Configuring the Older Non-User: Between Research, Policy and Practice of Digital Exclusion

Older adults face significant barriers when accessing the Internet. What can be done to address these barriers? This article analyses existing strategies to tackle the age-related digital divide on three different levels: research, policy and practice. It analyses (1) scientific conceptualisations that are used when studying Internet use and non-use in later life, (2) policies that address older adults’ Internet (non-)use in Austria and (3) characteristics of older Austrian non-users of the Internet based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, wave 6). Analysis shows that Austrian policy tends to emphasise the individual responsibility to learn digital technologies, while placing a lower priority on structural issues, such as investments in infrastructure. However, SHARE data shows that only a small percentage of older non-users of the Internet is in fact reached with such interventions. Thus, this article suggests that policy needs to base its strategies on more refined understandings of Internet use and non-use in later life as well as a more nuanced image of the older non-user. A perspective of critical-cultural gerontology, as laid out in this article, highlights that technology adoption is a domestication process that takes place in the everyday lives of older adults, and it is these processes that interventions that tackle the age-related digital divide should take as a starting point

Protokoll: Systematisches Review zur Wirkung von didaktisch-methodischen Ansätzen des sprachsensiblen Unterrichts

Die internationalen Vergleichsstudien der 2000er-Jahre haben offengelegt, dass sprachliche Bildung und schulischer Erfolg in Deutschland in einem direkten Verhältnis stehen. Seither wird zunehmend das Ziel verfolgt, mittels sprachsensibler Ansätze Schülerinnen und Schüler im Fachunterricht dabei zu unterstützen, die dort vermittelten Inhalte sprachlich zu durchdringen und somit, neben bildungssprachlichen Kompetenzen, fachliches Lernen zu fördern. Inzwischen sind sprachsensible Maßnahmen bereits in Lehrplänen, Curricula sowie in der Aus- und Weiterbildung von Lehrkräften verankert. Aus Forschungsperspektive lässt sich jedoch „ein Missverhältnis zwischen der wachsenden Anzahl dieser Maßnahmen und gesicherten Erkenntnissen bezüglich ihrer Wirksamkeit feststellen” (Busse 2019:14). Daher bedarf es im Sinne einer evidenzinformierten Bildungspolitik und -praxis der forschungsbasierten Klärung dieses Sachverhalts. Mittels eines systematischen Reviews wird am Mercator-Institut für Sprachförderung und Deutsch als Zweitsprache untersucht, ob und unter welchen Bedingungen sprachsensible Unterrichtsansätze nachweislich Wirkung zeigen. Entsprechend des standardisierten Vorgehens und zur Sicherung der Qualität von systematischen Reviews wird in diesem a priori Protokoll, das ein peer review Verfahren durchlaufen hat, der konzeptuelle Hintergrund, das systematische Vorgehen zur Suche und Identifizierung relevanter Dokumente sowie die Kriterien der Beurteilung interner und externer Validität, vorab veröffentlicht

Ph[o:]nix – an educational board game for phonetics and phonology

Introductory seminars to German linguistics lay the foundation for further linguistic course work and the students’ interest and advancement in specific topics. Therefore, it is essential for students to understand and remember elementary terminology and methodology and to be able to apply and transfer their knowledge. To support teaching through autonomous learning and to deepen the students’ knowledge and motivation in phonetics and phonology, we developed the board game Ph[o:]nix based on the well-known ScrabbleTM board game. We modified the game by exchanging letters for phonemes and by adding event cards covering further knowledge relevant to the subject area of phonology and phonetics. We invited students of introductory seminars to play the game and to participate in an assessment to evaluate the game qualitatively and quantitively. We found that students who played the game twice showed a significant improvement relative to a non-playing control group. Additionally, the game was rated very positive by the majority of the players, for instance with respect to the fun factor or additional benefits for exam preparation