
Lower Saxony, Germany
"If you don't feel with all of your senses, you don't understand."
Ulrich Breitsprecher teaches art, mathematics, and multimedia. He is also one of the two administrators of the school network and is in charge of the school website.
KGS Stuhr-Brinkum is one of the first four schools of the Schulen ans Netz production of websites for schools and communities with pupils. He will take part in Expo 2000, a European project and is also working as an Apple Distinguished Educator. He's on an exciting adventure, traveling with students to conduct polar research on the Polarstern vessel and producing diaries for the web in three languages. He'll be videoconferencing with Polar stations and ISS. Ulrich was honored by the Karl Heinz Beckurts Award in 2002 for the integration of scientific work into education.
The main interest of his work is to connect education with the experiences of scientific work outside of school. He thinks it's important to cooperate with universities, companies, and nearby firms, so there has been cooperation with the Alfred Wegener Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung for ten years.
In art, Breitsprecher looks for close connections between analog and digital technology. In preparing for life after school, students use professional tools like Adobe software and Mac computers. There is a close connection between the local TV station, and students are producing short films for the local news. The training of teachers is another function of his job, so he teaches media design and the use of media in cross-curriculum projects.
The project he was involved with in 2008 was to work with 11-year-old students to not only use MacBook in school, but also to communicate with media and design experts, who they call "godfathers of learning."
Publications
Computer and Unterricht 66/2007, " Aus dem Unterricht in die Ohren der Welt" Unterricht and Erziehen 1/99, Kunst and Mäuse