FraLine: Difference between revisions

Formation	2001
Standort	Frankfurt, Hessen, DE;
Region served	Frankfurt
Membership	Schools
Project Coordinator	Thomas Knaus
Parent organization	University of Applied Science
Affiliations	School Department of the City of Frankfurt
Staff	20
Website	fraLine

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Revision as of 21:24, 4 November 2008

fraLine - IT-School-Service is a cooperative project by the local education authority of Frankfurt am Main and the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. Responding to the increasing demand for media in education the city of Frankfurt had made large investments into the IT-infrastructure of its schools. As a result, Frankfurt schools now rank among the best equipped schools in Germany. This, however, involved a growing need not only for technical support in schools but also for the training of teachers in using PCs and other media in class. For this reason, the city of Frankfurt launched the pilot project fraLine – IT-School-Service in 2001. This project, unique throughout Hessia, aims at reducing obstacles teachers have to face when using computers and other media in class. fraLine employs students (mostly students of computer science of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the University of Applied Sciences) to operate a telephone hotline and an Internet-based helpdesk for teachers or to visit the schools, if required. Likewise, fraLine-employees work on several projects to improve school-support concepts. Based on national research results in the field of school-IT-support, fraLine thus has developed a comprehensive support concept for the schools in Frankfurt.

It can be criticized, however, that IT- support carried out by students does not match the schools´ need for a “professional” support. On the other hand, only senior students possessing the necessary qualifications are accepted at fraLine. At the same time student employees receive an opportunity to apply and enhance the theoretical knowledge they have obtained during their studies. Besides its support activities in Frankfurt, fraLine also contributes to various multi-organisational and interdisciplinary initiatives in Frankfurt am Main, Hessia and Germany responding to the growing demand for a sensible use of media in education.

Organization and basic support

A team of up to twenty students support all 152 schools and therefore about 11.000 personal computers in Frankfurt. The basic support is free of charge and covers everyday problems with IT hardware and software, as well as installation, actualisation and handling of software. In order to coordinate school-support as well as possible, fraLine cooperates with so-called IT representatives at every school. They are appointed by their principals and are responsible for collecting IT-problems at their schools and communicating them to fraLine. For these schools fraLine functions as first point of contact. It receives and collects problem reports and school requests. Teachers can report problems and receive help by using the fraLine telephone hotline or Helpdesk.If necessary, fraLine colleagues visit the schools and support on-site. In order to collect and process the school´s requests fraLine has developed the fraDesk, a multi-user capable Trouble Ticket System. Thus, the fraDesk is capable of serving more than just one organisation with only a single installation ("fraDesk" is a open source product and has been presented at CeBIT 2008 in Hanover, Germany).

Other service segments

In order to help teachers to help themselves fraLine provides relevant information on subjects such as educational use of media, educational software, media literacy or municipal IT-standards etc. and regularly publishes and updates technical tutorials, FAQs and a Glossary on its webside. Likewise, fraLine offers tutorials and introductory courses imparting helpful theoretical and practical knowledge to school teachers and IT representatives in Frankfurt.

The so-called Plus-Service (Plus-S) is offered on a regular basis and carried out by dedicated fraLine employees. It is requested by those schools that do not only wish to receive support in cases of problems, but also for routine inspections and tasks.

fraLine offers assistance to all school teachers in Frankfurt trying to reduce their insecurities with the use of new media. With fraLine colleagues being present in class or helping with the preparation of class projects, Frankfurt teachers are encouraged to use media in class. Every teacher in Frankfurt can request this so-called "educational-technical assistance".

Eventually, fraLine offers consulting to the city of Frankfurt, to all Frankfurt schools as well as other institutions that need advice on topics such as new acquisition of computers or computer parts, security aspects, remote service etc.

Partnerships, cooperations and awards

fraLine cooperates closely with other institutions in and outside Frankfurt dealing with media education. It maintains close partnerships with its sister projects in Bremen and Hamburg. In Frankfurt fraLine cooperates with other institutions in Frankfurt in order to coordinate the local range of training programs in media education (http://www.medienbildung-frankfurt.de).

In 2007, fraLine´s concept of cooperating closely with teachers and other municipal institutions in order to provide a reliable network of IT-support in Frankfurt, was awarded with one of the “Germany – Land of Ideas” awards. “Land of Ideas” is an initiative under the patronage of the German Federal President Horst Köhler. Public or private institutions that have developed innovations and ideas are nominated as so-called “landmarks in the land of ideas” for one year. During the year 2008 fraLine was appointed as such a “landmark”.

Web Resources

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