21st Century Schooling & Digitality

At GISSV, teaching and learning consistently follows the primacy of pedagogy - i.e. the educational mandate of the school - also and especially in the digital world. The consideration of digital change serves the goal of promoting the strengthening of independence by supplementing and changing the content and formal design of learning processes and to be able to better develop individual potential within an inclusive education, also through the use of digital learning environments. (cf. digital strategy 2017) The meaningful integration of digital learning environments requires a new design of the teaching and learning processes that are to be shown in this media concept. This changes teaching and learning, but also the range of design options in the classroom. Teaching and learning with digital media and tools has a serving function for the qualitative further development of teaching.

A new cultural technique has developed through digitization - the competent use of digital media, which must be understood and mastered by both students and teachers. The constantly expanding availability of digital educational content also increasingly enables learners to take on responsibility for planning and designing personal learning goals and learning paths. This will develop the basic skills necessary for increasingly important lifelong learning. When it comes to learning itself, the focus is less on reproductive than on process and result-oriented, creative and critical learning, which are referred to as 4Ks (Kreativität=creativity, Kritisches denken = critical thinking, Kommunikation = communication and Kollaboration = collaboration). Overall, it will be even more important to classify and link facts, processes and developments on the one hand, and to evaluate and comment on them on the other. Digital learning environments help schoolchildren to develop these key skills: to organize themselves in a team, to develop solutions together, to use help independently. In addition, digitization enables immediate feedback. They simplify the organization and communication of work processes and help ensure that work materials and intermediate statuses are documented and available at all times. A virtual learning and working space can simplify learning situations between different learning groups within a school or between different schools as well as in contexts outside of the classroom due to its independence from fixed time intervals and physical presence.

However, digital media not only offer opportunities, but also risks. In view of the increasing use of the new media and the Internet, the questions of effective protection of children and adolescents are becoming increasingly important. In addition to imparting basic and in-depth knowledge, the students should therefore be instructed to reflect on their own media experiences and to align their own active media activities accordingly. The focus is always on security. Schoolchildren are made aware from the outset to critically question media content and learn to move safely and independently in a world shaped by media. In doing so, they protect their own interests as well as those of their fellow human beings. The school supports the pupils, also in providing information and working with their parents. The GISSV relies on the gradual opening of an initially largely closed and monitored learning environment in the school network towards free movement on the Internet. The school portals serve as the first closed information and communication platforms.

With increasing digitization, the role of the teachers at the GISSV must also develop further. The function of the learning companion comes to the fore. The heterogeneity of learning groups at GISSV, which is based on different educational biographies, language backgrounds and learner types, makes it increasingly necessary to develop and make available individualized learning arrangements in which the teacher organizes, advises, controls and gives feedback on learning processes. The realignment of previous teaching concepts in this direction creates the necessary freedom to allow the potential of digital learning environments to take effect. Overall, the opportunity is used to give the pupils more responsibility for shaping their own learning and thus to promote their independence (cf. Digital Strategy 2017). This results in a need for further training, the teachers are supported individually through further training. The new colleagues will be introduced to the GISSV media concept as part of handover management and supported in its implementation.