Teaching and learning in the virtual environment are powerful solutions for education, given the social distance imposed by the coronavirus. Classic study tools had to be quickly replaced with digital tools and internet resources in order for the educational process to continue.

With the closure of schools, the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research encouraged teachers to be innovative and recommended the use of a set of digital classroom teaching tools. STEAMonEDU project partner EOS Romania, as a partner for education of the Ministry, has implemented a remote working system: video conferencing applications, a common place in the business environment, are now used as „virtual classrooms”. Shared, the computer screen becomes the „writing board”; the class can be put “on mute” while the teacher explains the topic;  the chat field hosts questions until the teacher opens the lecture time for discussion.

Teachers were not prepared to use this kind of tools and resources and required training and assistance to use them and adapt their teaching process. To support them, EOS Romania developed a range of resources and guides available in the national language, provided technical support to schools, and prepared a series of webinars about obtaining and using connection accounts to the resources made available by the Ministry of Education and Research. All the guides, resources and webinar recordings were uploaded onto EOS website and are available for free for all schools and teachers who want to use them.

The virtual courses are organized on secure web domains, from which the educational resources made available by the Ministry of Education and Research are accessed. Video conferencing systems facilitate not only simple screen sharing, but also learning how to use other computer applications and encourage collaborative work in the projects developed by students.

During 15-31 March 2020, EOS Romania ran 22 webinars to train and support Romanian teachers.

How the required skills of future employees are trained is hardly anchored in the rigid German education system. Meanwhile implementation of individual competences in connection with media use or in connection with STEM subjects has already taken place. However, STE(A)M education is still in its very early infancy in the German education system. Some actions and initiatives are already visible for kindergarten and pre-school, but for primary, secondary and high school STEAM is not anchored in German educational system. In contrast, a considerable number of non-formal educators and initiatives offer a wide range of STE(A)M educational opportunities.

Nationwide initiatives on STEM and Arts

The digitisation is already demanding that education policy focuses on broader skills – especially the 21st Century Skills – communication, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration.

Even if the education policy level has not yet shown any efforts for the implementation of a STE(A)M framework, some initiatives that can be linked to STE(A)M education are visible in Germany.

In the nationwide initiative „Code your Life„, children and young people experience the connection between algorithms and artificial image creation or create music. „We encourage the imagination and creative use of programming tasks by teaching children and young people to use our Turtle application to define geometric shapes and algorithmic sequences that produce artistic images,“ explains Jutta Schneider, Project manager of „Code your Life”. In recent years, around 300,000 children and young people were involved in activities as well as their teachers and educators which are trained in using and preparing the coding activities. A comprehensive range of teaching materials, online tutorials and teacher training courses are part of the offer.

The combination of art with technology, mathematics and computer science is made visible every year by the award and the associated exhibition Der Deutsche Multimedia Preis mb21 (German multimedia Award mb21). Children and young people from different age groups submit their own creative multimedia ideas and products like creative blogs, sound combinations for the city of the future or painting music by using artificial intelligence. At the annual media festival, the winners’ objects are exhibited, they can be viewed and tried out by the audience. For example, 3D printers can be used to make imaginative or useful things, soldering irons can be used to repair or reassemble technology, and artistic designs can be created.

Helpful STEM structures

STE(A)M education is not yet structurally anchored in the German education system, but for more than 14 years, STEM education has been a central issue in Germany at civil society and political level. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research published the STEM Action Plan in 2019 and defined four fields of action: STEM education for children and young people, STEM professionals, opportunities for girls and women in STEM, and STEM in society.

It would also be possible to access the structure of the previously established STEM networks, which have already created local bodies for STEM education and training and support educational institutions such as kindergartens and schools in exploring and discovering the world of mathematics, IT, science and technology with children and young people.

The aim of these measures is to secure skilled workers in Germany and to promote female employees in technical and scientific fields. There are already numerous civil society initiatives, ranging from the early childhood sector – Stiftung Haus der kleinen Forscher (House of Little Researchers Foundation), through pre-schools and primary schools – awarding STEM-friendly schools – to STEM regions for secondary schools.

STEM Education in Germany

The foundation „Haus der kleinen Forscher” promotes STEM activities for very young children and promotes the natural urge to research. With local players in over 200 local networks, it supports educational professionals in kindergartens with ideas and training to support and awaken interest for STEM education in children.

But even in the area of STEM education, German secondary schools do not provide cross-curricular schooling on the one hand and do not anchor individual STEM subjects on the other. The disciplines of engineering and computer science are not or only rudimentarily included in the educational plans of the Länder. Interdisciplinary lesson planning between several teachers takes place only rarely. The German learning and school structure, in which teachers conduct and organise lessons, leaves little room for interdisciplinary exchange between colleagues. „In an international comparison, Germany has a relatively high number of teaching hours – up to 28 compared to 15-18 hours in China, for example. This leaves little room for further training or for the development and implementation of interdisciplinary learning opportunities in German schools,” said Dr. Ekkehard Winter, Co-speaker of Nationales MINT Forum (National STEM Forum).

Dr Ekkehard Winter (image – Andres Süß/NFM)

National STEM Forum

One of the central tasks of the National STEM Forum (Nationales MINT Forum, NMF) is to provide impetus for strengthening STEM education in Germany at federal, state and municipal level. The members of the NMF – 30 renowned institutions from science, business and the foundation sector – are involved, for example, in linking school and extracurricular activities in more than 130 STEM regions. These are networks that create locally appropriate, centrally coordinated and sustainably effective offers along the entire education chain in the STEM subjects. Project days, researcher workshops and labs, teacher training and teaching materials are common offerings for those responsible for education. With Parliamentary Evenings or the annual National STEM Summit, the NMF stimulates political debates and addresses key demands to education policy decision-makers. But what about the connection between Art and STEM? Dr. Ekkehard Winter sees this as a broadening of perspectives also with regard to the demands on the workforce in a digitalised working environment. In a working group, the NMF now wants to develop recommendations on how cooperation across subject boundaries can be successful and thus stimulate the debate on STE(A)M education in Germany.

The European project STEAMonEdu

The current project STEAMonEdu initiates a discussion on the STE(A)M educational and competence framework for pedagogical training. In addition, a MOOC and an online-supported in-service training course will illustrate examples of good practice and STE(A)M learning activities to educational staff, teachers. A European STE(A)M community provides impulses for the establishment of STE(A)M education. Helliwood media & education (21^st CCC) is the German consortium partner and is responsible for the implementation of the project in Germany. With its experience in implementing media education and offering activities for children and youth within nationwide educational initiatives, it will create and support the German STE(A)M Community.

by Katrin Schuberth, Helliwood media & education

Repubblica Digitale project is a national strategic initiative promoted by the Department for Digital Transformation of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers to „combat the cultural digital in the Italian population, to support digital inclusion and promote education on the technologies of the future, accompanying the process of the digital transformation of the country”.

The aim of Repubblica Digitale is to create an „alliance” of public and private entities, which has as its reference point the Manifesto of Repubblica Digitale and which operates as a community of co-design, sharing and collaboration. In order to adhere to the Manifesto, the proposed initiatives must relate to three areas:

1. basic digital literacy and overcoming the digital cultural divide;
2. development of digital skills for work; and
3. education in emerging technologies and the dissemination of digital culture.

Repubblica Digitale proposes the idea that supporting the digital transformation of the country with educational and cultural actions is a common civic duty for the State, businesses and individuals. For this reason, all members of society, starting from the media, schools and families, can contribute in a decisive way to overcome the gaps that currently divide the country.

STEAMonEdu has been listed among valuable Italian and European initiatives proposed by public and private entities that will help Repubblica Digitale in reaching the objectives foreseen by the Manifesto.