EXTERNAL LEARNING PLACES FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEVELOPING A TECHNICAL INFORMATICS COMPETENCE IN PRIMARY EDUCATION

Primary school as a place of learning, a place to make experiences and not least a living space has a decisive influence on early development. The children should express themselves in their daily interaction, acquire social skills, develop interests and pursue these in order to be prepared for a self-determined life in society. Not to be neglected in this context is the increasing penetration of this society by technical and especially information technology processes and devices, with which elementary school children are already confronted on a daily basis in various situations. Different studies on the media socialisation of children show time and again that the availability and usage of digital devices (especially smartphones, computers or televisions) in households is almost 100% (cf. e.g. mpfs, 2016, p. 8 and Berg, 2017, p. 2).

Accordingly, the preparation of the children for an active participation in society on the part of the school must also include a sound technical and IT education. On the other hand, basic curricula and framework recommendations for teaching in primary schools generally contain demands for content that is prepared for learners in terms of a hands-on approach to learning. Furthermore the content ought to be examplified through real-world problems that allow the students access to a topic on a personal level. One way of realizing this real-world reference is by visiting external learning locations.

This paper aims to show how technical and computer skills can be acquired at primary level in the context of an external learning setting. For this purpose, a tried and tested concept is presented, which communicates various concepts from these two disciplines on the basis of concrete examples from the pupils' world.

References:
[1] Berg, A.: Kinder und Jugend in der digitalen Welt, 2017.
[2] https://www.bitkom.org/Presse/Anhaenge-an-PIs/2017/05-Mai/170512-Bitkom-PK-Kinder-und-Jugend-2017.pdf
mpfs – Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest (Hrsg): KIM-Studie 2016. Kinder + Medien, Computer + Internet, 2017.
[3] http://www.mpfs.de/fileadmin/files/Studien/JIM/2016/JIM_Studie_2016.pdf