FraLine

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 joint project between the municipal education authority of Frankfurt am Main and the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences being of mutual benefit for both parties. The program is unique in Hesse and one of only a few other initiatives in Germany that offer IT support to local schools with the help of university students. Thus, the city of Frankfurt is able to provide low price and convenient support services to its schools. Students, on the other hand, receive the opportunity to apply and enhance their theoretical knowledge. Professional school-IT-support became necessary, when the city of Frankfurt started making large investments into school IT-infrastructure. As a result, teachers who previously had supported their school PCs during their spare time, could no longer cope with the growing amount of routine support needed. By now Frankfurt schools rank among the best equipped schools in Germany. Those municipal investments aimed at encouraging the implementation of media in education. Once the technical preconditions had been created, teachers had to be trained in how to apply these. School teachers not only had to become acquaintend with media theory and educational media concepts but also had to receive advanced technical training.

Therefore, the city of Frankfurt launched the pilot project fraLine – IT-School-Service in 2001. It aims at reducing obstacles,both technical and pedagogical, teachers have to face when using computers and other media in class. On the one hand, fraLine student employees (mostly students of computer science of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the University of Applied Sciences) provide technical support by operating a telephone hotline and an Internet-based helpdesk or by visiting schools, if onsite service is required. On the other hand, fraLine also offers practical and theoretical IT-training courses for school teachers. And third, fraLine engages in projects improving school-support in Frankfurt either by developing comprehensive school support concepts for the city of Frankfurt or by offering consulting services to the responsible municipal departments.

It can be criticized, however, that IT- support carried out by students does not match the schools´ need for a “professional” support. On the other hand, only senior students possessing the necessary qualifications are accepted at fraLine.

Organization and basic support

A team of up to twenty students support all 152 schools and therefore about 13.000 personal computers in Frankfurt. The basic support is free of charge and covers everyday problems with IT hardware and software, as well as installation, actualisation and handling of software. In order to coordinate school-support as well as possible, fraLine cooperates with so-called IT representatives at every school. They are appointed by their principals and are responsible for collecting IT-problems at their schools and communicating them to fraLine. For these schools fraLine functions as first point of contact. It receives and collects problem reports and school requests. Teachers can report problems and receive help by using the fraLine telephone hotline or Helpdesk.If necessary, fraLine colleagues visit the schools and support on-site. In order to collect and process the school´s requests fraLine has developed the fraDesk, a multi-user capable Trouble Ticket System. Thus, the fraDesk is capable of serving more than just one organisation with only a single installation ("fraDesk" is a open source product and has been presented at CeBIT 2008 in Hanover, Germany).

Other service segments

In order to help teachers to help themselves fraLine provides relevant information on subjects such as educational use of media, educational software, media literacy or municipal IT-standards etc. and regularly publishes and updates technical tutorials, a glossary and a large set of FAQon its website. The FAQ in particular have become a reknown point of reference for local teachers and other users, since they provide a practical knowledge database including information on the Frankfurt local network, operating systems, software, hardware, peripheral equipment, the Internet, licenses and rights of utilization. Likewise, fraLine offers tutorials and introductory courses imparting helpful theoretical and practical knowledge to school teachers and IT representatives in Frankfurt.

The so-called Plus-Service (Plus-S) is offered on a regular basis and carried out by dedicated fraLine employees. It is requested by those schools that do not only wish to receive support in cases of problems, but also for routine inspections and tasks.

fraLine offers assistance to all school teachers in Frankfurt trying to reduce their insecurities with the use of new media. With fraLine colleagues being present in class or helping with the preparation of class projects, Frankfurt teachers are encouraged to use media in class. Every teacher in Frankfurt is entitled to request this so-called "educational-technical assistance".

Eventually, fraLine offers consulting to the city of Frankfurt, to all Frankfurt schools as well as other institutions needing advice on topics such as new acquisition of computers or computer parts, security aspects, remote service etc.

Partnerships, cooperations and awards

Besides its support activities in Frankfurt, fraLine also contributes to various multi-organisational and interdisciplinary initiatives in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse and Germany responding to the growing demand for a sensible use of media in education. Thus, fraLine cooperates closely with other institutions in and outside Frankfurt dealing with media education. It maintains close partnerships with its sister projects in Bremen and Hamburg. In Frankfurt fraLine cooperates with other institutions in Frankfurt in order to coordinate the local range of training programs in media education (http://www.medienbildung-frankfurt.de).

In 2007, fraLine´s concept of cooperating closely with teachers and other municipal institutions in order to provide a reliable network of IT-support in Frankfurt, was awarded with one of the “Germany – Land of Ideas” awards. “Land of Ideas” is an initiative under the patronage of the German Federal President Horst Köhler. Public or private institutions that have developed innovations and ideas are nominated as so-called “landmarks in the land of ideas” for one year. During the year 2008 fraLine was appointed as such a “landmark”.

Web Resources

• Homepage of fraLine - IT-School-Service
• Germany - Land of Ideas
• City Frankfurt
• Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences
• Academic Information Service
• TeachersNews
• EducationServer Hessen
• Bild (January 19, 2002), "Hallo Schüler, wir sind eure Internet-Helfer"
• Frankfurter Rundschau(February 20, 2002) "Beim Computerkollaps bietet die Fachhochschule Erste Hilfe"
• Frankfurter Rundschau(March 14, 2003) "Locker erst nach der Lösung"
• Fujitsu Siemens Computers support program - Hessen
• mediacentre Frankfurt - Education
• Institute for Information Management Bremen GmbH (ifib)
• Media Project Center Open Channel Offenbach/Frankfurt (February 12, 2008), Live-Broadcast "Safer Internet Day 2008"/panel discussion with fraLine project coordinator Mr. Thomas Knaus
• Medienbildung Frankfurt
• Schule@Zukunft - media education project in Hessia
• Welt Online - Eine Hand wäscht die andere
• Online Platform Hessian Universities of Applied Sciences
• Culture Portal of the City of Frankfurt am Main