RESEARCH
1) MEDIA CULTURE EDUCATION
Media are––from a historical standpoint––products and conditions of the cultural process.
They form or alter the framework of our perceptions and emotions, but also thinking and knowledge. Media store, transmit and process information, but also ideas and ideologies, values and norms. They are not only means of communication, but mediation instances of cultural images of the self and the others.
Media’s symbolic forms of representation have a decisive influence on the communicative, social and aesthetic practices of the postmodern societies at large. The hybrid integration of formerly separate individual media such as text, telephone, radio, film, television, video, etc. on the basis of an all encompassing digital media convergence has generated an unprecedented dynamics in our knowledge- or information society.
With the advent of the Internet, traditional distinctions of privately and publicly, passive consumption of media and interactive creativity have become fragile and obsolete.
Media can be understood as cultural phenomena and thus, in particular, media cultures dwell on educational, ideological questions of representation—from popular culture on gender-specific body images to trans-national myths and phantasm of the self and the other.
The social, economic, legal and political conditions of media communications require the aesthetic and cultural reflection of the medial forms of human perception, because they strongly impact on the dynamics of societies at the global scale.
This research embraces an interdisciplinary cultural and scientific study direction addressing the following interconnected discussion topics:
a) “Old” and “new” media; digital “immigrant” and “native”;
b) Historical, technical, communicative, aesthetic and design concepts and models;
c) Media as interface and mirror;
d) History of media–dialogue between generations;
e) Perspective and design of future educational media– experimental innovations;
f) The impact of media on the perception and organization of the senses;
g) Aesthetic theory of media: heterotopia of the “images” and “spaces”;
h) The role of symbol systems and patterns in the construction of reality;
i) User behavior and reception, production and perception practices in one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many communication;
j) Generation-specific knowledge (book knowledge, multimedia Knowledge, digital storytelling).
Publications relating to these research topics
2) Paul Otlet: Envisioning the networked knowledge-base of the future
Paul Otlet was specifically interested in what he called the “synthetical movement”, in which he explored the educational perspectives of an International Museum center within the Mundaneum. Modern education should accord with his notions of “universalist synthesis”. He expressed his underlying premise in the slogan: “for universal civilization, universalist education” (P. Otlet 1926, 10). For this kind of synthesis-oriented education he proposed great emphasis needed to be placed on teaching media. He believed that there should be “didactic charts and tables” which displayed diagrammatically, schematically and therefore in a simplified form the most essential knowledge. Moreover, he was convinced of the value of film in teaching: “Visualization on the screen will become a fundamental teaching method,” he declared (P. Otlet 1926, 3).
This is an ongoing research project, which aims to discover, analyze and expose the hitherto unknown notes, experimental sketches and drawings of Paul Otlet’s fascinating ideas about globalization and universalism. The research outcomes stipulate amongst others a printed and electronic book version. Status: ongoing
My partial research publication on this topic:
Paul Otlet’s impact on visual knowledge building in current developments of Web 2.0
Paul Otlet – Information Architect
3) ICON – Identity formation in contextual media culture
Successful completed research project by support of the European Commission/eLearning/Media Literacy
Based on existing research, teenagers have a tremendous and pervasive impact on the technological, social, communicative changes in knowledge society. The various formations of individual and group-oriented, passive and active performances and styles on the web, raise substantial questions of the critical implications how information will be generated, perceived and received on the web. Simultaneously new ways of communication, collaboration and creative ways of interacting on the web have generated a new learning culture which goes far beyond passive reception, reproduction and consumption.
Objectives:
1) To visualize and analyze the bandwidth of new forms of expression adolescents create with new media in contextual networking
2) To research how those new forms of communication effect learning styles, social attitudes, creative thinking, selective competencies, visual and multiple sensual perception and selfpositioning inside and outside digital world experiences
3) To produce relevant outcome for pedagogical usage like a research compendium with pedagogical guidance and multilingual Learning Objects on the web
Approach:
The project ICON envisages a threefold approach:
1) To gain and analyse empirical data deriving from an on- and offline questionnaire and recorded interviews on video
2) To publish a hands-on media reflective publication based on the empirical data and recent research in media and cognitive science, e-learning and visual culture
3) To create Learning Objects focussed on certain topics like “Gender and multiple identities”, “Selfportrayal on the web”, “Contextual learning” etc. To create adjustable components comprising different media types and emerging technologies (MPEG-7) with the purpose of tailor-made project-oriented usage.
Expected results:
1) Content creation of Learning Objects (LOs) comprising the media didactical as well as the elearning aspects (IEEE, SCORM, LOM)
2) Dissemination of trilingual Learning Objects into various educational networks like EUN (Celebrate-ELM), Deutscher Bildungsserver, EDUFI, BECTA etc.
3) Publication based on empirical studies in Germany, NL and Finland
Online publications