The cities of Offenbach and Hanau and the Main-Kinzig district have concluded inter-municipal cooperation to advance digitisation in schools. What is the concept behind it? And what does implementation look like? We put some questions to Norman Jahn, Head of the Digital Pact (IT) at the municipal authorities of the City of Offenbach am Main.
VS: Mr Jahn, what is needed for the digitisation process in schools to be successful?
We mustn’t see digitisation as a single solution. It is key to find the triad of equipment – digital and furniture –, pedagogy and architecture. How this triad works in harmony differs from school to school. A 150-year-old building can’t be made to fly, not even with a LAN cable. We have to look for different solutions. What is also central is that if the teaching staff don’t accept digital equipment, things are difficult. We therefore have to reach out to teachers and mustn’t impose a solution on them that some woolly academics from the authorities have thought up.
VS: How do you do that in Offenbach?
By bringing all three players around a table, be that virtually or in real life: teachers, school providers, architects. First of all, we have to identify the educational requirements. We therefore ask the school leaders and staff: what do you think you need in your school? To do this, we give them planning tools, such as room books, but also the basic structures that we see as standard from the authorities’ point of view. It is also very important to address the issue of money directly. This is how we can look together to see where there is scope in the existing budget to achieve our goals with the needs that have been reported. Only then does the bureaucratic procedure start, for example with invitations to tender.
VS: What is the role of the education authority in this?
We take on the role of a moderator and make sure that we always communicate openly and transparently. We don’t simply accept things because it's always been that way, but always examine everything closely. We dare to rethink things and to look where we end up. I must confess: it’s laborious. But it gets us further.
VS: Do you have a specific example?
Let’s look at the shortage of space that concerns us most as a school provider. By 2026, we have to ‘teach’ our school buildings how to implement all-day operations of a very high quality and quantity. When thinking of ‘all-day’, many teachers in the primary sector start to fear things going missing. Which is understandable because their classrooms containing their materials will be used differently after their lessons. That’s why we have to think about things together with the teachers. What can we do so that the classrooms can be used all day after regular lessons?
"No display without training"
VS: What is the solution?
The key term here is multi-functional needs-based space, although this does not refer to individual rooms. It must be possible to use the whole building all day long, and the building must be designed accordingly. A multi-functional room is characterised by ordering principles. That has many advantages, including in regular lessons. Even as a substitute teacher, I immediately know where to find things. The pupils find similar concepts in every room so they can settle down more quickly. And because these ordering principles can also be found in our secondary schools, the children’s transition from primary to secondary is easier.
VS: What is the role of digital media within this room or school concept?
Digital media are integrated into this ordering principle, although we have to integrate digitisation with existing teaching methods. And that, too, is only possible in the triad principle. We tell the teachers what ideas and objectives we have as an education authority, what the planners are thinking and ask them how they can be implemented into their educational requirements.
VS: You have now announced the end of the ‘chalk age’ in Offenbach. That means displays instead of boards in every classroom. How do you keep teachers onside with this?
The displays are replacing boards, which are merely a writing medium. That is no longer sufficient. But it was very important for us that every display has board side panels. Physical writing is therefore still possible. In addition, we are also crisis-proof if there is a power cut.
Our staff provide on-premises training for teachers in the Main-Kinzig District.
Our staff provide on-premises training for teachers in the Main-Kinzig District.
Our staff provide on-premises training for teachers in the Main-Kinzig District.
… which we adopted from the GEW teachers’ union. Their demand is: ‘No technology without training’. We have almost completely implemented that: whenever the displays were introduced, we offered training courses in advance for the staff. So the chalkboard came down on Friday and on Monday the digital board was up, and it could be fully used from Wednesday. By then, the staff were all trained in its use and were already able to start working with it. This minimises transition times and maximises use.
VS: How did the teachers react to this mandatory training?
At first there was very strong resistance. Especially because we didn’t send the teachers to Offenbach, but rather to Hanau. That is home to the Digilab, the shared digital training centre of the cities of Offenbach and Hanau and the Main-Kinzig District.
This worked well because the rooms in the Digilab are very well equipped and, at the same time, mirror the individual room equipment of the education authorities concerned. We also made sure that the teaching material wasn’t excessive, but could be mastered readily. We also provided a manual and made training videos with the help of VS. So there was something for every type of learner.
VS: How did you manage to work across local authorities here?
By starting with the problem that all three of us were facing: how do we manage to implement the end of the chalk age? We agreed that the solution was interactive touch displays in every classroom. That’s why we started the EU-wide invitation to tender together, which gave us cost advantages. And we agreed that we needed training courses. A joint, central training centre made sense. We identified common problems and developed targeted solutions without losing the individual touch of each authority.
VS: Is it possible to visit you to get inspiration?
Yes. Because in spite of different regional school legislation, many problems, and therefore solutions, are similar. Room concepts in particular are not affected by school legislation, so we can keep learning from each other in this regard. I believe that more exchanges are extremely important, overcoming any bureaucratic hurdles. We use taxpayers’ money so there can’t be any secrets
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