Digital Pioneers: Villa Wewersbusch School’s Approach to Balanced Digital Learning with Goodnotes

Villa Wewersbusch—a small yet innovative secondary school at Velbert, a historic town in western Germany—is redefining education for the digital age. With 240 students and 20 dedicated teachers, Villa has been at the forefront of integrating technology into education since its foundation in 2012. As one of the first schools in Germany to adopt iPads in the classroom, Villa has developed a unique approach to digital education, with Goodnotes playing a pivotal role in their digital ecosystem.

A Vision for Future-Ready Education

From the very outset, technology has been integral to Villa Wewersbusch. However, the journey of adopting digital tools for classroom learning was not without its challenges. Felix, the CEO of Villa, recalls the days when the school was first established, “We just bought iPads from a local dealer and gave it to the students. We didn’t have really an idea how to use it in the classroom because nobody could show us how and tell us how.”

Despite the initial lack of support, the school maintained its forward-thinking and open-minded attitude, committed to preparing both learners and educators for a rapidly changing world by encouraging them to learn and grow together. As Felix states,

We need to change [education]. And that’s important for us if the students and teachers have a vision that they can see what the future can look like in education… It’s not a problem to teach them the skills because they are more open minded to learn.

Throughout the years, Villa’s pioneering spirit has led it to develop its own system, eventually becoming the first Apple Distinguished School in Germany in 2016.

Balancing Tradition and Innovation: Goodnotes in Villa's Digital Learning Strategy

Among the various digital apps and tools used by Villa, Goodnotes has emerged as an essential part of their digital learning strategy. More than just a note-taking app, Goodnotes serves as the students and teachers’ digital textbook.

When parents first heard about the school’s adoption of digital devices, many expressed concerns about the decline of handwriting, especially given the reality that exams are still conducted on paper in the German education system. As a pioneering school in digital education, Villa is extremely thoughtful of how technology should be best leveraged in the classroom while being balanced with traditional methods. As Felix explains,

The exams are still handwritten offline and have a very classic approach because the Germany [education system] is really slow to change. But we also need to prepare [the students] for the future, and the future means digital work combined with offline work. That’s where Goodnotes comes into place.

At Villa, each student receives a physical textbook and a digital copy in Goodnotes. Students use the physical textbooks when there is a task that they have to write physically, and use Goodnotes when there is a task on the iPad.

Furthermore, what sets Goodnotes apart is the flexibility it offers in translating between the analogue and the digital. For example, in some class tests, students can either write on a physical piece of paper or get it digitally and write on the iPad. For those who choose to write physically, they can  scan their work afterwards, save it in Goodnotes, and then send it to the teacher. To this, Felix comments,

That’s like the important thing that they learned both [the digital and the analogue]. They don’t have to focus on one. It’s a combination of both that they need to learn, which is important to us at school.

Integrating Goodnotes into the Teaching Workflow

Villa’s teachers have also found creative ways to incorporate Goodnotes into their lessons. Annika, who teaches maths, history, and social science, describes how she has developed a file-organization structure with her students to keep their work tidy, relevant, and easily accessible:

Within Goodnotes, I can have [the students] have their own folders for each subject and within those folders they have their own notebooks. With maths, for example, we have one workbook where we put in all of the worksheets they get from me. They have to leave them blank. That workbook is always for if they want to revise or if they want to redo those worksheets, they can always have access to the blank worksheets again.

Cihan, a geography teacher, notes that Goodnotes has become the teachers’ main app for creating handouts due to its versatility in creating interactive materials:

I can email graphics and PDFs can also be easily integrated in Goodnotes, and this is especially important for me as a geography teacher, because you have a lot of graphics and cards. Goodnotes allows me to make my lessons more dynamic and therefore the students are more motivated.

Goodnotes is also transforming the way teachers at Villa assess student work and provide feedback. The app’s integration with Apple’s Schoolwork platform creates a digital workflow that allows students to complete their tasks in Goodnotes and submit them in Schoolwork.

Even within Goodnotes, the teacher can easily mark students’ work, not only saving time but also enabling more dynamic feedback. For instance, Annika states,

I’m always scared if I mark something that I marked it wrong. With Goodnotes, it's not a problem at all because I can just erase what I marked and can remark whatever I want to remark.

Cihan further comments that Goodnotes allows his students to work directly in the app, highlight the answers, and mark and share the questions with him. In turn, he is able to provide feedback directly. This iterative and immediate process of interaction keeps his students motivated and ensures they can get the most out of their classes.

Student Engagement and Learning

Students at Villa have embraced Goodnotes enthusiastically, integrating it into their daily learning routines. Jaromir, a Grade 10 student, says he uses Goodnotes when studying and revising for exams, where he writes summaries for different topics and make drawings to help him visualize information.

I really like the features with Goodnotes—the mix between text and drawings so that I can easily switch between drawing a thing or just simply writing on my keyboard. That’s why I use Goodnotes.

Emre, a Grade 9 student, states, “I’m using it for almost all my lessons, like I said, in English or German, where you have to write with a pencil usually. I’m also using it for homework when I’m at home.” With the natural handwriting experience on Goodnotes, he is even able to “improve handwriting without using paper at the iPad.”

Emre also shares that he is actively trying out and enjoying the new AI features on Goodnotes, such as the “Word Complete” feature that provides real-time suggestions to autocomplete sentences in his own writing style, as well as the “Spellcheck” feature that automatically detects and corrects spelling mistakes or missed letters.

A Holistic Approach to Digital Citizenship and Digital Wellness

At Villa, students receive their iPads in Grade 5. Recognizing the importance of responsible technology use, Villa has implemented a dedicated “Digital Citizenship” class to help students smoothly transition to digital learning. As Felix explains it,

It is a subject where they learn how to use the devices, how to organize the devices, which is a really big point because they need to organize their school stuff and a lot of the school stuff is on the devices. They need to learn how to use social media, which pictures they can take from the web, where they can post it, where they can use it.

Helen, a Grade 6 student, affirms this by stating when she started using Goodnotes in Grade 5, she learned to organize her notes by different folders for different subjects, with the support of her teacher.

This proactive approach to digital literacy ensures that students are not only proficient in using tools like Goodnotes, but also understand the broader impacts of digital technology in their lives. Villa is also adopting a holistic approach to digital wellness. “What’s important to us is that [the students] learn how to take their time off,” Felix emphasizes. “They also need to learn how to relax and be away from the digital world.”

Villa Wewersbusch’s journey with Goodnotes and digital learning offers valuable insights into what’s possible when technology is thoughtfully and constructively embraced for education. To find out how your school could do more to navigate digital transformation and create a innovative and grounded learning environment, contact us: education@goodnotes.com

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