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Country Case Study: Germany

Interview Report
John P OHara
EDTC645 Fall 2014
Dr. Tamara Blesh

Introduction:
German education has been challenged in recent years. Following the release of the PISA
report in 2000, many Germans were surpised at the realitively poor showing of German
Students (EDUcontact OECD, 2012). However, it seems that the remedies to this crisis
did not involve ICT for education. In fact, the Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (2013) listed five central challenges to the German education system, and did
not mention ICT in any of them. In fact, by all accounts, it seems that German students
do not regularly use ICT in their schools. Only 65% of them have used computers in
school, compared to the 71% average for OECD countries (Tulodzieki & Grafe, 2012).
For my interview report, I wanted to get some first hand information about why
technology integration is so uncommon in German classrooms.

Interview Questions
1. Please tell me about yourself and how you fit into the German education system.
Rationale: In order to understand the perspective of my interview subject, I
wanted to state upfront who it was I was interviewing, and what their role is in
Germany.
2. How do you feel Germany compares internationally in regards to using instructional
technology (like computers, interactive white boards or tablets) in classes that are not
technology classes?
Rationale: My research has indicated to me that German students are less likely
than comparable international peers to use technology in their classrooms. I

wanted to know if those involved with the German system thought this was the
case.

3. What unique challenges are posed by the structure of German education regarding
instructional technology?
Rationale: The German educational system is structured very differently that the
US system. For example, for teenagers, Germany has a dual track program with
an academic track and a vocational track. I wanted to know if there was
something about this structure that was hindering ICT integration in German
classrooms.
4. What kind of professional development or teacher training is available to the typical
German primary and secondary teachers regarding their use of technology in the
classroom?
Rationale: In order to effectively use ICT in their classrooms, teachers must be
effective at doing so. Perhaps the reason that Germany has such low levels of ICT
use is due to lack of training.
5. In general, who makes the purchasing decisions for technology in German classrooms?
Who is consulted?
Rationale: Another stumbling block to using classroom ICT might be that the
technology is either not purchased, or it does not meet the needs of teachers and
students.
6. What (if any) bureaucratic obstacles exist for teachers or schools looking to use a new
technology in their classrooms?

Rationale: I wanted to know how teachers that take initiative to get technology
into their own classrooms fare in Germany. Are they encouraged to innovate, or
are they pushed back?
7. Please add any other thoughts regarding the use of instructional technology in German
classrooms:
Rationale: This last question is meant as a catchall for things I might not have
thought of.
Obtaining Interviews
For my interview subjects, I wanted to either find researchers that are familiar with ICT
in German education, or teachers that have recently taught in Germany. To find
researchers, I first sent an email to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
through their online form. Unfortunately, I did not obtain a screenshot at the time of
submission, but the form is here:

This contact solicited no response.


In addition, I also contacted many researchers at German Institute for International
Educational Research (DIPF). I looked at a list of recent DIPF publications, and emailed
the researchers listed as authors on publications that involved ICT.
Most of these emails received no response:

However, this email, sent to Frank Goldhammer, received the response below:

While Dr. Goldhammer did not answer my questions, he did provide a link to a powerful
document. Unfortunately, the data for this document will not be available before this
assignment is due.
In addition to researchers, I also wanted to contact German teachers. Unfortunately, I
have no contacts in Germany, so this work had to be done entirely online. I signed up for
the Global Education Conference, and began to search for members. I narrowed my
search for only teachers in Germany. Additionally, I looked for teachers that had an active
blog, since the GEC would not give me their email addresses. I managed to get messages
sent to the following individuals:

Verena Zimmer did respond to my contact with the following email:

I took Ms. Zimmers suggestion, and sent the following tweet:

The Tweet received no response.


Finally, I received some help from a classmate. Michele Bondine has an acquaintance
that up until recently, taught in Germany. Unfortunately, I was not aware of this until very
short notice. I attempted to contact her via Facebook:

Unsurprisingly, I have not received a reply on such short notice.


Previously Conducted Interviews
It was very difficult to even find interviews with people talking about educational
technology in Germany. There seems to be plenty of interest in the German educational
system, but not much focus on ICT within that system. There were lots of interviews
about German vocational education and equity in German education (especially with

regard to immigrants) but technology was left as a sort of elephant in the room. The most
relevant interview I came across was with Dr. Klaus Segbers, who spoke of the
challenges and promise of running an online university program in Berlin. Dr. Segbers
talks about the troubles of online schools in Germany, which I would imagine track very
closely to ICT. He mentions that in the German system, the tradition of quickly adapting
technologies for education is not as strong as in the United States, and also that German
education (specifically the universities), do not have anywhere near the private money
that American schools do. This enables American schools to be more innovative and
dynamic (Glader, 2011).

References:
EDUcontact OECD. (2012) Germany - Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in
Education [video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=q4vVwWBqlCM

Federal Ministry of Education and Research. (2013). Education in Germany 2012 An


indicator-based report including analysis of arts education throughout the life course
Summary of Important Results. Retrieved from:
http://www.bildungsbericht.de/daten2012/summary12.pdf

Glader, P. (2011). WA Interview: Berlins Free University Professor Talks About Online
Learning In Germany. Wired Academic. Retrieved from:
http://www.wiredacademic.com/2011/10/wa-interview-freie-universitat-berlins-chief-ononline-learning-in-germany/

Tulodziecki, G., & Grafe, S. (2012). Approaches to Learning with Media and Media
Literacy Education--Trends and Current Situation in Germany. Journal Of Media
Literacy Education, 4(1), 44-60.

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