Digital education in the Wetteraukreis with obstacles

Since the end of the Christmas holidays, many students in the Wetterau district have been back in homeschooling. Technology plays an essential role in this. But there are always problems.

»There is currently a malfunction in the video conference. The problem is being dealt with. «In the past few weeks, this notice has increasingly appeared on the WTKEDU website, the Wetteraukreis learning management system. To enable distance teaching, the district has created its own program for video conferencing (EDUDIP).

You can access the program via WTKEDU, which the Wetteraukreis set up for schools in 2011. According to the Wetteraukreis, around 80 percent of schools are regularly active via WTKEDU during the pandemic, albeit to different degrees.

Video conferencing problems

The video program failures disrupt the class. “That’s why many schools used their own solutions. At our daughter’s school, too, EDUDIP switched to the ›BigBlueButton‹ video conferencing system, ”says Volkmar Heitmann, member of the district parents’ council.

However, the transition is not that easy. On the one hand, the school had to set up its own server for this. On the other hand, not all common video programs are allowed or they are chargeable.

The press spokesman for the Wetteraukreis, Michael Elsaß, explains: “The restrictions for some video conference systems such as› BigBlueButton ‹stem from the fact that data protection and data security are operator-dependent and cannot be adhered to for open source solutions.” In principle, however, the choice of systems is free.

Send emails multiple times

Alsace emphasizes that the administration continues to work on improvements to WTKEDU. “It is the goal of the Wetteraukreis to do justice to a trouble-free platform.” However, the district parents’ advisory board noticed that “apparently maintenance measures take place during normal usage times, which lead to additional disruptions.”

In the Wetteraukreis, however, it is said that the work should take place outside of school hours, in the best case at night, and that the service provider is encouraged to do so.

In addition to EDUDIP, the functions for data storage, mail traffic and media center information are popular. Heitmann says: “However, there are always disruptions, so that e-mails have to be sent several times, for example.”

So that the teachers can use the system optimally, there are all year round – outside of the holidays – training for WTKEDU. Since not every student has the necessary equipment at home, the district has made some available.

“We distributed 2,300 iPads to all schools via the immediate equipment program for the special program› Digital Pact School ‹and provided webcams for distance learning at each school.” These can be borrowed by students in need.

“Digitization is too slow”

But the Kreiselternbeirat sees a problem for educational equality not only in the lack of technology. He criticizes the fact that some children do not have the opportunity to concentrate on their work at home. This is different in Lower Saxony, for example, as Heitmann reports: “There, students in need are provided with premises that also have the necessary technical equipment.”

In addition, digitization in schools is progressing too slowly. “Many schools in the Wetteraukreis still do not have sufficient internet access, let alone WLAN.”

Better than the first lockdown

The district does not accept the accusation and emphasizes that digitization is an ongoing process that will be implemented after the digital pact. »The district administration has been working on the implementation of the digital pact for over a year. Last year, the district council passed a decision in principle on equipping all schools with WiFi and interactive blackboards and on the media development plan for 2020 to 2024. “

Heitmann is of the opinion that homeschooling is going better overall than in the first lockdown. However, parents would like further improvements both technically and in terms of content. “Some teachers really try hard, others just continue to hand out exercise sheets, as they did with the first lockdown,” says Heitmann.

Students who have no support at home and are not born self-taught have a hard time. “Unfortunately, only a few teachers really use the possibilities offered by technology and teaching and learning methods to a large extent.”

School portal Hessen

In addition to the Wetterau district’s learning management system, there is also the Hessen School Portal (SPH). This does not yet provide the necessary functions for all schools, which, however, are offered via WTKEDU, as the Wetteraukreis reports. For example, there is currently no video conference tool available there. Every school is currently required by the state of Hesse to register in the school portal. A phase of transition from WTKEDU to SPH will take place when the SPH has upgraded.

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