Opening Schools to Students’ Informal Digital Knowledge to Enable the Emancipatory Employment of Digital Media

Abstract

While classes become more heterogeneous and children grow up as digital natives, instruction is still characterized by an emphasis on middle-class children and analogue media. Moreover, national and international comparative studies have repeatedly shown that Germany in OECD comparisons often ranks last in terms of the level of digital learning opportunities in schools. A gap exists between children's lifeworld experiences and informal learning processes in a digital world on the one hand and digital learning opportunities at school on the other. Thus, schools do not offer content and digital infrastructure that links to students' informal digital knowledge. Therefore, there is a need to discuss how schools can integrate the emancipatory power of digitalization.