“The webcams are a real blessing for us. For many students it is difficult to work through the school content alone at home. Unfortunately, due to the Corona restrictions, face-to-face lessons are not always possible for everyone”, explains Hildegard Brinker, principal of the Maximilian School. The school adjusts its regular operations depending on the number of infections. The school is following a prescribed plan by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture to reduce the number of corona infections.

The support from Röchling came about by chance. “We had already tried using an existing webcam to enable lessons as a video conference in a virtual classroom. It was not possible to purchase several devices at short notice”, recalls Regina Smolarek, Vice-Principal of the Maximilian School. When the subject came up during a phone call with the personnel department at Röchling, the company quickly agreed to provide the equipment.

“As a company, we ourselves have noticed how important the medium video has become for our daily work this year. We were very happy to take over the acquisition of the webcams,” says Guido van Zoest, HR Manager at Röchling in Haren. Video conferencing has not only proven its worth in day-to-day corporate life, at the Maximilian School, both students and teachers benefit from the new medium. “We have already seen significant improvements in the students' learning behaviour with a webcam,” says Brinker. And the teachers themselves are also learning to appreciate video communication more and more. Conferences with the entire staff have already been held virtually.

Positive effect for students and teachers

Participation is very easy for students at home. The school already has a digital class register in which a link to the virtual classroom can be easily shared. Students can see the teacher via the webcam and follow the lesson just like they would at school. They can leave their own camera on their laptop or smartphone switched on and be visible to classmates and teachers. The microphone can also be switched on to participate in class. “An interesting experience for students as well as for us teachers. We are very much looking forward to the positive effect that the other devices will have on the learning of our students. And we also learn a lot about virtual teaching and learning methods and speaking in front of the camera”, concluded Smolarek.