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Interview with Maike Ziemer

Are you interested in getting involved in an eTwinning project with a school in Germany? To learn about how eTwinning is working in Germany, we recently talked to Maike Ziemer, the Coordinator for eTwinning in Germany.

1. How does education in Germany differ from other countries in Europe?

The German education system has many specific characteristics resulting from the federal state system of our country. Education is not the responsibility of the federal republic but instead of the individual federal states (Länder). This means that we have 16 different education systems/structures and curricula in Germany. Full-time schools are still the exception, but most of the schools finish at noon hour. However, this has been changing more and more since the government started a new initiative to establish more full-time schools and afternoon care for children.

2. How is ICT being implemented in Germany?

Since 2001, all 34 000 schools in Germany have been provided with computers and Internet access by “Schools online”, an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and the Deutsche Telekom AG. At this moment in time, 80% of the schools use broadband connection.

We are noticing an increasing positive attitude from teachers and students towards the use of ICT, but there is still a lack of integrating ICT in classroom activities, e.g., 86% of German children between the ages of 6 and 13 use a PC at home (once a week) but only 38% use it at school (once per week). We therefore support teachers with respect to offering them training sessions, special platforms and teaching material.

3. Now just over two years after its launch, how has eTwinning impacted Germany?

The German “eTwinning family” is growing bigger every day. Currently we have approximately 1200 registered teachers and 300 projects and it has been a particularly nice surprise to see that more than 40% of primary schools are involved in eTwinning. A lot of schools are doing wonderful projects and we awarded 24 Quality Labels last year. The Labels were presented in ceremonies by the Ministers of Education in each federal state. eTwinning is also supported by a network of 36 facilitators who are experienced teachers or representatives of ministries and teacher training institutions.

4. What kind of projects are German schools most often interested in?

Almost one third of German eTwinning schools twin with schools in new EU member states such as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In this respect, I am very happy that schools are using this opportunity to get to know our new neighbours and to bridge gaps between each other, both geographically and figuratively.

5. Are there special eTwinning activities going on in Germany?

Yes, we are organising a lot of events over the coming months:

A contact seminar for German, French, Belgium and Luxembourgian teachers on 9 November 2006 in Saarbrücken
20 teacher training sessions across the country over the next few months
Applications for the national eTwinning Quality Label, deadline to apply: 15 February 2007
A five days eTwinning event on the Education fair “didacta” in Cologne, 27 February - 3 March 2007

6. Do you have any advice for teachers who wish to twin up with schools in Germany?

German schools are willing to twin up with you! There are a lot of motivated teachers with good project ideas who are looking for the right partner to twin up with, so take a look at the Twin Finder or contact us, the German eTwinning team. We are happy to help you!

Are you interested in getting involved in an eTwinning project with a school in Germany?