TAB Arbeitsbericht Ab115 - Z
TAB Arbeitsbericht Ab115 - Z
TAB Arbeitsbericht Ab115 - Z
Simone Kimpeler
Peter Georgieff
Christoph Revermann
Summary
March 2007
Working report no. 115
SUMMARY
Within the scope of TAB’s monitoring of eLearning and on the basis of two
selected phases of life – childhood and old age – the present study works out to
what extent target group-specific requirements already play a role in the devel-
opment and in the market of eLearning products.
The first educational goal for children in their early phase of life considered to be
the development of competencies. This comprises a combination of personality
development, learning skills, the ability to acquire and to apply knowledge, lin-
guistic, social and motor skills, as well as media skills. Informal learning is thus
considered to be the most important type of learning with respect to scope and
quality. As it is not only the informal background, but rather also the influence
of educational institutions and peer groups which are crucial for learning success
in the early learning phase, the decisive actors need to be well networked and
accompanied educationally by counselling and preparation.
The user characteristics of children as a target group in terms of the use of the
computer and Internet as a precondition for the implementation of eLearning
are heterogeneous subject to various contexts.
For this reason consideration should be given to the fact that educational influ-
ences and measures are effective with children as a target group in addition to
their own child-related preferences. For children the computer is an appliance
which is predestined for informal learning, as it is preferably used for playing
1
SUMMARY
According to the German government’s twelfth children and youth report, me-
dia (worlds) are not places of learning in themselves; however an important
world of learning with its own opportunities and risks. The majority of children
and young people use the computer and the Internet, with access either privately
at home or at school. The informal background has an important role to play
in the development of media skills. Thus social inequalities can reflect them-
selves or be reinforced in dealings with computers and the Internet in general.
Children from socially disadvantaged families spend above-average amounts of
time watching television, whereas children growing up in socially better off en-
vironments have greater opportunities to use computers and the Internet with
above-average frequency. As a result they are more likely to fulfil the conditions
for participation in eLearning courses.
There is broad transparency on the eLearning market for children with regard to
the providers ofeLearning products, the intermediary institutions and the prod-
ucts supplied. The actors here include educational publishers, software develop-
ers, companies, non-profit institutions, and private persons. Only a number of
the providers are marketing eLearning products (primarily) for a profit. Other
companies areproviding products specifically targeted towards children for im-
age reasons or with the objective of attracting customers in the long-term. In
addition there are a number of institutions which are active on the market as
non-profit organisations or on public contracts.
2
SUMMARY
The largest share of businesses which are active on the eLearning market for
children produce and market content such as e.g. educational software, edutain-
ment products and computer games. There are comparatively few courses, semi-
nars and workshops on offer which concentrate on training media skills. On the
whole the range of products targeting children both in the field of educational
software as well as in edutainment products, games, seminars, courses, Internet
platforms, pages and forums is strongly diversified. This is a pointer to the fact
that this target group is also taken seriously from a commercial viewpoint and
that the market potential even for specialist products in small numbers is rated
as promising. Further it can be observed that there is an increase in the interac-
tive presentation of the product range. This has to do with the fact that
>> the increasing availability of high-speed Internet connections has made the
comfortable use of complex applications possible;
>> interactive services have a higher appeal on the demand side than stand-alone-
products due to their communicative elements;
>> on the supply side there is the opportunity of employing interactive elements
for customer retention and canvassing as well.
Concerning the distribution side, a lot is being done to raise the market transpar-
ency andthe visibility of eLearning services. Alongside retrievable databases and
providers’ Internet pages, traditional distribution channels are still used (adver-
tising in print media, TV and radio).
3
SUMMARY
Outlook
There is still however also a necessity that – more specifically than has been
the case to date – an evaluation of educational software for children is carried
out in the educational sciences, computer science and also in media education,
which does not only measure the success of its implementation, but rather takes
account of the different age groups, varying didactic approaches, learning the-
ory contexts as well as pedagogically created learning environments. With this
4
SUMMARY
Informal learning has greater significance for elderly people than formal learn-
ing. At the same time the acquisition or retention of independence and self-de-
termination is also an essential goal of learning at a more advanced age. The
development of competencies with elderly people is less a case of attaining new
proficiencies and abilities but rather more of retaining existing skills. At the
same time older people acquire new skills which help them pass on experience
and knowledge or to enable them to undertake voluntary work. Learners in this
phase of life are generally less mobile than in earlier phases, so that media educa-
tional services – as opposed to events requiring attendance – acquire additional
significance. One important aim in creating learning services is the dismantling
of barriers to accessibility and usage for this target group. Elderly people who
regularly took part in further training courses during their working life also val-
ue this highly as they get older. People with higher levels of education are more
likely to take part in training courses at an advanced age than those with a lower
level of educational attainment.
The target group of elderly people is also not a homogeneous group as regards
media use and educational demand. In recent years their media use pattern has
changed to indicate a more frequent and intensive use of electronic media. Since
2005 the biggest increases in Internet use have been among the over 50s, and in
particular the over 60s, (as well as pensioners). With about 20 million elderly
people currently »non-connected«, the need to introduce them to the use of
modern media and the participation in eLearning courses is still considerable.
There are however significant differences in usage within the target group of
elderly people according to age group, gender and education. It can be seen here
that socialisation effects such as behavioural roles and proximity to education
still play a part in later learning phases. The use of electronic media at an ad-
vanced age has gained in importance in recent years, so that differences in usage
concerning the frequency and intensity of use by age are likely to decline within
the target group of elderly people.
5
SUMMARY
Great differences will remain in future between the »Young Elderly« and the
»Aged«. Computers and the Internet present interesting alternatives to tradi-
tional educational media for the target group of ›elderly people‹ due to their
ability to reach less mobile learners as well as to reduce barriers to access and
usage. The few results relating to media use by elderly people in the sector of fur-
ther training indicate that it can be assumed there is interest in all media-linked
types of informal and formal learning. Good preconditions therefore exist for
this heterogeneous target group to try out and implement new concepts of life-
long learning.
The term eLearning has a completely different accentuation in the market seg-
ment for elderly people when compared to the market for children. Until now
it has been clearly on imparting media skills, therefore learning how to handle
electronic media. Elderly people have a predominantly practical interest in the
Internet and seldom regard the computer as an entertainment medium. Thus
information with thematic priorities such as illnesses, travel, financial questions,
and languages and so on are accessed in particular. This may stem from the
fact that education and the learning of specific content have as yet only found
expression in very few of the providers’ product development and marketing
activities. An analysis of the market shows that such products hardly exist at all
or are only cautiously marketed. Thus isolated online English courses are offered
especially for elderly people, but not for example eLearning modules on specific
topics.
6
SUMMARY
Initial pilot studies on suitable learning environments for the elderly have begun;
no results are however available so far. The attempt to develop services which
are sustainable while at the same time covering costs has to date been allocated
a subordinate role. First signs are identifiable showing how the various compo-
nents of eLearning for the elderly could be coherently pieced together to form a
complete system.
Outlook
There are hardly any target group oriented services available for elderly people
at the moment. Correspondingly, few target group oriented education and im-
plementation concepts have been applied to date or are currently under develop-
ment. However, despite the current lack of consideration of target group-specific
needs for elderly people, an extension of the target group orientation can in
future also be expected in service development. The main driving force here is
demographic development and its accompanying general increase in the impor-
tance of elderly people as a target group for entertainment and further educa-
tion. A closer linking of entertainment and education, or edutainment, already
widespread in the target group of children, still remains to be developed for
elderly people.
It is also important to note that the most frequently offered topics on the eLearn-
ing market do not yet coincide with the education preferences of the target group.
These preferences point to a high potential for edutainment, as topics such as
art, culture, theatre, health and nutrition are predominantly requested. More-
over concerning the potential lowering of access barriers to education through
eLearning, there is still insufficient discussion of the provision of technical sup-
port where mobility is a problem or assistance for visual and audio faculties
or consideration being taken during the development of applications. Further
potential can be found in the implementation of eLearning in connection with
specific learning content, e.g. coming to terms with the ageing process, learning
associated with social interaction or the (virtual) participation in society when
one is physically impaired or one’s mobility is restricted.
7
SUMMARY
address this target group. The high pedagogic, technical and also financial
expense required may have so far scared off potential providers. One problem
is partly however also a lack of imagination as to how education, the use of
new technologies and the target group of the elderly can be successfully linked
together.
8
SUMMARY
Children
Access and usage preconditions are not always given at home and school is
too poorly equipped as a location to compensate for this. The following advice
results from this for the sectors of research, school, teacher training, parents as
well as extracurricular contexts:
>> Research: There is a need for research which provides reliable and above all
differentiated data on the use of computers and the Internet by children of pre-
school and primary school age to be initiated and funded.
>> School: Courses imparting media skills need to be offered more intensively by
schools in particular to children from underprivileged educational backgrounds
in order to lay the foundations for active participation in beneficial eLearning
courses. This is above all a challenge for the schools, to make appropriate op-
portunities for experiencing and learning available to children at an early age.
>> Teacher training: In this connection attention also needs to be drawn to the in-
adequate preparation of teaching staff for these tasks during training. Only few
training courses at universities prepare prospective teachers covering content-
related, didactic and technical aspects of the use of computers and the Internet
in the classroom.
>> Home use: Parenting must concentrate increasingly on children not only using
consumer and game-oriented products when using computers and the Internet,
but also on increasing their awareness of the information-oriented use.
9
SUMMARY
Elderly people
An analysis of the market for eLearning services for elderly people shows first
of all that eLearning products hardly exist or are only cautiously marketed.
Secondly the market also seems relatively confusing: The services are strong-
ly concentrated on (information) technical subjects; there is a lack of services
which are related to life conditions (e.g. learning to age, health and prevention).
Education and the learning of specific content have as yet only found expression
in very few of the providers’ product development and marketing activities. A
clear definition of the aim of the respective services or the instruments employed
is also necessary (which group of the elderly is appealed to, what prior technical
knowledge has to be taken into consideration, and what content is to be con-
veyed?) as well as a conclusive evaluation concept that accompanies the respec-
tive projects right from the beginning.
>> Age-specific courses which are supervised both in style and intensity by a tutor
are preferable to unsupervised courses. The supervisors should have undergone
target group-specific training.
>> Attention should be paid to the constructive social embedding of the eLearning
course, which should take both fellow learners and supervisors into consider-
ation in the respective learning context.
>> Didactic concepts must make allowances for the learning experience of the
elderly. Content should be processable in small steps and opportunities given
for experimentation. Consideration of the thematic interests of the elderly is
indispensable.
>> The technology should be set up in such a way that it cognitively takes a back-
seat and does not constitute a permanent obstacle. Technical environments
should be reduced to their absolutely necessary functionalities. Hardware and
software must be fault-resilient or secured against accidental operation.
>> Elderly women frequently have different focuses of interest than elderly men,
which is why apart from content, socio-economic and structural points of view
gender-specific adapted courses are required.
Even more than for the target group of children, intensified research efforts are
necessary for the target group of the elderly. These have partly to gather saved
information and differentiated data for the first time ever, to identify the prereq-
uisites for the use of computers and the Internet – and thereby active participa-
tion in eLearning courses – which establish the target group of the elderly and
10
SUMMARY
which interests and ambitions they pursue when using eLearning in the context
of lifelong learning.
11
The Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag is an independent scientific
institution created with the objective of advising the German Bundestag and its committees on
matters relating to research and technology. Since 1990 TAB has been operated by the Institute
for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) of the Karlsruhe Institute for Technol-
ogy (KIT), based on a contract with the German Bundestag
OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
AT THE GERMAN BUNDESTAG