Fraline
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| Motto | Students support teachers in IT hardware and software |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2001 |
| Location | 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 |
fraLine - IT-School-Service is a project of the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and the city of Frankfurt. It's aim is to help teachers to establish and to enhance the technical requirements for the pedagogic use of new media in education. fraLine offers on-site support in schools in Frankfurt, but it also tries to develop and to help establish standards for IT environments in schools. Most co-workers are students of the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences as well as the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.
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[edit] From demand to idea
Schools are in the responsibility to provide for their pupils not only the suitable specialist knowledge, but also competence for a deliberate and purposeful contact with the new information technologies. In most German schools the servicing of personal computers, including the actualisation of software and the solution and removal of IT problems, is done by teachers, parents and sometimes by pupils as well. fraLine's aim is to relieve the teachers of the Frankfurt schools of technical problems, as well as to support them by consultation with lasting effect.
[edit] Origin
fraLine was founded in 2000. Before it began school support in early 2001, its founder, Thomas Knaus, had to organize almost everything to start off the project: a room, workstations/equipment and of course students who could do the job.
[edit] About the portfolio
A team consisting of up to twenty students support all 152 schools in Frankfurt (which makes a total of about 11.000 personal computers). The basic support is free of charge and covers everyday problems with IT hardware and software, as well as the tasks of installation, actualisation and handling of software. A more intensive support that takes places on a regular basis and that is performed by an assigned student can be ordered, too.
Another purpose is hand-in-hand development of IT concepts with the appropriate departments and partners under the light of school characteristics. These conceptional processes are not only accompanied but even encouraged by the dialogue between teachers, fraLine students and represantitives of the departments and partners. fraLine checks the exsiting nationwide findings on school support and based on that, it develops a comprehensive and sustainable support concept for Frankfurt's school scenery.
But a reliable IT hardware and software environment in school is only half the battle. People are needed who know how to use it and how to integrate it into education. That's why fraLine offers workshops for teachers to enhance their technical skills in terms of IT. Even the presence of a fraLine student in class is possible: he or she can assist the teacher with the use and integration of IT in class (i.e. by solving problems as they appear, or by giving advice on a certain topic).
[edit] Software Tools
Because the team consists in large part of students of computer science, fraLine is able to develop its own software tools. A lot of these tools are for internal use to help simplify and accelerate working processes, but some are targeted at a public audience. The latest official achievement is a Helpdesk System (Trouble Ticket System) named "fraDesk" that is capable of serving more than just one organisation with only a single installation ("fraDesk" is Open Source and has been presented at CeBIT 2008 in Hanover, Germany).
[edit] 365 ideas from Germany
fraLine has been elected as one of 365 places in the "Land of Ideas 2008", a project under the patronage of Federal President Horst Köhler.
