if you need concrete steps how to protect climate and environment (while saving money ) you may download the following document which contains dozens of practical hints about consuming, energy, heating/cooling, entertainment and other areas of everyday life; The list was compiled by my girlfriend, Anka, and me on the occasion of Marburg’s “Bildungsfest” in 2009. The sources we consulted are below the list. Download the document.
(wind energy plant near Gotha, Thuringia, Aug. 09, pic: Anka)
please feel cordially invited to the discussion evening about nuclear weapons (nuclear threats, political/legal solutions, possibilities for civil commitment) with Prof. Götz Neuneck, physicist, expert for weapons control and disarmament (Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg):
I am supposed to create a dream project for students at school which makes use of new media. As I am highly interested in global problems (mostly, in climate change and nuclear weapons), I am keen to entertain those topics at school, unsurprisingly, maybe in a bilingual Civics and Economics classroom.
At this year’s “Bildungsfest: Bildung in Zeiten des Klimawandels” in Marburg (June 18-21, 2009), my girlfriend, another friend, and I have already encounteres working with students from Marburg’s Martin-Luther-Schule on the consequences of human-caused climate change. They were expected to create some posters on that:
That’s everything but new media, obviously Nevertheless, the topic appeared to be quite motivating for the 9th graders. Thus, it should be dared to extend the topic of “global problems” to a huge project which runs for weeks and involves a big deal of work – and new media
My dream project:
- The students of my class would decide to build a website on global problems: its aim would be to gather information about global problems like climate change and nuclear weapons, to bring these information in order and to present them to the public in an appealing manner
- The students would form sub-groups; some students would be responsible for the web design: creating and administrating the website, uploading and ordering the content etc.; another group would be in charge of accumulating the climate change information, others would deal with other global problems – it’s important not just to upload a huge amount of information, but to rewrite them if necessary, to verify their credibility, to mix text with videos etc.
- As soon as the website is more or less adequately filled with information, the students should search for a platform to present their findings: this can be the school community, the local town (e.g. on a local festival), a NGO (e.g. Greenpeace), or a university community. They could print an information sheet about their website project and distribute it; moreover, they could consider writing a quarterly newsletter in which they report on new findings about global problems, about news at their website etc.
- The school’s head should take into consideration the huge amount of work, as well as the impressive cognitive output the students get from the project; maybe they can receive a kind of reward for their efforts, e.g. good grades, some privileges (e.g. not so much homework) or so…
Here’s one video example which would fit into the nuclear weapon’s section of the student’s website – it’s from the independent and non-profit “Nuclear Age Peace Foundation”, based in Santa Barbara, CA, and offers a good base for further critical discussions on the feasibility of global nuclear weapons abolition. It’s easy to understand, suitable for students, and brand new:
I hope you like my global problems project!? Please feel free to comment on it. So or so: enjoy your summer break
Here are two possible questions regarding new media for students still attending school:
1) Do you think the use of new media like internet applications and smartboards has really improved your foreign language learning process? OK, this question may be too long for a younger student; it simply wants to know: Are new media useful for learning English/French etc.?
2) Has your private use of new media (e.g. of web 2.0 applications) altered since you were dealing with it at school? I am really interested in the answers to this question… Read the rest of this entry »
In this week’s blog task, I’m expected to find a teaching project that uses new media and which can be regarded as a success. Once, I’ve heard about the “Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning” in New York – so, this should be my first address to consult: while discovering its websites, I come across a relatively new project (2008) called “Global Classroom”: Jeffrey D. Sachs, the famous economic scientist, author of “The end of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time” (2005), gives – together with other scientists – a weekly lecture on environmental development which can be followed – via Internet – by master degree students in a dozen participating universities all over the world. And by everyone else, so I’m starting the lecture Read the rest of this entry »
Together with my course partner, I analyzed the two learning softwares „Englisch II“ (designed for high school students) and „Englisch Klasse 5 und 6“. Both programs were quite easy to compare: both were published in/around 2001; both welcomed the user with a graphical interface that looked like a real-life environment: in Englisch II, one saw a library and had to click on certain library books in order to enter a section of the program. In Englisch Klasse 5 und 6, one saw a terrace front and gained access to the program’s sections by clicking on certain houses. Finally, both programs claimed to be rather comprehensive in terms of the content and skills the students addressed could learn with them. Read the rest of this entry »
In this week’s session of New Media in Foreign Language Education, we focused on several learning theories (behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism) and learning techniques (proper use of sources, media…). We designed some very nice posters to illustrate the use of learning theories and/or techniques in foreign language classrooms. Now, I am expected to comment on a poster and I’d like to pick this one:
My blog task: write an answer to the question “Why use the new media in foreign language education?”. Do this before you actually worked through the session and try to remember your own experiences as students in school. Are there advantages and disadvantages of using the new media, especially when it comes to teaching a foreign language?
My answer: first of all, I regard an actual definition of the term “New Media” as essential for answering this question. During my school time (until 2004), new media would certainly have included “Microsoft PowerPoint” or “OpenOffice Impress” presentations, as well as the use of a data projector. Today, these tools would probably not be postulated as belonging to the newest media. Moreover, “contemporary” new media probably contain a lot web 2.0 applications, like blogs, twitter, social networks, or podcasts. Read the rest of this entry »
welcome to my blog First of all, I use it for our New Media in Foreign Language Education course. Besides, I’ve established sub-pages about my two favourite topics, nuclear disarmament and environmental protection, where I will upload interesting articles, links etc. from time to time.
) you may download the following document which contains dozens of practical hints about consuming, energy, heating/cooling, entertainment and other areas of everyday life; The list was compiled by my girlfriend, Anka, and me on the occasion of Marburg’s “Bildungsfest” in 2009. The sources we consulted are below the list. Download the document.
