15. September 2017

Es geht doch nicht schon wieder um Flucht und Migration, oder? Es geht um Flucht, aber nicht um Migration. Ich widme diesen Beitrag einem Thema, dem in der öffentlichen Debatte nicht die notwendige Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt wird. Ich spreche von der Steuerflucht, die dem Staat weit mehr kostet, als die humanitäre Flucht. Ich möchte hier keine Wertedebatte beginnen, nur an die Relationen erinnern.

16. Mai 2017

The educational system is a mirror of the democratic challenges. France, the USA and Austria face very different but structural identical challenges.

03. April 2017

Working in education and writing about a lot of innovative approaches to teaching, I often meet the ones who always find excuses rather than ways to implement innovation. The so-called naysayers. You will find a lot of them, especially in Austria. Being frustrated with the educational system or the funding of it, they will always be reluctant to find ways to implement innovation in the classroom. And it is almost always the same excuse: money. Granted, things are tough at times and a lot of...

13. März 2017

Working in education, we are bound to see the potential rather than what could go wrong. We see room for improvements and not the political battles to get there. We do not understand why anything that could enhance the pedagogical interaction would be too pricy. In a word, we are idealists as we should be. And idealism is needed more than anything right now. Especially in education. There are a lot of trends and new features which could and should be integrated in class and every respectable...

16. Januar 2017

As I promised, in this week’s English Breakfast, I am going to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of Google’s Android operating system. Is it suitable for educational purposes? Last week, I wrote an article about iOS from Apple. With Android offering much more affordable alternatives, is it suitable to run in an educational environment? Android is an open source platform provided by Google. So, by definition, it should be more suitable for educational purposes, right? Today, I am going...

01. Dezember 2016

How do we inspire young people to get into science? While its importance increases permanently, the popularity of science is still low. Mainly, due to the unawareness, young people do not know about the career opportunities in science. Science still has that geeky image that appeals to nerds most of the time. The societal role of science is immense as it provides answers to question we raise all the time. Every little invention, every great product we use, goes back to scientific discoveries....

24. Oktober 2016

Often, we discuss that our children are going to need a different set of competences. Different to what we used to learn in school or at university. The digitalization might bring us to the post industrial era. How so? In the following article I am going to take a few minutes and to try explain. But the source of all changes are the modernization and the digitalization …

10. Oktober 2016

Remember that crazy Austrian daredevil who jumped out of a high tech balloon at 38.969,8 meters of altitude? Four years ago that -main jump- took place. At the time, it was spectacular. Baumgartner made a sporting event out of that adventure. The longest base jump so to speak. Last week, a grammar school close to Vienna reproduced that jump. This time, no human being jumped out of the weather ballon, but the results were just as staggering. Students of the 4D class realized a project that they...

29. August 2016

A week from now, pupils will be sitting in school and trying to listen to the teacher whilst thinking about their summer memories. Some students went to the beach, others discovered new cities they did not know before or enjoyed their vacation at home because let’s be honest: We do not know if foreign places are safe these days. But anyway, batteries should be recharged, the stress level should be at its low point and everyone should be ready. And speaking of being ready, there are a lot of...

24. August 2016

In den USA ist die Kluft zwischen privaten und öffentlichen Schulen besonders auffällig und Qualitätsunterschiede in der Betreuung und in der Qualität sind frappierend. Als amerikanischen Ausweg aus der Bildungsmisere sind Charter Schools sprichwörtlich aus dem Boden geschossen. Sie sind öffentlich finanziert und privat geleitet. Damit, so glaubte man, werden die Vorteile des privaten und öffentlichen Systems genutzt. Dass dies nicht stringent der Fall ist und, dass mittlerweile viele...