Abstract:

International studies, in particular the ICILS studies 2014 and most recently 2019, show a striking skepticism among German teachers towards the use of digital media in teaching. The 2014 study by Blackwell, Lauricella, and Wartella found that two factors are decisive for teachers' willingness to use digital technology: their attitudes towards the technology itself and their previous teaching experience. The more critical the attitudes towards digitality and digital media are, and the longer teachers have taught without digital technology, the less likely they are to use digital media in class.

For education, this means familiarising prospective teachers as early as possible with the use of digital media in school and helping them to have positive teaching experience. Also, it is important to get to know the attitudes of the prospective teachers in order to be able to respond to unfounded presuppositions in the course offerings.

In a research project of the Research Center Youth - Media - Education at the Ludwigsburg University of Education and the Technical University Dortmund, both in Germany, the attitudes of students towards digital media and their use in teaching were surveyed over several semesters. Therefore, the students at both locations answer online questionnaires in several courses. This paper presents the current results from 2019 of the Ludwigsburg University of Education (N=152). This type of university focuses on the education of teachers of all school types and all age groups. The students do not only deal with the subject sciences but also with didactic, pedagogical, and psychological contents. Besides, media pedagogical studies are obligatory.

The most recent results of the projects show that the surveyed students themselves are very active in using digital media. However, they focus primarily on reception media and communication. The use of digital media devices for their later work at school is only relevant for about 38% of the respondents. Traditional print media are more important for future teachers at school. Concerning children and adolescents, they are more pessimistic about the use of digital media and tend to see dangers for the pupils. Hence, for future teachers, media education has, above all, the task of conveying a critical attitude towards the media.

In Summary, even before German students have made the teaching experiences emphasized by Blackwell, Lauricella, and Wartella for the use of digital technology, they already seem to have adopted a media-skeptical attitude. This attitude, already adopted before beginning to study at the university, could explain why German teachers, despite many media pedagogical initiatives, are constantly more unwilling to use digital media than their colleagues in other countries. At the same time, however, it should be noted that the prospective teachers surveyed are aware of the impact of their media use and their attitudes towards digital media for their future work at school. This awareness could be an approach to breaking up the supposedly self-evident "media moralization" (Kerlen 2005) that students are already carrying with them to university.

Keywords:

Digital media use, media education, teacher education, media moralization, digital media in classroom, attitude, teachers beliefs.