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Daniela Nanu-Sbiera

Daniela Nanu-Sbiera © Daniela Nanu-Sbiera What have your most important learning advances been over the past year?

In the past year, everyone involved in the teaching process was more or less caught unprepared, so we have all had to adapt step by step. We have invested the most in the digitisation of lessons. Territories that only pioneers had dared to venture into before had to now be braved by everyone. For me personally, this was a challenge that I have successfully surmounted, as I am open to learning new things and experimenting in order to discover new ways and make my lessons more attractive but also more efficient. By participating in numerous workshops and training events of all kinds, I have become aware of new uses for known instruments, and I have been able to try out new applications.
 
What did the switch to remote teaching bring you? How has remote teaching changed your daily life?

Remote teaching resulted above all in a change in my lesson preparation. A lot of the materials I used to employ before had to somehow become interactive. That was of course time-consuming, but in the end it was practical because in this way the same exercise could be used again and again with different groups. A positive side effect of this was the reduction in the number of worksheets that I otherwise had to constantly print out or copy.
In this context, the digital textbook has also come to the fore.
 
How do you rate your media skills? Where do you see further training needs?

I have been drawn to digital media for a long time: in 2015 I took part in a longer training course at the Goethe Institute, so this path was already opened up for me back then. Even so, media used to only be a partial component of my usual teaching. In the meantime, I see myself as an advanced media user, although I have not yet tried out some of the digital subdomains. I have never set up any websites or blogs so far, and with the myriad of digital tools on offer, I feel I can no longer keep track. This makes me think that a suitable kind of training could provide the structuring framework that is needed.

How do you rate your students’ media skills? What support do the youngsters need from you?

The new generations show an astonishing ease in handling digital media, although some of them are very young (my youngest pupils, for example, are 11 and 12 years old). It is obvious that they do not shy away from new things, they are always ready to venture into uncharted territory. Of course, they still need more in-depth knowledge and one cannot generalise, but I have to admit that they have adapted surprisingly quickly to the new learning situation. I keep sending them tutorial videos so that they can learn how to use different apps. But on the whole I am satisfied.
 
How do you imagine your lessons in 10 years from now? What will have changed?

I can imagine that in 10 years we will be even further away from paper, that digital textbooks and exercises will take up even more space in our lessons. Mobile phones and tablets will gradually become an integral part of our classroom props. In these months of the pandemic teachers have had to be connected with one another and work together, and we can all benefit from that in the long run.
 
Would you like to continue teaching remotely in the future too? In what form?

Yes, I don’t think we can go back that step. It remains an advantage for students who are temporarily unable to attend classes due to illness or the like, as it enables them not to lose touch with the school. The various learning platforms that our schools employ will be retained in the long term for communication with our students, and can also be used for different work assignments in the future.

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