The good-night story for the children, the menu in the restaurant, the letter from the bank or the information leaflet that comes with medicines – everyday things like these present a major obstacle for more than seven million adults in Germany: Because they cannot properly read and write and are considered functional illiterates. An interdisciplinary team in the Faculty of Education and Science at the University of Bremen is now developing an app that enables people with low literacy and computational competences to learn easily on their smartphones, while improving their level of competence in general and in terms of their professional competency. “This is an important prerequisite for gainful employment and social participation”, says the project leader, Professor Karsten D. Wolf. At the same time, literacy specialists are also being given new tools to promote the literacy and literacy of their students more efficiently and effectively. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is financing the project with the title “Pedagogical online support diagnostics for adult functional illiterates with job-related content” (lea.online) for three years with one million euro. The project was initiated within the framework of the National Literacy Decade of the Federal Government and the Länder.
No new topic for the Bremen scientists
“We have been active in the area of digital primary education for ten years now,” says Wolf. “Based on the alpha competence levels developed by Professor Anke Grotlüschen from the University of Hamburg in an earlier study, we developed an online diagnostics called ‘otu.lea’, which is used in literacy courses run by the Volkshochschulen [Adult education centers]. With the new project, we can now not only measure competences, but also support self-directed learning and literacy in certain specific areas of work.”
If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:
University of Bremen
Faculty of Education and Training
Research group: Didactic Design of Multimedial Learning Environments
Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf
Phone: +49 421 218-69140
email: wolfprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
www.fb12.uni-bremen.de/de/medienpaedagogik.html
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