The mobile phone is more important than TV for teenagers in Germany.

“Not without my cell*” – Text messaging 24/7 is a must for Luisa (17).  With more than 9125 text messages a year, she feels that her mobile phone is the most important medium she owns.

The case study below is based on the questions asked in the JIM Study published annual by the Pedagogical Media Research Centre Southwest (Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest) in Germany. The study analyses the use of media of 12 to 19 year olds in Germany. The study has been conducted for the past 13 years to document the trends and developments in media usage. The JIM study is designed as long term research project and its goal is to analyze the general shift of media usage among young adults. For details on the Jim Study, please visit the website at http://www.mpfs.de/index.php?id=181

A case study of Luisa’s media consumption

Luisa is 17 years old and is a dual national of Germany and Greece. She attends a private secondary school (Gymnasium) and lives with her mom, one brother (22) and sister (24) in Bonn. Her father died several years ago. Her mother teaches German as a foreign language and is originally from Greece.

Luisa’s typical day starts out by checking if she has received any text messages while she was asleep. She always keeps her phone right next to her bed while sleeping. Her night companion is never asleep and can store every message for her before she dashes to school.

Statistics on Luisa’s Annual Mobile Use

Text messages:  25 per day (9125 per year)
phone calls received: 6 per day (2190 per year)
phone calls made: 5-6 per day (2007 per year)

Her mobile phone costs €250 and is three years old. It has a camera, Bluetooth, mp3-player, GPS and can access the Internet. The cell phone contract does not include Internet access, therefore, she does not go online to access her emails or download/upload pictures or other documents. She uses her mobile phone mainly to communicate with her friends and family.

Free time activites

In her free time Luisa enjoys meeting her friends several times a week and goes shopping as well. She spends several hours in the library and enjoys singing in the school choir as well as working out in the gym. In addition, she also spends time not doing anything in particular. Her cell is her constant companion and she is online several times a day. She listens to music on her MP3 player daily and also to the radio. Reading is part of her daily routine because of her homework, but she finds time to read a book for her own pleasure at least once a week. She hardly ever watches DVDs anymore and seldom reads the newspaper or a magazine. At least once a week she peaks at a glamor magazine. She doesn’t access online magazines or newspapers and does not go to the movies on a regular basis. Listening to music is very important to her and using her mobile phone as well. The Internet and TV are important to her, but reading books, newspapers or playing video games are rather unimportant.

Online Activities (online communities, platforms for school or free time)

She accesses the Internet daily for school and for her private use. She visits Facebook and goes to Twitter. She tweets daily and follows others.  Emails are only sent every other day and are school related. She does not play games online and has not used skype or any other online telephone provider. She goggles daily and has a look at Wikipedia every other day and reads feeds from news groups on fairly regular basis as well as some weblogs. She hardly every uploads any pictures on the Internet and has never been an active Web 2.0 author on any forums, blogs, wikis or other collaborative tools. She does not own or any on or offline computer games or owns any computer game playing devices.

TV consumption

Her favorite TV networks are Pro 7 and SuperRTL. She loves to watch Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, Big Band Theory, Law& Order and several children’s sitcoms from Nicelodeon (Wizards of Waverly Place or Victorious). She also enjoys watching episodes online. However, she still prefers watching television on a regular TV. 

Cyberbullying

Luisa has never been bullied online nor has she heard of any person from friends that have suffered from any type of online harassment. She has never been approached by any religious or political groups and has also visited a right-wing extremist website.

Conclusion

Based on the published JIM Study Luisa is a typical German teenager. She has never heard the term digital native or digital immigrant, but could identify the different characteristics without any detailed explanations. She clearly represents the new generation of young adults that have been brought up with digital technology and feels comfortable using several media at the same time.

From the interview, I can see that the traditional media like magazines and newspapers are no longer vital to gain information quickly, but goggling and using Wikipedia have become indispensable. Finally, her mobile phone and social media, in particular using Facebook is an integral part of her daily routine and is as important as eating, sleeping and socializing. 

Her number one device is her mobile phone. She can’t leave home without it. 

*cellular phone or cell (US) and mobile phone (UK)

Reflection Assignment Based on Gerhard Schulze’s Study “The Experience Society”

Gerhard Schulze is a German sociologist, who published a study in 1992 with the title “Die Erlebnisgesellschaft” where he coined the term “Experience Society”. There is little published in English about Schulze’s work and he is primarily known in the German-speaking community. In his empirical study conducted in 1992 he describes five social environments that pertain to the 1980’s. Since his analysis, we have had several major historical and economic events such as the German reunification, 9/11 and the economic crisis that have influenced our perspective on society as a whole.

Schulze has added a commentary to his recent edition with the title: Übergang wohin? Kommentar im Jahre 2005 (Transition to where? Commentary in the year 2005). In this commentary Schulz provides a good transition to the current trends in our society and gives the book a needed update.

Further publications have also examined the experience factor, such as Joe Pine and James Gilmore, two American economists, who describe that consumers have gone beyond the stage of just having “the experience” and are looking more for a personal transformation.

Which social environment described by Schulze (milieu) applies to you?

Sorry, nothing really applies to me and even a mixture makes no sense. My background is a typical of a US immigrant from the 80’s. I was born in Sydney, Australia from parents that migrated from Europe to the US via Australia.  I am over 40, but nothing in particular seems to fit. The German social economic milieus were not written for US immigrants that now reside in Germany. If your background is German, I believe you might find a niche.

When Schulze describes “the compulsion to choose”. Can you see a pattern that applies to you?

Sorry, but I feel that the freedom to choose is a more appropriate approach. 

What’s your lifestyle? It’s a Trans-Atlantic lifestyle. This lifestyle takes some of the attitudes from the US (positive and the can-do spirit) and combines them with the good habits from Germany and thus creating a lifestyle that I feel very comfortable with. 

Conclusion: Life in Germany

“Everything is possible!” That’s my life’s slogan.  Happiness and fulfillment comes from self-reflection and not from top salaries and experiencing many different highlights or going on exotic vacations. My parents always wanted me to have a better life than they had. This is probably a typical situation for immigrants that feel the need to offer their kids a better life in a new country. But, I have reached a level that my child will need to maintain. Sustainability is the new key word in today’s society. Can we maintain our world? Will the next generation be able to keep the same living standard and affluence? I feel that we need to be humble and see how good things are instead of always seeing the negative side of everything.

We’re not in a room, but we work together on-line like pros.

Briefly reflect on our group assignment. First, we are old pros by now and simple take each group assignment with ease and divide the task quickly into subgroups or pairs. There is always one expert, who is responsible for summarizing the assignment and finally it is snazzed-up  and sent to our tutor. 

This time around I had the pleasure of working with ez-Maddin.   

 I think it is extremely important to also have one-on-one meetings with your peers on-line. Since we hardly have the opportunity to meet personally, this comes close to getting to know someone a bit more.

We were responsible for the first part of the group assignment and decided to get the job done asap and met on Monday last week. We skyped and typed on GoogleDocs as we spoke. We hadn’t prepared a lot beforehand and simple took our time on-line. I must say I enjoyed working on this assignment and had fun creating our little scenarios. This not only gave me the opportunity to work closely with another person, but it also was nice to hear the thoughts and ideas about this and the other. And of course, sharing our views on the development of e-learning and in particular ez-Maddin's media project on mobile learning.

I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with a “real” instructional designer on this assignment. I don’t think I could have done a much better job without him. And this brings me to my final words. Collaborating in a group will always offer you a lot more than you would be able to deliver by yourself.

We’ve a great bunch of professionals all offering our commitment and expertise, and that’s why the group assignments work so beautifully.

Thanks to the ez-learners!

What’s web-based training?

Once again I seem to stumble over our group assignments and the terms being used as the previous term  „e-learning Einheit" and now the famous and infamous WBT.  Since I am in the business of defining terms, I seem to be the only one confused :(

It must be a problem for me because I am a native English speaker and question English terms that pop-up in German and I simply want to know how others define them. I feel I know what they mean and suddenly I am struck with a new definition.

In American English, web-based training literally means training offered on the web. This can be self-instructed or instructor-led lessons. 

Here some links to definitions I found on the web:

http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/Web-based-training

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/WBT.html

But, when I asked the question, what WBT was in German, I got a very clear answer. No, WBT only includes self-study done online. No instructor is involved in WBT.

So, once again English definitions seem to change when they are used in German or I must have gotten my wires crossed.

Are we learning more effectively with the Internet and Web 2.0?

The term Web 2.o brings about a new perspective on the Internet. The Internet contributes so that learning becomes even more effective and our learning environment has changed dramatically. Can we say this is true? 

“Yes, we can.” The learning environment has changed dramatically in recent years due to the Internet; we are no longer chained to institutional learning. We are now able to leave the institutional shackles behind and explore the ideas of lifelong learning by using Web 2.0 for our personal needs. Indeed, we have the opportunity to explore the advantages that personal learning environments (PLEs) can bring forth and we can share and collaborate with others in our personal on-line communities.

In business the Internet and the use of Web 2.0 tools has become vital to marketing strategies and social networking communities are offering platforms to communicate directly with customers and businesses. Companies are participating in mass collaboration and engaging experts from outside traditional company structures and outsourcing their business by using resources from online communities. The principle of Wikinomics was coined by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams in the book, Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything. The web has an enormous impact on businesses and our personal lives.

Finally, if businesses are using these tools are we as educators including them in our curriculum? I will have a look at how foreign language teaching has changed in recent years and why teachers should use digital technologies in their curriculum.

So, what is Web 2.0?

Let us have a look at the definition offered on an on-line dictionary: 

“A loosely defined term for web applications that go beyond displaying individual pages of static content and allow a community of users to interact with the site and each other by adding or updating the content.
Examples include social-networking sites like Facebook and other web-based communities, hosted services like Google Docs, web applications like GMail, video-sharing sites (Youtube), wikis (Wikipedia), web logs, mashups and folksonomies. While Web 2.0 applications often use advanced web features like AJAX to improve the speed of interaction, the term is more about the type of applications than the technology used. The term was coined by Darcy DiNucci in 1999, though she was discussing designing web sites for new hardware platforms.” (2009-11-18)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © Denis Howe 2010 http://foldoc.org

Web 2.0 is not a buzz word but has offered many very useful tools that have definitely revolutionized foreign language teaching. Learning a language with new digital technologies has brought the “real world” into the classroom, it offers authentic material right at our fingertips. Now, we can offer our students up-to-date audio and video material by linking them into our wikis, blogs or virtual learning environments. We can offer interesting listening exercises for homework and webquests to show how to access information on the Internet. Students can do their assignments on-line and collaborate with other students at any given time. YouTube clips or Google searches have enriched our class discussions. Students can produce their own material and upload it on YouTube and suddenly they are actively involved in the Web 2.0 revolution.

 
Here's an example of  a video project from my classes.

But, do students learn more effectively?

 

Web 2.0 gives many opportunities that have made language learning more creative, lively and interesting. I would say that learning a foreign language, in particular English has benefited from the free on-line tools available on the Internet. Learners have a good idea why they are learning English to communicate globally. However, not enough research has been done to provide proof that it is more effective than traditional learning language learning. In any case, the need to communicate globally has also changed the language skills required in our on-line community. Teachers and students cannot simply ignore the shift of how we interact worldwide by using the Internet as a communication platform. Individuals are an important voice in their on-line communities, who share content privately or in business. So, the question cannot simply be left by discussing its effectiveness before we incorporate it into our curriculum since it is already part of our lives. It is up to the new generation of educators to provide lesson plans that incorporate new media in pedagogy and to conduct research on its effectiveness. New training for teachers is required and advanced degree programs are necessary to meet the growing demand offered by new digital technologies.

Why should educators use web 2.0 tools?  

It is important not only to improve the language skills of students, but also providing them with digital tools that they will need to use in the workplace. As mentioned above, businesses are using these tools and students need to cope with and develop strategies in using different media to communicate online, in particular when communicating in English. Digital technologies are an important part of today’s world and should have its justified place in higher education.

Recently, I conducted a survey in my Business English course to find out how much experience my first year undergraduate students had using Web 2.0 technology and found that 90% of my students had never used any Learning Management System (LMS) nor collaborative tools for learning. Although this generation of students is known as digital natives, they have not used Web 2.0 for learning. However, I think that Germany lacks behind in using Web 2.0 in the classroom. When looking at other countries, e.g. the UK and US, young learners are not only using interactive whiteboards in their lessons, but are tweeting and accessing the Internet for tasks in their classrooms. Educational publishers have recently reacted to these new developments by offering student materials on-line and LMS platforms or SCORM materials for teachers and students complementing the traditional course books.

More research needs to be done to show how these tools have contributed to learning more effectively. But, ignoring or rejecting these developments is not the right approach.