I have
learned a lot during these weeks of exchanges, change of perspective and being
a learner again – which I am doing quite often. However, being aware, that it
is important to change on and on the perspective and that is very enriching, is
actually a basic understanding for me as being a lecturer and a researcher and
keeping my mind open to new inputs and inspiring exchanges. Another thing that I
have learned is to try out more with blended learning and E-Learning. I have
learned several new tools that we could also try out in the group and this was as
well a very good and pleasant experience. Another lesson I have learned again, during
this course, is that working together in a collaborative process, coming from
different cultures, backgrounds and professions and realising that we have a
lot in common, is so inspiring and has a big value to me.

I will as well try to
support our E-Learning people with promoting collaborative exchanges, as still
80% of the Lecturers at my Institute do not try or even dare to try E-Learning
tools and go for blended learning – there is still a lot to do at a basic
level.

Working
with blended learning is very important to think about a good balance of “face-to-face”
teaching and let us call it virtual teaching. We are still human beings and
therefore learn through listening, gestures and mimicry, which we can see from
a person in front of us – in this case, I am talking about a lecturer / teacher.
Emotions and therefore as well authenticity play a key role in emotional presence of a teacher or lecturer. The
emotional presence, I believe, is important to build up a relationship, to
create something together and to learn how to read, understand and trust
people. Being in a virtual sphere can take this away and as well, you can hide
very well your emotions, as it will be difficult to sense them through a screen
or headphones. Therefore, it is still very important to find a good balance between
“face-to-face” teaching and virtual teaching.

What else can I take
with me?

Technology is just an
enabler, so there is something else that matters when you teach. There is no
silver bullet in blended learning we all are experiencing it. It’s sure
possible to use technology in my teaching but I’ve to do it step by step – I’m
already using our E-Learning platform “Moodle”, where I discover each time new
features which I’ve never tried before.

For me this trend, which we call as well
“Digitalisation”, is on and has its own speed. We are talking a lot about and
having as well special working groups and workshops about it. For me the
importance is to prepare all this shifts/implementations well ahead, because
like with E-Learning this just came to happen and still so many do not use it
properly. It needs time to change things and it needs time to learn these new
tools and trends. The most important thing is to be sure that people are ready
and prepared. As well that there is an equality and justice for all on
this planet – and there we are still far behind because there is a big difference
between western countries and southern countries, concerning access and
technologies. Maybe it would be better to wind down the speed “digitalisation” and
think about sustainably what steps we need to take first in order to have all
world citizens on board and have an equal fair start for everybody, which is definitely
not case today.