" We have found the Statue of Liberty!" rings out through the on-line classroom, which has been specially set up in the EU pavilion. The children from Ostwall primary school in Ludinghausen, Overberg and Paul-Gerhard school in Dulmen and St. Antonius school in Rosendahl-Darfeld are gathered around five PCs in three groups, experiencing the internet. The reason for this school trip is the IT initiative by Coesfeld Sparkasse, who are presenting this lesson. Karlheinz Lipp, vice-CEO says "We are very pleased that our stimulus for IT provision and education is getting such good reception not just in the Coesfeld district, but also in this world forum.
150,000 Marks for networks
"The IT initiative is an initial stimulus for the support of IT provision and education in the 51 primary and special schools in the Coesfeld district" says Lipp. The initial 150,000 Marks are being supplied by Sparkasse Coesfeld for the networking of the 3rd and 4th classes. "Sparkasse Coesfeld´s financial contribution is part of a modular IT package, which we have tied up with the StadtsparkasseBillerbeck , other partners from the education and IT world, and of course under the supervision of the schools themselves. A server is also included in the offer, which enables several users to use the internet at the same time on just one phone line. The Sparkasse would like to support teachers and parents, whose active cooperation is required for this to work.
One group of enthusiastic teachers from primary and secondary schools, known as the E-Team, are advising schools in the planning stage of the networks. The results can already be seen - the first primary schools in the Coesfeld district are now on-line. In the Ostwall (Ludinghausen) Overberg (Dulmen) and St Antonius (Rosendahl-Darfeld) primary schools, internet access already belongs to everyday school life.
Further training for teachers
"The second leg of our IT initiative is further training for teachers, to go with the technical provision." continues Karlheinz Lipp, as he emphasises the importance of 'know-how' in using computers. The campaign "Education network Munster/Munsterland" is working with the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Munster to offer training courses. Some such courses have already taken place in several places in the region.
Further sponsors required!
"Our IT initiative is thought of as a voluntary and open platform. Further sponsors are extremely welcome to join us!" adds Lipp. The Sparkasse has already managed to secure one sponsor - Hewlett Packard Germany are going to equip all 51 primary and special schools with scanners, free of charge.
www.Grundschulnetz-Kreis-Coesfeld.de
New sponsors will also be made aware of the project by looking on the web. On the site www.Grundschulnetz-Kreis-Coesfeld.de, the schools are able to introduce themselves on the internet - without knowing anything about programming! The names of businesses who support their local schools will be published on a list of sponsors. The lay-out and programming has been taken on by the agency "Project 14" of Munster, as with previous similar projects.
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Further information:
Robert Klein, Vorstandssekretariat
Tel: 0049 2594 9982005
Robert_Klein@spk-coesfeld.s-web.de