Corona-term: Open-Air teaching against digital frustration

Jena has introduced the Corona-times very early in the Mask-they have reported about it in the F. A. Z.. How it looks currently in the city – what is the strategy of the University of Jena followed?

Uwe Ebbinghaus

editor in the features section.

Dirk von Petersdorff: In the city of Corona has calmed down-very. Jena has been reported for weeks hardly any new infections. The measures have been appropriately loosened, the usual restrictions such as mask duty and clearance rules apply, of course. The University is, in my perception, very carefully. We have spent the summer semester completely digital. What was last, again, are smaller presence, forms, and tests. I can host, for example, a seminar that had to take place in the pub. In principle, everything is digital, and the winter semester will be planned accordingly. This is difficult for all of us, but after all, probably, the first semester will be in the city.

you Must be logged in to analog events, how big the bureaucracy is?

you must be logged in. In the rooms the chairs, you can't use then with construction tape wrapped and taped, which I find a bit inappropriate. You should trust that members of a University can understand the distance rules, and implement. Our rooms are also locked, in principle, for visitor traffic. Maybe you could operate in a city that has for weeks almost no new infections, something free. The idea of the city is: people who come from the outside, are a potential infection carrier, mixing is dangerous, and separation is secure. For a University town, the lives of openness and exchange that is the problem.

you have just a special Form of classroom teaching behind – an excursion to literary traces. Where did it go?

the excursions were funny, allowed, always, even in the times with the most stringent requirements. I'm doing this Semester is a Seminar on Heinrich Heine, we followed in a group of fifteen people from Ilsenburg from the very beautiful Heinrich-Heine Hiking trail to the Brocken. The next day we went to Quedlinburg, where we had a tour of the city. It is a short excursion of three days, but a nice change it was. The mood was exceptionally good, we felt a great relief, to do something together. The Semester has technically works well, you can digital teaching and learning, but just so you can feel, what the experience of the real getting to Know is missing. The students said they had spent their lives in the last few weeks, actually, mostly in front of the screen. This is understandable in a digital Semester.

How large is the demand?

The Seminar itself was a little smaller. After a mail with the announcement of applications in excess of the free places came immediately, so that we have a waiting list. We would probably have twice as many take-away. But a field trip should not be too large. And the participation is of course always a cost factor. The Dean's office has supported the Whole, however, generous, so that the students had to pay 50 euros for two Nights in the hostel, the bus rides, and a tour of the city. The real costs were about twice as high.

they Have organised the excursion in the regular Semester?

it was planned, we have moved a couple of weeks back. The youth hostels were closed long, and the buses were not allowed to drive. And I asked the students, of course, if you want to travel in the current Situation at all. But all wanted to.

you regularly Make excursions in your seminars?

This is only the second to have been. In the last summer semester, I have been offered a in the footsteps of Thomas Mann's Lübeck, associated with Theodor Storm in Husum, Thomas Mann, admired Storm, Yes, very. The response was very good, several students have said that you should repeat something. I picked up then. You have to say: In excursions, a lot of preparation work. I alone could not organize, this is only possible with the support of auxiliary forces and a Secretariat. There are legal issues, you have everything to calculate and settle and endless forms to fill out. I'm going to run the thing but because I think that the students take very much of it. These are, I believe, the events in the study, stay longer in memory.