Education For Digital Natives – Employing Digital Learning Devices To Empower Students’ Individual Knowledge From Diverse Social Backgrounds

In the here proposed presentation, processes of enrichment of school education by employing digital media are studied at the level of primary education in Germany. The main foci of this presentation will be on the question how students’ socioeconomic backgrounds influence their motivation to work with digital media in school and their level of digital competence. This qualitative study is based on semi-standardized expertinterviews with 15 teachers, principals, experts and representatives of educational policy and administration in Germany. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis supported by MAXQDA. The results indicate that teachers design digital based instruction that is aligned with students’ informal knowledge of digital media, interests, class and ethnic background as well as with school-specific curricula. Students’ socioeconomic backgrounds influence their access to digital devices and social media at home as well as their motivation to engage in digital learning opportunities in schools. Gaining digital competencies, however, is greatly influenced by other competencies and learning strategies, in particular literacy. The results indicate that while low achieving students seem to benefit from digital learning programmes that can be adapted to their individual prior knowledge, in many digital learning environments they need extra support and guidance. Furthermore, teachers need support for employing digital media in their classrooms and to meet the needs of their students’ heterogeneous prior digital knowledge.     «

In the here proposed presentation, processes of enrichment of school education by employing digital media are studied at the level of primary education in Germany. The main foci of this presentation will be on the question how students’ socioeconomic backgrounds influence their motivation to work with digital media in school and their level of digital competence. This qualitative study is based on semi-standardized expertinterviews with 15 teachers, principals, experts and representative...     »