DigiLab
With digital media and tools becoming normalised in schools, students are increasingly confronted with technological teaching and learning formats and need to develop cross-disciplinary functional media competences in addition to subject-specific skills. In our project, this development is to take place in an interdisciplinary context, supported by all teaching personell of the institution (cf. KMK 2016, 2021) and requires up-to-date training at universities.
The methodologies in English language teaching play a central role to this as English is a global lingua franca and consequently many digital formats can theoretically be productively integrated into foreign language teaching. Digitally supported foreign language learning can however only succeed if teachers are prepared to integrate such digital impulses, offers and applications into their teaching.
The Digital Lab of the TEFL department (DigiLab) is a research project located at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. Prof. Dr. Susanne Heinz, Dr. Ingrid Paulsen and Sean Holt, M.Ed. collaborated to develop a modern simulation room aimed at the professionalisation of prospective teachers. This area provides a platform for exploring and testing digitally supported teaching and learning scenarios in practice. The DigiLab maps out a broad technical spectrum of possibilities for school practices, including the use of digital boards/smartboards, tablet classes, hybrid settings, etc.
Overall, the lab aims to conduct innovative research on teaching and learning in media-affiliated foreign language teaching. A particular focus is also placed on the critical evaluation of the didactic potential and the added value of digitally and non-digitally supported teaching and learning formats.
The DigiLab adopts a „Bring Your Own Device“ (BYOD) approach, where teachers and students use their own devices, instead of requiring devices to be purchased by the school. Given the difficulty of compatibility between different devices and operating systems, such as Android, Chrome, and iOS, the DigiLab was designed to allow seamless use of these personal mobile devices and this approach enables effective and specific digital teaching without focusing on a particular manufacturer or device type.
Moreover, the DigiLab can realistically simulates a modern tablet class, specifically an iPad class, which furthermore allows students to experiment with numerous forms of digitally supported English teaching. Additionally, this approach also promotes the training of other competences, such as critical media competence and allows for the discussion of such issues e.g. data protection etc.
MELLT in the Competence-based Foreign Language Classroom
Our Devices
Our DigiLab boasts a wide range of devices and formats, all carefully curated to support teachers in creating effective and innovative digital learning scenarios. We’ve included instructions for each device while also describing the didactic possibilities they offer, so you can explore and experiment with the tools that best suit your teaching style. Our device descriptions highlight how these tools can complement or enhance traditional teaching methods and offer exciting new possibilities such as creating MOOCs, producing explanatory videos, or designing interactive worksheets. We invite you to explore our offerings and unleash your creativity!