Keywords

1 Introduction

A multi-perspective understanding of inclusion as outlined by the World Health Organization sees disability not as a singular phenomenon that is constructed through one criterion but rather as a condition that develops from the combination of different factors such as bodily functions and structures, activities and contextual components [18]. The term inclusion, therefore, refers not only to including people with disabilities but also encompasses migrants as well as socially disadvantaged groups of people [9]. Traditionally, adolescents are especially in the focus of the debate over inclusion. The goal here is to make their transition from school to their work lives easier while also ensuring the possibility for participation in society. Digital media can play a key role here, a fact required by a perspective of technology for inclusion and participation from a media pedagogical view.

2 Background: Digital Media for the Advancement of Inclusion

Digital media offer a multitudinous potential for social, individual, communal and political participation. Digital media competencies - as seen in the German and European understanding [1] - are however, necessary in order to be able to participate socially in a knowledge and information-based society. It is especially important during job training, at university and during one’s work life to understand, use and communicate information transmitted by media. If children and adolescents only have limited possibilities to develop their media competence at an early stage, then one can assume that they will find it difficult to initiate in social participation and take advantage of educational opportunities later in life. Against this backdrop media competence must be seen as the fourth cultural technique alongside reading, writing and arithmetic [10]. The opportunities for extensive participation in media competence are, however, unequally distributed among the populace. In Germany, correlations between people’s attainment of media literacy and the education level of their parents and therefore in many cases also the socioeconomic status of the family itself, have been established empirically. The higher the formal education level of the family, the faster and more flexible skills and competencies in dealing with analog and digital media are developed and therefore also the greater the tendential extent of media literacy [16]. Existing disadvantages can therefore be amplified through digital information and communication technologies. Despite educational political activity and advancement, these results are largely constant [5, 11] thus threatening permanent exclusion of socially disadvantaged children and adolescents. The socio-economic surroundings – i.e. family, school, free time activities – of the people affected therefore must be surveyed. When referring to family surroundings, parents with low socio-economic status naturally should not be subjected to normative condemnation – and therefore the assumption of a lack of engagement and interest in reference to media literacy promotion. It appears much more rather to be the difficult daily parameters of these families, such as unemployment, migration or being single parents, that hamper media education and media competence development. [14, 17] According to the findings of representative studies on media in the daily lives of children and adolescents, there is no longer a difference between families of differing education levels in regards to the presence of digital information and communication technologies. Virtually 100 percent of all households possess a laptop/computer. [13] Only one fifth of all 6–13 year olds, however, have their own computer or laptop [13]. Additionally, many parents are uncertain when it comes to media education especially in relation to the use of digital media [12, 17]. Up to now it has remained unclear as to how media competencies and thus also possibilities for social participation can be systematically advanced, especially in reference to socially disadvantaged families.

3 Intervention: Media Literacy Training

The Paderborn recycling PC project (the pb.re.pc Project) tackles this problematic situation at a regional level and contributes to inclusion and also to decreasing a growing digital divide. Its goal is to support children and adolescents from deprived families to participate in digitally supported learning opportunities not only in reference to technological access (media ownership) but also in reference to the establishment of educational opportunities (acquisition of media competencies).

The project is conducted on a volunteer basis through the club MTKJ (Medien und Technik für Kinder und Jugendliche (Media and Technology for Children and Adolescents)) e.V. as well as other clubs and welfare institutions and in cooperation with the instructors from the Media Pedagogy and Empirical Media Studies work group at the University of Paderborn. Members of MTKJ collect unwanted computers from companies, institutions and private households, service and repair the computers and outfit them with open-source software (Linux, Firefox, etc.). The volunteers are then joined by students from the University of Paderborn’s Bachelor of Education program who help conduct a five-day media pedagogy training session during their vocational internship. Instructors from the University of Paderborn provide the corresponding pedagogical and academic supervision. After they have successfully completed the training, the participating children and adolescents receive a recycled computer free of charge. Further continued training sessions are conducted one to two times per year during the following two years. These sessions expand on and deepen the participants’ previous knowledge and skills. Since 2011, over 100 children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 19 years from all types of schools - including children with learning disabilities and cognitive limitations - have been trained and provided with a computer (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
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Division of participants in the training program based on their school type (N = 109) (Color figure online)

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3.1 Project Concept and Training Session Content

The concept of the training sessions contains a project and product centered approach that is preferred when dealing with media work with socially disadvantaged adolescents [10]. In contrast to media consumption, this type of media work entails the “processing and development of subject areas within social reality with the help of media such as printing, photography, sound, video, computer, multimedia and the Internet. The media are ‘enlisted’ by their users, i.e. wielded automatically and used as a means of communication” [15]. The reasoning behind this approach is that the media work with disadvantaged children and adolescents is therefore not interpreted as deficient and/or problematic but rather the participants’ potential plays a more central role. The Bielefeld Media Competence Model, an approach that has been empirically confirmed on multiple occasions, forms the theoretical basis for the training concept [2]. Following the ideas of Dieter Baacke, media competence is differentiated into the four dimensions of media criticism, media knowledge, media usage and media design. Of central importance in this model is the concept that media competence extends beyond a purely “instrumental-qualificational” (the extrapolated ability to use new devices) usage competency.

Exclusively Linux Distribution Edubuntu is used as the operating system for the training sessions and for the recycled computers. Within its standard components, Edubuntu contains a wide array of preinstalled programs that support learning. Additionally, using Edubuntu is intuitive and offers a plethora of applications, some of which are even accessible to people with disabilities. For example, drawing programs, graphic applications and photo editing programs are preinstalled in addition to the usual office applications. Furthermore, the distribution offers an entire series of educational software covering topics such as language, music, geography or mathematics. Therefore it is not necessary to purchase commercial software in order to create a joy for learning and to transmit knowledge playfully. The training sessions aim to support the participants, train their ability to use media, develop participants’ research strategies as well as their strategic ability to use media purposefully.

3.2 Project Experiences and Reflection

In the past four years the project has run extremely successfully.Footnote 1 The initial concerns expressed by the project team that the weekend training sessions would not be accepted by the children and adolescents have since been proven to be unfounded. In their feedback the participants have told the project team that they greatly enjoy coming to the training sessions; in fact, they usually regret it when the sessions come to an end. Additionally, the children and adolescents as well as their parents have shown an immense commitment to the project. Only individual children have so far abandoned the project or have had unexcused absences during the training sessions. Our experience has been that the children and adolescents see it as a privilege to participate in an extracurricular education program offered by the university. This is true despite some initial concerns expressed by some of the students. For example, one 11 year old comprehensive school student, who, in a report about the first day of the training session created for the training session itself, wrote: “I didn’t really want to go to the university because I thought it would be strict”. After a short time, however, the sessions’ positive aspects frequently prevail as can be seen in how one girl ended her report: “[…] unfortunately we had to end and I had to wait such a long time until we had a training session again. […] Time moved slowly. […] But I realized that I love the university. […] Thank God I’m here.”

Similarly, we experienced a high level of commitment and acceptance from the parents’ side. This acceptance was present throughout the program from the registration to the accompaniment of the training session to the stipulated collection of the computer. Many parents are very grateful that their children had the possibility to participate in the project. In one such instance, the team received a note from the mother of a 10 year old student, who would later attend a Gymnasium (grammar school). In the note the mother wrote: “I really hope that my daughter has the chance to take part in your training sessions and hope she receives a PC. [. . .] I don’t have the means to purchase a computer for her myself [. . .] since I am living off of unemployment support level ALG II Footnote 2 . [. . .] Most children already had a computer in elementary school [. . .]. The grammar school will probably just require a PC”. This demonstrates that parents from socially disadvantaged groups are also very dedicated to improving the educational opportunities of their children.

Working with the students also proved to be especially enriching. We quickly realized that the student interns served as role models for an academic educational path for the participants. This was especially true if the student interns and the participating children and adolescents came from the same or similar cultural backgrounds.

3.3 Accompanying Academic Research

It is important to take different research perspectives into account in order to verify the project’s success and indentify further needed intervention. A systematic accompanying research study of the project has taken place since 2014. On the one hand, it is interesting to note which effects a media pedagogic intervention in the form of training sessions and providing a computer have on social participation. This means that it has to be determined how children and adolescents who have participated in the program use their computer in their daily lives, how they apply the knowledge they have gleaned from the training sessions and where possible continuing support is needed. For this reason standardized surveys, which take place before and after the first training session as well as during the following session, are part of the project evaluation. These surveys are especially intended to examine changes in the children’s and adolescents’ media literacy. The surveys therefore offer information about how well and for how long the training sessions impact the participants. Furthermore, we expect to see indicators about possible curricular development of the training sessions’ content in order better to tailor the sessions to the heterogeneous needs of the participants and to be able to identify necessary intervention points after the training sessions have ended.

On the other hand, the surveys are intended to produce richer findings relating to the practical application of media education in socially disadvantaged families. In order to realize this goal, we conduct ethnographic studies [8] in some of the families that have participated in the project. The ethnographic studies consist of qualitative interviews with the children and adolescents who took part in the project as well as with their parents. Additionally, we conduct an ancillary analysis of the families’ surroundings (living conditions, media resources) consisting of a combination of an observation questionnaire and documentary photography. Furthermore, the children and adolescents complete qualitative questionnaires at the end of the first round of training sessions and during the debrief session.

Selected Evaluation Results.

The empirical accompanying research makes clear that an extracurricular education program is both motivating and exciting for socially disadvantaged children and adolescents. The evaluation results demonstrate that in the aftermath of a media pedagogic training program, instrumental-qualificational abilities, meaning the abilities to use new media devices, increase and media use becomes more varied. This is especially true for the (professional) expertise imparted during the training sessions. The participants more frequently report carrying out activities such as “writing texts”, “creating presentations” and playing “educational games” “sometimes” or “often” after the training sessions than was the case before the sessions had begun (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 2.
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Evaluation results: “What do I use my computer/laptop/tablet-PC for?” before and after the training sessions (N = 22) (Color figure online)

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The results of the questionnaires demonstrate that not all children profit from the training equally and that the effects can even be very different over the course of time. Moreover, the cognitive and motivational atmosphere in the families has demonstrated itself to be of central significance. This problem is made clear by the case studies of LukasFootnote 3 and Yasin, two elementary school students who took part in the pb.re.pc Project and the corresponding accompanying research.

Lukas, who is nine years old, has a 15 year old brother and six year old sister. His German parents have been living together as life partners in a large city in Westphalia for 12 years. His father, however, has intermittently lived separately from the family and does not care for his family. His mother is unemployed and has not completed any job training. The family lives in a five-room apartment with a balcony in an apartment house. Their apartment and their furniture are in very poor shape. The rooms are cluttered and untidy. Their neighborhood can be classified as a socially troubled hotspot.

The computer provided by the pb.re.pc Project is in Lukas’s room. It is used only sparingly due to a lacking Internet connection. Additionally, the family has a diverse array of other media such as three televisions, a stereo system, a broken laptop and six gaming consoles in total. The gaming consoles are made up of a Wii, a PlayStation 3, 2 and 1 and two children’s consoles. During his free time, Lukas enjoys painting and playing with the neighborhood children or friends outside. During the interview it becomes clear that the electronic media primarily serve to entertain Lukas. The Wii is especially interesting for its sports programs: “On the Wii I play //uhm//darts or bow-eling [sic] //uhm//baseball //well//tennis” (Lines 187–188) Footnote 4. He prefers playing the action adventure game Wheelman on the PlayStation. The 9-year old currently only infrequently uses the PC in his room since it, according to his statements, often has technical difficulties and because it is not connected to the Internet. As soon as the computer has been repaired, Lukas would like to play more games on it and listen to music. Alongside the gaming consoles, television plays a large role in Lukas’s media usage. He has the following favorite television channels: “Actually I mostly watch the Disney Channel or (.) KiKA or for example (.) Super RTL //uhm//no, not that good and Nickelodeon. Those are the only children’s channels” (Lines 230–232). Lukas has set times for how long he is allowed to watch television at a time. After about one hour the television is supposed to be turned off. Lukas enjoyed the training sessions at the university. He especially enjoyed “that we whenever we ate brakfast [sic] //well//that there were such tasty things” (Lines 303–304). He was less happy about the times when he was unable to activate online games during the training session: “and for me I couldn’t, uh, get into the Internet there or whatever on my computer there or for example not play = play games //uhm//on it. //Uhm//that don’t [sic] work on it then” (Lines 289–291). Despite Lukas’s prevalent interest for entertainment orientated computer usage, it is clear that Lukas was able to improve his media literacy greatly through his participation in the training sessions. In the interview he described how he was able to restore a computer game that his teacher had deleted: “But I when I was then in the computer class (.) now I know how to re-sore [sic] Pushy Pushy” (Lines 262–263)

Yasin, who is also nine years old and was born in Syria, fled to Germany with his parents and his two younger siblings (three and five years old) 18 months ago. The family lives in a four-room apartment on the outskirts of a city. Both of his parents worked as instructors in Syria. His father has already found a job as an English teacher at an industrial company in Paderborn. Yasin enjoys playing soccer in the local neighborhood soccer club. The family has various electronic media. There are two televisions, one in the living room and one in Yasin’s room. Both parents and Yasin each have a smart phone. Additionally, the family has a tablet PC and two computers. There is one PC that is used by all of the family members. The recycling computer provided to Yasin is in his room. The nine-year old has in total the following media: one television, his own cell phone with Internet access and the recycled computer. From the start, Yasin contributed to the training sessions with great interest. He was extremely receptive to the teachers and pedagogical leaders of the sessions and demonstrated a strong desire to learn. After the family had picked up the recycled computer after the last session, Yasin used it primarily for playing and learning: “So, after two days we hooked the computer up and put the things in it, mouse and controller. (2) Then I got on it and we played with it a little ‘nd [sic] I learned a little” (Interview 2, lines 15–17). He is primarily using educational games to expand his knowledge of German and mathematics. Furthermore, he enjoys watching videos on YouTube or communicating with friends with the email account he set up during the training sessions. He prefers listening to music on the computer less. On average he spends half an hour on his computer per day.

The nine-year old mainly receives support in using his computer competently from his father: “He shows something and then I get on it and go to it” (Interview 2, line 141). His father provides him, for example, with assistance using the educational programs. According to Yasin, his mother is less versed in using the computer.

Additionally, his father provides Yasin with clear rules for using the PC. Yasin describes his father’s rules in the interview: “You are only allowed to go on it for twenty minutes, don’t play too many games. You also have to learn” (Interview 2, lines 230–231).

All in all, Yasin enjoyed the training sessions. He enjoyed that he could use many different entertainment offerings on the computer and could learn new things simultaneously: “So I enjoyed that we played and that we learned” (Interview 1, line 3). He especially enjoyed putting the computer together during the hardware training session. One educational experience Yasin took with him from the training session was how to create texts in a document and how to write with a keyboard: “So for example (3) making a colon and (3) capitalizing words” (Interview 2, lines 126–127). He demonstrated a great thirst for knowledge and was also interested in computers as a medium outside of the training session: “I want to know what the first computer in the world was. Invent computers and stuff” (Interview 2, lines 260–261). Furthermore, he would like to know more about downloading programs himself and the fees associated with purchasing programs. Likewise, he would like to expand his knowledge about writing emails in future training sessions and learn more about restrictions for children in the Internet and what children are allowed to do and not do in the Internet.

These examples show that both children profited from the media pedagogic training sessions and expanded their knowledge. The interviews, however, also reinforce how great of an influence the parents and their educational motivation have on their children. While Lukas barely receives motivation and support in how he can use his computer productively to meet his needs, Yasin receives educational impulses from his father’s guidance. This demonstrates that in daily familial media education, attitudes and stances are handed down. The educational orientation in Yasin’s family is decisive for the sustainability of the project’s success. In comparison to Lukas’s media usage options and interests, Yasin’s go beyond purely entertainment and most likely are continually expanding. Lukas is able to apply the knowledge he gained only sparingly and he is barely able to expand this knowledge at all. Therefore his previous desire merely to play games will continue to dominate his media usage in the future.

Interpreting the Results.

Pierre Bourdieu’s [6] habitus approach provides one of the most elaborate models for explaining and interpreting differences in recipients’ media usage as well as the ramifications of different media preferences. Bourdieu’s habitus theory postulates that the allocation of an individual to a social class as well as the appraisal of that individual’s social influence in modern society is not only dependent upon the distribution of economic capital (material ownership) but also social (relatives, relationships), cultural (education, titles) and symbolic capital (clothing, body language, conduct). Bourdieu [7] sees “capital” as also being able to consist of accumulated work that is present either in the form of material or in an internalized “embodied” form. According to Bourdieu, the individual strives to obtain and accumulate these types of capital. The extent of the types of capital over which one has ownership centrally determines the acquisition and exercise of competencies; this is also the case for the development of media literacy. Cultural capital has exceptional influence here. It exists in embodied (taste, conduct, knowledge), objectified (books, paintings or also digital media) and institutionalized (educational degrees, academic titles) form. The availability of cultural capital is determined by different forms of acquisition of (and interest for) cultural offerings, including preferences for media usage, as is made clear in the different interests present in Lukas’s and Yasin’s families. While objectified cultural capital is transferable – in this case providing a person with a computer –embodied cultural capital is tied to thought processes, processes of action, value orientation and behavioral characteristics. It is also “physically bound” and requires internalization. This form of capital can thus not be passed along to third parties – through training sessions for example. It is acquired – as is shown by the interviews – in the primary socialization of the family and transformed in educational institutions (school, job, etc.). As a result, social differences are constantly reinforced. Hence the danger exists that the resulting habitus interpretive models and behavioral patterns permanently influence a person’s motivation and thereby his/her willingness to learn. Therefore, future participation in society is unequally more difficult for children like Lukas than is the case for children who grow up in families with a distinct orientation toward education.

4 Outlook

The project and the accompanying research show that continual and long-term support measures are needed in order to assist children and adolescents in safe-guarding their educational opportunities. Therefore it is necessary to research the reasons for educational disadvantages more deeply. Additionally, the social starting point for children, their family surroundings, the processes of change initiated by the project as well as possible relevant areas of need must be worked out [4]. Further research in the form of long-term studies is necessary in order to accomplish these goals. In the long run, we need to establish indicators as to whether the training session participants’ chances for a better school degree and thus corresponding career desires and job prospects have improved.

An empirically founded institutionalization of the project as a media school run in cooperation with the pb.re.pc Project would be desirable. In addition to the training currently offered, this would also allow media usage counseling to be created for the parents of a particular target group. It is also conceivable that adolescents who have already completed the program could be trained as mentors and therefore offer peer-to-peer training sessions themselves. An integration of the program with school education could be possible with job training sessions specifically designed for teachers and pedagogical aides. This concept would contain within it the chance to make digital media bear fruit for the social development of inclusion with the goal of ensuring “[. . .] all people the same full right for individual development and social participation regardless of their personal needs for support” [9]. Thus the goal is to make digital media fruitful for inclusion and therefore to contribute to the reform of habitus situations.