Abstract
With the progress of Digital Inclusion, it becomes important to address marginalised groups that face specific barriers in being part of the information society. From 2009 to 2011 within the framework of the nation-wide Initiative Internet erfahren, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics, Stiftung Digitale Chancen has accompanied three pilot projects and researched the hindrances and motivations of specific target groups including young migrants from Russia, women in the low-wage sector and disabled elderly people, regarding their use of information and communication technology and related skills. This article describes the teaching methodologies in the training provided in nonformal education settings, exposes the different evaluation methods and sums up the results. A special focus in the discussion is given to the role of the teacher and the relationship between teacher and students as there turned out to be similarities in all three target groups. Understanding the balance between the training and abilities and preferences of the learners will facilitate the further development of training appropriate to those who are still digitally excluded.Keywords: specific target groups in Digital Inclusion; migrants; disabled persons; low-wage sector; barriers towards formal education and technology; student motivation; trainer student relationship(Published: 19 December 2012)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20: 18700 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v20i0.18700
Highlights
Since the first representative survey in 2001, the number of people having access to the Internet in Germany has continuously grown from 37% to 74.7% in 2011.2 This process of Digital Inclusion is accompanied and supported by a variety of measures
With methodologies adapted to the different projects, Stiftung Digitale Chancen (SDC) evaluated the training to find out which aspects of the training motivate and encourage the learning process with regard to the targets groups needs, and which aspects possibly hinder the motivation of the participants
In the framework of the Initiative Internet Erfahren, SDC developed and evaluated training courses for digital literacy offered to three different special target groups
Summary
Since the first representative survey in 2001, the number of people having access to the Internet in Germany has continuously grown from 37% to 74.7% in 2011.2 This process of Digital Inclusion is accompanied and supported by a variety of measures. From 2009 to 2011, Stiftung Digitale Chancen (SDC) accompanied and evaluated three pilot projects with different Digital Inclusion approaches addressing women in the low-wage sector, young migrants from Russia and visually impaired elderly people in non-formal education settings.. With methodologies adapted to the different projects, SDC evaluated the training to find out which aspects of the training motivate and encourage the learning process with regard to the targets groups needs, and which aspects possibly hinder the motivation of the participants. In view of the 25.3% of the German population who do not use the Internet, one can assume that there are special target groups among them that have not up to now been properly reached by the programmes for Digital Inclusion. In the framework of the Initiative Internet Erfahren, SDC developed and evaluated training courses for digital literacy offered to three different special target groups. A blind teacher, educated in pedagogy for blind people and experienced in information and telecommunication systems, was appointed to the task of being trainer
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