The Fallout of New Media (20.12.11)
Epilogue
It is the dusk of mankind. The year 2053 is coming to a close and I am the last one left. I glance around the classroom, at empty desks and dusty wallpapers while I am reminiscing the good-old days. The bell strikes for the last time and I slowly pick up my things, as if my hesitance would somehow change things at the last minute. As I stroll along the forsaken, empty halls, it appears as if children’s laughter still fills the air and the busy traffic of schoolboys storming out of their classrooms seems to dwell up in my peripheral vision. I listen again but all sounds are gone and what I have mistaken for movement is merely a solemn, lonely tear…and I wonder what on earth has happened?!
Flashback
We are witnessing the beginning of a new era. It is the year 2012 and New Media in Foreign Language Education has become a fixture at the University of Marburg for future teachers of English. Students have the opportunity to become acquainted with the many different ways New Media may support your teaching lessons while also receiving hands-on training. All over Germany, schools are playing a tug-of-war for lucrative state funding and New Media has become a new and trendy niche. Vying for the prestigious “Medienschule” title, schools work out New Media concepts while spending thousands of Euros on Smartboards and notebooks. Elementary schools are starting to pick up on this new phenomenon as well and are offering IT-courses starting in the third grade.
It is the dusk of mankind. The year 2053 is coming to a close and I am the last one left. I glance around the classroom, at empty desks and dusty wallpapers while I am reminiscing the good-old days. The bell strikes for the last time and I slowly pick up my things, as if my hesitance would somehow change things at the last minute. As I stroll along the forsaken, empty halls, it appears as if children’s laughter still fills the air and the busy traffic of schoolboys storming out of their classrooms seems to dwell up in my peripheral vision. I listen again but all sounds are gone and what I have mistaken for movement is merely a solemn, lonely tear…and I wonder what on earth has happened?!
Flashback
We are witnessing the beginning of a new era. It is the year 2012 and New Media in Foreign Language Education has become a fixture at the University of Marburg for future teachers of English. Students have the opportunity to become acquainted with the many different ways New Media may support your teaching lessons while also receiving hands-on training. All over Germany, schools are playing a tug-of-war for lucrative state funding and New Media has become a new and trendy niche. Vying for the prestigious “Medienschule” title, schools work out New Media concepts while spending thousands of Euros on Smartboards and notebooks. Elementary schools are starting to pick up on this new phenomenon as well and are offering IT-courses starting in the third grade.
Nostradamus
Facebook, Google, and their offspring have achieved the unfathomable: a completely transparent, digitalized world. All our actions are stored in a digital database while our “needs” can be calculated and tailor-fitted to meet the corporate demands of the global enterprises. Our school-system has picked up on this “Brave New World” and teaching material applications allow teachers to pre-select their lessons based on their students profiles whose progress is documented and stored. Grades have been replaced by levels and ranks that reflect a students proficiency at a certain skill. All lessons are stored and uploaded as videocasts with interactive tasks and exercises. Since "Blended Learning" has been deemed the most successful, individual, and gorgeous teaching method, teachers are slowly being driven out of the classrooms and in front of their computers since creating pre-programmed lessons has become more important than being a negotiator of knowledge as a person. Students like their favorite teachers to enhance their year-end bonus, and global corporations reward teachers whose students fit their respective skill portfolio. Universities have become a nuisance since the "Duales Studium" is more profitable and the government virtually broke ever since they tried to save Greece. Society has created the perfect learning environment: cost-efficient, goal-oriented, and paper-free. How? Well, by eliminating the most common source of error of course: man. By 2053 schools will have run their course as we know them and social interaction will be reduced to a bare minimum. The king is dead, long live the king!
Facebook, Google, and their offspring have achieved the unfathomable: a completely transparent, digitalized world. All our actions are stored in a digital database while our “needs” can be calculated and tailor-fitted to meet the corporate demands of the global enterprises. Our school-system has picked up on this “Brave New World” and teaching material applications allow teachers to pre-select their lessons based on their students profiles whose progress is documented and stored. Grades have been replaced by levels and ranks that reflect a students proficiency at a certain skill. All lessons are stored and uploaded as videocasts with interactive tasks and exercises. Since "Blended Learning" has been deemed the most successful, individual, and gorgeous teaching method, teachers are slowly being driven out of the classrooms and in front of their computers since creating pre-programmed lessons has become more important than being a negotiator of knowledge as a person. Students like their favorite teachers to enhance their year-end bonus, and global corporations reward teachers whose students fit their respective skill portfolio. Universities have become a nuisance since the "Duales Studium" is more profitable and the government virtually broke ever since they tried to save Greece. Society has created the perfect learning environment: cost-efficient, goal-oriented, and paper-free. How? Well, by eliminating the most common source of error of course: man. By 2053 schools will have run their course as we know them and social interaction will be reduced to a bare minimum. The king is dead, long live the king!