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o Needs among learners?
o Needs among teachers/trainers?
What would you consider to be the most important challenges in the cur-
rent situation in terms of promoting online learning among vulnerable
adult learners?
3.2 DIGITAL RESOURCES TO MATCH LEARNERS´ PREREQ-
UISITES – THE CASE OF GERMANY
March 2020 Germany was not really using digital tools in the classes. Migrants’ courses
necessarily needed to be in present format since the “Bundesamt for Migration” /
Federal Office for Migration did not accept any digital format in the integration pro-
grams. For this reason most teachers did not really see the need to upskill themselves
in digital contexts. After March 2020 the situation changed rapidly. All teachers were
forced to adapt their programs to digital formats and the delivery of these classes was
implemented in the most varied ways. The teaching formats went from simple video
calls with the students to tailor made moodle courses with a diverse variety of digital
exercises. Depending on the institution and the teacher delivering the course learners
could participate in online language courses that were simply moved from the class
situation to a skype call situation or participate in a class allocated in a professional
learning platform with the continuous support of the teacher for the implementation
of the activities.
3.2.1 TEACHERS AND LEARNERS PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES WITH DIGITAL
TOOLS AND DISPOSITION TO USE DIGITAL TOOLS
Most teachers were not using any digital resources before the pandemic situation.
Some of them used videos to present some of the topics or as part of listening activi-
ties. But the exercises in the classes were mainly focusing on traditional book centered
or communicative lessons including some games but in a mainly teacher centered
class. Regarding the digitalization skills of the learners, depending on the target group
some would use learning platforms –specially the youngest that had previously used
these tools at university – but most would not use any digital materials to improve
their language skills. With the forced sudden digitalization teachers had to improvise
their lessons and this included a strong commitment and many extra hours in digital
upskilling, searching and adapting materials and a high degree of uncertainty about the
efficiency of the created materials and lesson plans. To the problems related to the
digital capacity and resources the integration programs teachers faced the problem of