Print version Recommend this page Press release
41/ 2006
Bonn, 21.11.2006
Bridging the gap between educational and media research
Successful specialist conference held by BIBB and MMB
Learning via new media has increasingly become an integral part of everyday media use. What, however, are the implications of this in terms of the application of virtual learning processes for academic purposes in organised continuing training? And what conclusions should be drawn from the growing popularity of Web 2.0, the use of Internet forums, web logs and wiki encyclopaedias, and the attendant increase in self-directed, computer-aided learning? These represented just some of the issues tackled at the specialist conference "Educational research meets media research - quality development in vocational education and training", jointly staged by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) and the MMB Institute for Media and Competence Research in Essen.
The event succeeded in bridging the content and methodological gap between two traditional research disciplines which had previously operated largely independently from each other in dealing with the multitude of forms and objectives relating to media use and learning via new media. Around 50 participants sounded out the opportunities for future cross-disciplinary cooperation with the aim of according a particularly prominent role to the field of informal vocational learning.
The participants expressed the view that, once joint methodological principles for process oriented quality development had been drawn up, the issue of the extent to which the use of new learning concepts and new media in vocational education and training can bring about an improvement in development of vocational competence should form the main future focus. Joint cross-disciplinary project teams will continue to monitor the promising approaches to future research cooperation identified during the conference.
Dr. Jochen Robes, who runs the German language continuing training blog www.weiterbildungsblog.de, concluded: "This event was right to pose the question as to how we now proceed having come to the recognition that learning, including vocational learning, takes place everywhere." He addressed responses to the three target groups, advising media researchers to use research into the ways in which media are used as a basis for conducting further studies into the effects of media, calling upon those responsible for education finally also to devote their attentions to learners and their learning actions and interests rather than merely focussing on education management and exhorting educational research as a whole to focus more closely on areas which are not specifically labelled as "learning".
German language documentation of the specialist conference is available on the BIBB website at www.bibb.de/de/27641.htm.
Points of contact for further information:
- Dr. Gert Zinke, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Tel.: 0228 / 107-1429;
E-mail: zinke@bibb.de - Dr. Lutz P. Michel; Julia Flasdick M.A., MMB Institute for Media and Competence Research, Tel.: 0201 / 720 27-0; e-mail: info@mmb-institut.de; Internet: www.mmb-institut.de
