We would like to invite you to the following international conference:
Cyberworld unlimited?
Digital Inequality and New Spaces of Informal Education for Young People
International Conference
February 9th -11th 2006
Bielefeld, Germany
Today, the internet is regarded as the central resource for knowledge and
information. Associated with this is the idea that everyone is able and even
expected to serve himself or herself according to his or her own needs via
this medium. Since more and more services (banks, universities, schools,
public administration etc.) are delivered online the internet seems to allow
its users to enjoy specific advantages in dealing with their everyday life.
However, using the internet is based on a range of preconditions. New
results of empirical and theoretical research indicate the rise of a social
divide in this context. Within the internet, differences in ways of use can
be identified alongside social inequalities. They mirror boundaries of the
"real life" in the virtual space e.g. in terms of forms of communification
and spaces for appropriation (in a sense of self-formation processes of
social actors). These are not only shaped by invidual preferences but
particularly by social structures and processes. This appears in two
dimensions: by processes of social closure and by service structures which
only reach special target groups - prevalently in contrary to their own
intention.
In the context of the broader debate on education it is stated that formal
educational structures are to be urgently completed by arrangements which
are structured in informal resp. nonformal ways. Particularly the internet
is suggested to play a special role in this respect. However, the phenomenon
of digital inequality points to limitations consolidated by effects of
cultural, social and material resources: Economical resources affect
opportunities of access, priorities of everyday life shape respective
intentions of internet use, social relationships have an impact on the
support structures available and ways of appropriation reproduce a specific
understanding of informal education ("Bildung"). This produces an early
stratification of opportunities especially for the subsequent generation and
may lead to extensive inequalities regarding the distribution of advantages
in terms of education.
Thus the capacity of the virtual space in terms of participatory
opportunities and democratic potentials raises concerns of major relevance
with respect to social and educational policy. From the perspective of
different disciplines involved in these issues it is essential to clarify
this issue in empirical as well as theoretical ways and to make it
utilizable for a future-orientied practice. In particular, the following
questions are central for the analysis:
What are the impacts of technical equipment and social sites of access with
respect to online participation?
How do social preconditions influence differences in using the internet and
which are the consequences for young people's ways of use?
What forms of communification and specific media cultures can be observed on
the internet and how do they affect informal processes of education?
In which ways are aspects of the "real life" and the "virtual space" related
regarding the facilitation of different ways of appropriation?
Which preconditions are required for opening up new spaces of education for
young people via the informal structure of the internet?
For further questions please take at look at the conference website
http://www.kib-bielefeld.de/tagung/engl/ or contact me.
Best regards
Nadia Kutscher
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Nadia Kutscher
Project Co-Ordinator
Center of Competence for Informal Education (CCIE)
Faculty of Educational Sciences
University of Bielefeld
Postfach 10 01 31
D-33501 Bielefeld
Germany
Tel.:++49-(0)521-106 3297
Fax: ++49-(0)521-106 8047
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
KIB/CCIE: http://www.kib-bielefeld.de/engl/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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