How should a school spend 10,000€ and 50,000€ on media equipment
10.000 Euro
This table will give you a brief overview on the items I would buy for my school if I could spend 10.000€ on new media equipment.
I will now explain my choice for these items and write about the usefulness of them, especially in foreign language classes.
I would install the flatscreens and blu-ray player in 10 different classrooms, ideally in foreign language classrooms. I think it is really important that there are tv’s in classrooms so that the students can watch dvd’s or news, especially in the foreign language. The blu-ray players should be connected to the flatscreens so that dvd’s can be watched and discussed in class. Especially for language classes in my opinion it is important to have the opportunity to watch films because this way the understanding of the language can be improves as well as the pronunciation.
To protect the flatscreens and blu-ray players from any damages, I would suggest to put a wooden box around them, just as we saw in the Martin Luther School. I think this would be a good protection of the equipment from damages that students could cause while throwing things around in the classroom.
The scanner and printer I would split up for the staff room and the computer lab. Teachers could use the scanner for their classroom preparation and the printer for printing out worksheets for the students. For teachers it is important that they can be spontaneous about their class preparation from time to time because sometimes they have to be supply teachers and decide on a topic they want to do in this class and therefore they might have to print something out for the students to do in class.
Notebooks are in my opinion really important in today’s schools because students are always confronted with new media in their free time and in this way students who are not as comfortable with the use of computers or laptops can get the chance to learn more about them. Students are working better if they are allowed to show their abilities on computers. The advantage of having laptops than having normal computer labs is that they portable and the teacher doesn’t have to move to another room with the students instead he can bring the laptops to the class and use them in the normal classroom. I think that for the normal school use it is enough if the schools buys average priced laptops because the students usually only use the internet or some email program or a writing program like Word and therefore they don’t have to be the best and latest laptops which are available. On the laptops there should be certain pages and programs blocked, so that the students are not able to download anything or go on websites which they are not supposed to.
The USB-Sticks are an addition so that students could go to the computer lab to print something out they created on a laptop.
The headsets are a really nice item to have for foreign language classes because the students can individually listen to passages and can repeat it if they haven’t understand something. This is a big advantage compared to a CD-Player where everyone listens to something and if he didn’t understand it he can’t easily listen to it again. With headsets students can also record their own audios, which is really nice to do with older classes with a high level of language knowledge. The students can listen to their own audios and give themselves feedback and the teacher can do so too.
With a digital camera students can work on language problems as well. I would suggest to use digital cameras in classes where they are supposed to make a photo story and afterwards they should write a story about the pictures and in this way the students have to be cooperative because there are not enough cameras for every students and therefore there have to be groups of pupils working together and coming to a result. The students could have different tasks, for example one student takes the pictures, some are the actors, and others think about the story.
The video projector is helpful for classes in which the teacher has prepared certain things at home to bring to school for the students. Because the money isn’t enough to buy interactive smartboards, a video projector is somewhat of an alternative. Of course a video projector is not as advanced as smartboards but at least a teacher can present a power point presentation or pictures.
50.000€
I would install the flatscreens and blu-ray player in 10 different classrooms, ideally in foreign language classrooms. I think it is really important that there are tv’s in classrooms so that the students can watch dvd’s or news, especially in the foreign language. The blu-ray players should be connected to the flatscreens so that dvd’s can be watched and discussed in class. Especially for language classes in my opinion it is important to have the opportunity to watch films because this way the understanding of the language can be improves as well as the pronunciation.
To protect the flatscreens and blu-ray players from any damages, I would suggest to put a wooden box around them, just as we saw in the Martin Luther School. I think this would be a good protection of the equipment from damages that students could cause while throwing things around in the classroom.
The scanner and printer I would split up for the staff room and the computer lab. Teachers could use the scanner for their classroom preparation and the printer for printing out worksheets for the students. For teachers it is important that they can be spontaneous about their class preparation from time to time because sometimes they have to be supply teachers and decide on a topic they want to do in this class and therefore they might have to print something out for the students to do in class.
Notebooks are in my opinion really important in today’s schools because students are always confronted with new media in their free time and in this way students who are not as comfortable with the use of computers or laptops can get the chance to learn more about them. Students are working better if they are allowed to show their abilities on computers. The advantage of having laptops than having normal computer labs is that they portable and the teacher doesn’t have to move to another room with the students instead he can bring the laptops to the class and use them in the normal classroom. I think that for the normal school use it is enough if the schools buys average priced laptops because the students usually only use the internet or some email program or a writing program like Word and therefore they don’t have to be the best and latest laptops which are available. On the laptops there should be certain pages and programs blocked, so that the students are not able to download anything or go on websites which they are not supposed to.
The USB-Sticks are an addition so that students could go to the computer lab to print something out they created on a laptop.
The headsets are a really nice item to have for foreign language classes because the students can individually listen to passages and can repeat it if they haven’t understand something. This is a big advantage compared to a CD-Player where everyone listens to something and if he didn’t understand it he can’t easily listen to it again. With headsets students can also record their own audios, which is really nice to do with older classes with a high level of language knowledge. The students can listen to their own audios and give themselves feedback and the teacher can do so too.
With a digital camera students can work on language problems as well. I would suggest to use digital cameras in classes where they are supposed to make a photo story and afterwards they should write a story about the pictures and in this way the students have to be cooperative because there are not enough cameras for every students and therefore there have to be groups of pupils working together and coming to a result. The students could have different tasks, for example one student takes the pictures, some are the actors, and others think about the story.
The video projector is helpful for classes in which the teacher has prepared certain things at home to bring to school for the students. Because the money isn’t enough to buy interactive smartboards, a video projector is somewhat of an alternative. Of course a video projector is not as advanced as smartboards but at least a teacher can present a power point presentation or pictures.
50.000€
If I could spend 50.000€ for new media equipment at my school I would buy the equipment I have already described above which costs 10.000€ and additionally to that I would buy 10 interactive whiteboards. I think that it is really important for schools to buy smartboards because their interactive use is really helpful in classes. The smartboards should not replace the usual black boards but should be used as an addition. The use has many advantages like the durability. The content can be saved and used in later sessions too. With blackboards this could be hard because every teacher uses the blackboard and has to wipe older things off.
If you want to know more about the use of smartboards in the classroom take a look at this video.
And if you want to know more about the advantages of smartboards you can read more in my section on interactive whiteboards.
