City invests 450,000 euros: Secondary school is becoming more digital

Created: 01/25/2022, 16:02

By: Wolfgang Schörner

Digital classroom: The elementary schools, here the school on Birkenstrasse, have already been equipped with digital boards (Active Panels).

© Wolfgang Schörner

After the two primary schools, the city of Penzberg is now also digitally upgrading its middle school.

She expects an investment of 450,000 euros this year.

The school will receive WLAN and digital blackboard systems, as they are already used in elementary schools.

Penzberg

– Elementary school students in Penzberg are already familiar with how to wipe a blackboard these days.

You don't wipe them with a rag.

You swipe your hand across the board like a giant smartphone.

The two Penzberg elementary schools on Birkenstraße and Südstraße have already been digitally upgraded in recent years by the city of Penzberg, which bears material expenses.

They received full WiFi, digital blackboard systems in all classrooms, teachers' notebooks, and software and loaner notebooks for homeschooling.

In addition, as a pilot phase, there were 32 tablet computers for each lesson.

The city has already invested about the same amount in its schools

So far, the city has invested a total of around 462,000 euros in digitizing its schools.

She received state funding of almost 202,000 euros for this.

The middle school has already benefited from some of the money: for teachers' notebooks, for software and student loan notebooks for "homeschooling", for three digital bulletin boards and 3D printers.

The PC rooms were also upgraded.

Comprehensive WLAN and digital boards for all classrooms

Stefan Ahne from the municipal department for IT and communication technology recently took stock of this during the budget consultations. He also presented the next step. For 2022 it is planned to equip the middle school - the city is also responsible for material expenses there - with WLAN and all classrooms with digital blackboard systems. "Then we will have continuous digital schooling from the first to the tenth grade," says Ahne. He also described it as the right way to equip the municipal schools with a uniform system. According to him, equipping the secondary school means an investment of around 450,000 euros. On the other hand, he also expects state subsidies in the six-digit range in this case.

During the budget deliberations, the investment in the digitization of the middle school was not in dispute.

This was also the case in the city council, which approved the purchases in a non-public meeting shortly before Christmas.

The decision was unanimous, explained Mayor Stefan Korpan (CSU) when asked.

The tenor was that education should not be saved.

Secondary school director: "This gives us a significant boost"

Michael Zwick, Head of the Mayor Prandl Middle School, is happy about it. "We are very happy at the school, it gives us a significant boost," said the rector when asked about the decision. According to him, the new equipment is also important for “connectivity”. In other words, elementary school students who have already learned on digital boards will also find them at middle school in the future. According to Zwick, digitization makes new forms of learning possible and the children would acquire new skills. The middle school had already had good experiences with the previous equipment. According to Zwick, things went smoothly with the approximately 40 rental notebooks for "homeschooling". The online school manager, which parents can use to report their children sick, for example, or letters to parents, is also going well.A big step has already been made in 2021, praises Zwick. "We feel that we are in very good hands with the city and the IT department."

Savings are preferred when renewing the media technology in the town hall

Incidentally, the finance committee took a different course when it came to digitizing the town hall.

In view of the recent austerity appeals, he started cutting back on budget advice there.

The renewal of the media technology in the meeting room, which is prone to failure and is now ten years old, has been postponed.

"If the microphone doesn't work anymore, we'll just have to speak louder," said Mayor Korpan.

And if the monitor breaks, they say, get out the overhead projector.