing Science as a school subject and also designs and researches teacher training programmes. As an expert for the German Bundestag's Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment, she has written a statement on the topic of "Digitalisation in schools, training and universities".
Interview: Constanze Böttcher