Gütersloh, 02/10/2023

"School and digital education" project extended by five years

Since 2017, the Center for Digital Education and Schools in the District of Gütersloh gGmbH (ZdB) has been supporting Gütersloh schools and the city of Gütersloh as the school authority in using and integrating the existing digital equipment in everyday school life in the best possible way. In this context, communication and working structures have been created between the education stakeholders and within the schools that have proven successful and are to be consolidated. For this reason, the ZdB and the city of Gütersloh as the school authority have now extended the cooperation project "School and Digital Education" for another five years, according to a statement from the city. The Bertelsmann Foundation and the Reinhard Mohn Foundation are involved in the project.

On behalf of the ZdB, the cooperation agreement was signed by the two managing directors Christian Ebel and Rüdiger Bockhorst; Bockhorst is also senior project manager at the Reinhard Mohn Foundation. They were pleased to continue the cooperation with the city of Gütersloh and thus with numerous municipal schools and the municipal employees from the IT department. In the second project period, which is now beginning, the focus will be on establishing a contemporary learning culture to support students' learning processes: For example, further qualifications for teachers and management groups are planned. In addition, already established and proven support measures for schools and school authorities, such as the municipal round tables or the IT cluster, are to be continued and anchored. In the long term, responsibility for the formats and offerings developed in Gütersloh is to be assumed by the city. This also means that it will be supported and accompanied in its competence development. Until then, the operational implementation of the project lies with the ZdB, which receives appropriate funding from local foundations for its implementation.

3,500 iPads and 600 digital touch displays

"School and Digital Education" is a joint cooperation project for school and classroom development between the regional education office, the school supervisory board, the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Reinhard Mohn Foundation, as well as other partners in the education region. The project goals, content and support measures are supported by and the responsibility of the bodies of the Regional Education Network District of Gütersloh, including the steering committee as the highest body. Other project partners include the media consultants, school administrators, steering groups, as well as teachers and parent and student representatives in the communities. The goal is to support all 103 schools and their 18 sponsors that have joined the project in the Gütersloh district in further improving the quality of teaching and ensuring the participation of children and young people in an increasingly digital world of life and work. In recent years, among other things, more than five million euros have been raised to equip the schools with extensive hardware. This was supplemented by 2.9 million euros in state funding from the Digital Pact. To date, the city of Gütersloh has used these funds to purchase around 3,500 iPads, 600 digital touch displays that can be used as digital whiteboards, and special equipment such as webcams, digital cameras, beamers, Ozobots and drones. All children and young people in Gütersloh schools from grade 1 onwards have access to iPads and other digital devices, which are available as kit sets up to grade 6. From grade 7, all students are equipped with their own devices, some of which are financed by parents.