Homeschooling – supported by the DigiLLab team!

Education of the future needs digitally skilled teachers
Against a backdrop of school closures and the resulting digital remote learning, the current coronavirus crisis highlights the need for support for many teachers. Indeed, according to a recent fobizz survey, about half of all teachers feel poorly prepared for the challenges of digital online teaching. In order to counteract this, DigiLLab, the Centre for Competency in Digital Teaching & Learning at the University of Bayreuth, is committed to supporting teachers in the region, both in the context of their university teacher training and beyond.

Support for student teachers and teaching staff at short notice
Despite the partial opening of Bavarian schools to graduating and transfer classes since 27 April 2020, teaching and learning from home will continue to be part of the everyday lives of pupils and teachers. This also means that the Bayreuth teacher training students completing subject-related didactics courses this summer semester, will not only be confronted with the challenge of planning and carrying out their first independent teaching in their respective subjects, but will also have to design and create digital learning content or online course rooms at the same time.

DigiLLab seeks to support students in the latter. To this end, DigiLLab has been offering interdisciplinary online consultation hours for all student teachers in practical training this summer semester, since 23 April 2020. This is intended to enable interns to select the most suitable solution for implementing their practice teaching, depending on the particular circumstances at their respective placement school. In addition, they receive practical assistance in the use of digital tools for work with and between learners. Especially tools for synchronous cooperation in personal contact are becoming increasingly important here, because social contact, so important in the learning process, has often fallen by the wayside in this ongoing period of homeschooling. The mebis learning platform used at Bavarian schools is also introduced to students in detail. In addition, there is of course information on subject-specific tools and platforms for digital teaching and learning.

However, DigiLLab also gives established teachers in the region the opportunity to expand their existing media-related skills in the light of current challenges. For this purpose, a webinar was held on 23 April, 2020, which could well give rise to a webinar series on various topics of interest should the need arises, and if schools continue to face restrictions. Information on these services is available at https://digillab.uni-bayreuth.de/news.

Cumulative development of media-related teaching skills for student teachers
In addition to these immediate measures, DigiLLab bears responsibility for the cumulative and long-term acquisition of media-related teaching skills among Bayreuth’s teacher training students. As an important step in this regard, the team at the Centrer for Competency in Digital Teaching & Learning have decided to integrate the interdisciplinary course 'Basics for Teaching and Learning with and via Digital Media' into the programmes of the respective subjects as a compulsory module for all student teachers at the University of Bayreuth in autumn 2019 . The seminar, which took place for the first time in the newly established InnovativeLearningLabin the 2019/20 winter semester, and was offered in two different time slots, was very popular, attracting more than 60 participants, illustrating the urgent need of student teachers for these skills. In addition to ensuring an interdisciplinary basic qualification, DigiLLab conducts specific cooperative events with individual departments in order to take into account subject-specific aspects of teaching and learning with and via digital media. In the 2019/20 winter semester, for example, there was collaboration with Didactics of Economics in the area of 'Design and Production of Explanatory Videos in Economics Education'. This semester, cooperation is planned with the Didactics of Biology and Chemistry, in which the application of virtual reality will be the main focus.