The coronavirus pandemic and, above all, the lockdown period have shown just how important digital solutions are, especially for schools. For more than 1.5 years, schools in both Germany and Estonia have had to repeatedly switch to distance learning. This has presented schools and school authorities with enormous challenges. While schools in Germany initially struggled with the lack of infrastructure, the switch to homeschooling was comparatively easy in the digital pioneer state of Estonia. However, the pandemic situation was also a challenge for Estonian schools. What experiences have schools in Germany and Estonia had? What is the current status and what are the prospects for the future?
Together with the State Office for Schools and Education, Enterprise Estonia and the Estonian Embassy in Berlin, TeleskopEffekt hosted an exchange of experiences at Werkbank32 on November 4, 2021.
Best practices from the Estonian and Saxon sides were shared and discussed. Employees of the media education centers reported on digital communication platforms that are already being used in Saxony, on centrally managed school IT in Chemnitz and on different and diverse practical experiences. Saxon companies also presented various offers for child-friendly programming, digital construction kit formats and digital grade and class books. The Estonian guests learned more about school administration and analysis software and administration platforms in kindergartens. Gamification platforms for games in the real world and LMS platforms were also presented as informative offerings.
The discussion round during the event and the networking afterwards showed once again how moving this topic is. It is also important to consider that digital education must be individually adapted to the learning environments and students.
The digital school must be purposefully implemented and we as TeleskopEffekt were able to facilitate an important impulse and exchange for this.
