Horneck Schule - Stadt Gundelsheim – Microsoft donates Surface Tablets

Horneck Schule - Stadt Gundelsheim – Microsoft donates Surface Tablets.

The town of Gundelsheim is located directly on the river Neckar. Its landmark is Schloss Horneck Castle, built in 1533 by the Teutonic Order on the ruins of the old Horneck Burg Castle. It’s also home to the Horneckschule School which brings together primary and secondary schools under one roof for some 500 pupils. Bechtle’s community engagement saw the town of Gundelsheim receive 20 free Surface Pros complete with cases and pens from Microsoft and UAG. They’re also complimenting the digital gift with two mobile tablet cases to support digital learning.

Project details.

Services

Modern Workplace

Industry

Public sector

Manufacturer

Microsoft

Company size

< 250 employees

Challenge.

The Horneck school in Gundelsheim, southern Germany, is a school that consolidates primary and secondary education. Some 500 pupils make up 11 primary and 11 secondary classes.

The primary school teaching staff hold classes on 20 PCs in the computer room and with the aid of the school’s iPads. The secondary schools rely on 25 desktop computers and a study room with six PCs.

There are also laptop cases, each with ten Windows laptops for the entire school. In addition to the usual Office applications, there are also others such as CNC programs, for example, which allow use of the CNC milling machines in the technology area. The pupils can also log in to the Educational Sample Solution (Pädagogischen Musterlösung, paedML®) an IT solution—provided to schools by the local media centre in Heilbronn. This allows the school to control and monitor class devices such as computers, notebooks and tablets.

We’re delighted about the generous presents from Microsoft, UAG, and Bechtle. The 20 Microsoft Surfaces with Pens and cases with screen protectors from UAG support digital learning. They help us to drive digitalisation in schools. The Horneck school, especially the secondary school, can now really benefit from the latest technology and use tablets in classes.

Heike Schokatz, Mayor of Gundelsheim

Solution.

As both laptop cases are mostly reserved by one class, they are often booked up. Additional mobile devices are therefore very welcome for the Horneck school. Through Bechtle, Microsoft offered the school board free equipment of their own products plus from UAG and Bechtle. Gundelsheim town council wanted to arrange for 20 Gos and a Surface Pro 7, both complete with accessories to be handed over the school. After discussion with the local media centre, it quickly became clear that both the free tablets can also be decentrally employed for lessons like laptops. Equipped with the right cases and screen protectors from UAG, the corresponding Classroom Pens and a Surface Pen for the teachers, Bechtle performed the support—also for free, of course.

Device handover and setup took place on 28 February 2022, with Mayor Heike Schokatz and Head of Office Oliver Schölzel were there to gratefully receive the donations. The Horneck school just needed to connect the tablets—operating on Windows—up to their paedML® to start using it for the secondary school. The Horneck school also received two tablet cases to charge and transport the Surfaces to the classrooms.

Business benefits.

The pupils benefit greatly from the new Surface tablets. They can use them for learning vocabulary in class or surfing the internet. But there are many other uses.

The newly set up Digital Heroes (Digitale Helden)—est. 2021/22—is also happy about the additional end devices. The eighth graders are actively educating themselves about how to use digital media and data protection and passing on what they learn to other classes. Lead by the SMV (SchülerMitVerantwortung – pupils with responsibility) teachers and school social workers, the Digital Heroes were able to simply take the sponsored Microsoft, UAG, and Bechtle tablets into the classroom. It’s easier there to demonstrate the correct use of social media and platforms like Youtube and use them together.