The Denkwerk Symposium

Last night I returned from the Denkwerk Symposium, a two-day event organised by the Robert Bosch Stiftung for scientists, teachers and students involved in their Denkwerk program. Denkwerk is about bridging the gap between universities and schools. Scientists and university students work with teachers in order to give (mostly highschool) students a first glimpse at university life, research methods, and content knowledge from the humanities. I'm part of the team at the University Duisburg-Essen that is preparing a Denkwerk project on media use, so I was looking forward to learn about what other Denkwerk projects are working on.

During the two days I had many opportunities to learn from scientists and teachers with more experience in 'Denkwerking' than me. I've learned about the most frequent problems and the most popular fixes, and the exchanges were certainly useful. But what impressed me most during the symposium were the student contributions.

Yeah, I know. Most projects are voluntary, so that only the most motivated and dedicated students participate. And the students sent to represent their project are likely the most talented and hard-working among those. In no way should we take the work presented on the symposium to be 'average' results. But I can't help but be impressed. Laura H. (I abbreviate her name since I'm not certain about her age) for example presented the work done for "Pommern on tour" (University of Greifswald) in a way that would have received good marks in any undergraduate seminar. Other school students gave hardly less impressive presentations. I had somewhat dreaded the lengthy student presentation panels, but they turned out to have been the best part of the symposium! They not only showed what young people are able to achieve in projects such as these, but also the enthusiasm and fun involved.

Education - it's urgent!

Please note the little slogan at the bottom right of the box.

First month on the job

I've started my new job at University Duisburg-Essen in October. The best part of your second month on a job is that you have finished all the nasty paperwork and can finally concentrate on the fun parts of your job :-) In my case, this means concentrating on developing teaching material for teens who want to explore the link between learning and technology/media.
My only problem so far is that I have way more ideas than can reasonable be stuffed into a single project. Let's be honest, that's the kind of problem you like to have :-)
Yesterday, I had a chance to meet the teachers who will participate in the first round of this "Schülerkolleg Pädagogik". I have been warned by them not to underestimate the motivation and enthusiasm of their students, a warning I'll happily take to heart :-)

Duisburg has, compared to Aachen where I used to work, one big disadvantage: It's a somewhat lengthy commute. I'm truly grateful for the invention of earplugs, which makes sitting in a compartment full of people who never realised that they can switch off the annoying beeping sound their cell phones make whenever they press a button somewhat less stressful. In addition, I try to take my commuting time as a real-life experience in the feasibility of mobile learning. So far I have learned that using a laptop in a crowded compartment is a bit of a challenge, and that books don't come with a limited battery life. Oh, and you don't have to read the manual first to use them without annoying beeping sounds :-)

Yay! November!

November = NaNoWriMo. 'Nuff said.

Me (now with extra paper)

A science fiction lesson on using Google

I'm currently reading "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson. Basically, it's about a group of science monks saving the world (or failing to save it, I haven't yet finished the book). One of the social groups in this book are the ITAs, people servicing all things computer for the science monks (who are not allowed to handle computers themselves). There's a beautiful scene in it where one ITA explains the difficulty of finding information on the internet:

Sammann [= the ITA] raised his eyes from the screen of his jeejah [= cell phone] and gazed interestingly at Crade. He let a few moments go by, then responded in a calm and matter-of-fact tone: "Anyone can post information on any topic. The vast majority of what's on the Reticulum [=www] is, therefore, crap. It has to be filtered. The filtering systems are ancient. My people have been improving them, and their interfaces, since the time of the Reconstitution [= the last 3 1/2 millenia]. They are to us what the Mynster is to Fraa Erasmas and his kind [= science monks]. When I look at a given topic I don't just see information about that topic. I see meta-information that tells me what the filtering system learned when they were conducting the search. If I look up analemma, the filtering system tells me that only a few sources have provided information about this and that they are mostly of high repute - they are avout [= science monks]. If I look up the name of a popular music star who just broke up with her boyfriend," Sammann continued, nodding at a tearful female on the speely [=TV], "the filtering system tells me that a vast amount of data has been posted on this topic quite recently, mostly of very low repute. When I look up the excavation of the Temple of Orithena on the Island of Ecba, the filtering system informs me that people of very high and very low repute have been posting on this topic, slowly but steadily, for seven centuries."
Sammann's explanation had failed if its purpose had been to settle Crade down. "What's an example of a person of high repute? Some fraa [= male monk] sitting in a concent [=monastry]?"
"Yes," Sammann said.
"And what would a low-repute resource be?"
"A conspiracy theorist. Or anyone who makes a lot of long rambling posts that are only read by like-minded sorts." (Stephenson 2008, 406f)

Even if you are not interested in the difficulties of teaching responsible use of Google and Wikipedia in academic settings, the book is still a good read. More philosophy than in "Sophie's World", around the same amount of monks and books as in "The name of the rose", and enough ramblings about mathematics and physics to please most geeks.

Me and my Ubuntu, we want mobile internet

Since the new job I'll start next month will involve a rather lengthy commute, I finally decided to go ahead and get myself a mobile internet flatrate. All right, and so the story begins...

I first went to an O2 shop to ask for their prices and whether their package had any difficulties with Ubuntu Linux. The customer in front of me gave me little hope - he terminated his contract because the software constantly crashed on his mac laptop... The lady working there didn't know whether there were any problems with Linux, but went to ask a colleague who knew it didn't work on Linux laptops.

Second telecommunications shop I went to belonged to Base. Same here. Nope, doesn't work with Linux.

Third one was a Vodafone one. The salesperson was highly confused. I don't think he quite got the "operating system" concept, because he continued to ask me if I really needed this program... He also suggested I could just take their special "free netbook" offer, and I would get a nice netbook, with Windows, for free. Nope, thanks. I don't need a second netbook, not even if it's 'for free'. On the other hand, he was the first guy to actually ask: "Have you got your netbook with you? We could just try!" Fifteen minutes later we knew: Yep, no problems with Linux. No expertise, but good service mentality - better than what I had experienced so far. Unfortunately, Vodafone was twice as expensive as the cheapest offer I had seen so far - that's why they can afford to give you 'free' netbooks, I guess. So I continued my quest...

Second 02 shop. "Erm, I don't know, but my colleague, he's the technology guy here, will know." Technology guy: "Linux? Only under Ubuntu! But you would want our special manual for Linux users, the installation is a bit tricky!" Perfect!

Second Base shop: Same reply as in Base shop 1: Nope. Plus "Ubuntu? Never heard of it before!"

Well, it will be a 02 contract, I guess.