Starting in autumn 2024, I worked on behalf of the BMB (Federal Ministry of Education) and in collaboration with the BIMM team (Language Education in the Context of Migration and Multilingualism) on a video series for teacher training, which has been available online in its entirety since June 2025 and is embedded in a thematic package.
https://www.bimm.at/themenplattform/thema/gesamtkonzept-zur-sprachenbildung-in-der-schule/
The aim of the project was to present the fundamentals of language education in schools as comprehensively and clearly as possible. To this end, two children – Alex and Niki – were placed at the centre of the project, using them as examples to illustrate the importance of language education for all children in all subjects.
The three-part video ‘Language as a Key’ offers a total of almost 45 minutes of video and three teasers. This makes it by far the largest animated video project I have ever realised, and I am glad that it has been successfully completed and published.
Such a large-scale project with lots of feedback loops is definitely a challenge, especially from an organisational point of view. Well-thought-out file naming and filing systems are just as important here as detailed schedules and effective communication of change requests. For me, the combination of Concepts for creating the vector graphics and Canva for the animation proved to be a good choice, even though I had to split the videos into several files in Canva due to their length.
I was very fortunate to be able to work closely with Lisa Fast-Hertlein from BIMM, who developed the text and was responsible for the content. Our production meetings were always a win because she not only organised the project perfectly and kept track of all the timelines, but also contributed a lot of visual ideas. I really enjoyed being able to work as part of a team again. The numerous feedback loops, in which we received feedback from many teachers working in the relevant field, took time, but were also very enriching.
Overall, the project gave me the opportunity to learn a lot of new things, optimise project processes and gain experience – and it was also very nice to be able to engage more intensively with content that is also relevant to my own everyday teaching.