How widespread is online participation in education?

The rungs of the „participation ladder“ crop up again in the area of education. Once more, the first, basic rung representing information is the broadest: A British study revealed that 90% of all students aged between 9 and 19 use the Internet to obtain information in a context with learning (Livingstone & Bober, 2004). Hence, use of the Internet among students is far more widespread than among teachers. An American survey revealed that 76% of teachers use new media for teaching purposes, but mainly to trace student activity and to gather information (Asselin & Moayeri, 2011). Not only do students exhibit greater activity on the Internet, the use itself shows far more diversity (Erstad, 2006).

In general, though, transferring experience of Internet use in everyday life to an educational context proves difficult. Asymmetries in competency between teachers and students present a further challenge here. Teachers repeatedly put up resistance (Erstad, 2006). Schools belonging to the state education system in particular prove to be among the less flexible social institutions – learning forms, pedagogical concepts, curricula and examination forms are slow to change, while innovation remains repeatedly bogged down in complex political manoeuvring (Livingstone, 2010).

Virtual tour of the „Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History“

Example 24: Visitors can take a virtual tour of even the most remote corner in the „Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History“.

Quite frequently this is a question of cultural hurdles: Institutions in the education sector – whether they be schools, universities or museums – typically assume a hierarchy of knowledge. Those providing the services possess the knowledge that the clientèle seeks to acquire. „Empowerment“ and participation are uneasy bedfellows with the systems in operation at educational institutions (Kidd, 2011; Mayrberger, 2012). Sometimes, though, the inhibitions facing a spread of online participation in education are entirely mundane in nature: Internet-based learning requires an adequate technological infrastructure and assumes a willingness among established providers to invest and implement procedural changes.

Taken together, these factors create a situation in which educational participation remains more of an exception on the higher rungs of the participation ladder. Another British study shows that only 20% of the population actively use the Internet for training or education purposes. This means that education ranges among the less widespread purposes for using the Internet (White & Selwyn, 2012).