Digital Education for Sustainable Development in Non-Formal Education in Germany and COVID-19-Induced Changes

Abstract

Digital media increasingly transform daily routines as well as everyday actions and working environments, including education. Apps, games, computer programs, and social media, etc. can support and improve learning processes. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions of social life accelerated a shift towards the application of digital media in education as well as in distance learning. This paper answers questions about the current usage of digital media in non-formal education in Germany, especially in the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The results of a 2020 survey in Germany with 111 participants show that digital media are an integral part of non-formal education; in particular, audio and video recording and filesharing are used often. Notably, the usage of web calls and webinars has increased since the pandemic. Regarding the disadvantages of digitals formats, participants note the investment in time and effort as well as the expensive equipment needed for development. Despite being dissatisfied with existing offers, a lot of institutions have not developed their own digital education formats (yet). This indicates a possible need for further training and education of educators in non-formal ESD, enabling them to independently create digital formats. This would also contribute to the quality of digital formats, of which many were possibly developed without proper expertise.

Citizen Science in the Promotion of Sustainability: The Importance of Smart Education for Smart Societies

“…Indeed, individuals are constantly subject to informal education and learning [12], and new (digital) technologies mediate all this learning more than ever before, with individuals actively participating in and building their learning and knowledge in the logic of co-creation and communities of practice [11]. This scenario brings yet another challenge, with the increasing availability of new media calling for the need for individuals to develop their digital literacy (i.e., the ability to continually search and critically assess information and to interact with others in a virtual environment), which is now central in the learning process that takes place more and more outside the walls of the traditional classroom [4,62]. This new educational landscape is taking place right at the preschool education level [63], in what Prensky [64] calls the afterschool space.…”

“…The digital society is already upon us and increasingly shapes numerous aspects of social, economic and political life, among other dimensions. In this context, the digital presence was amplified with the COVID-19 pandemic, which was caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [1][2][3][4][5], albeit with inequalities between countries and regions, and social, cultural and even gender inequalities [6,7]. The concept of Society 5.0 is a proposed form of a political nature possible to achieve this digital society through a super-smart society [8].…”

Peran Taman Bacaan Masyarakat dalam Pengembangan Masyarakat di Yogyakarta: Pendekatan, Pelibatan, dan Pelaksanaan

“…Pendidikan non formal merupakan salah satu alternatif penyebaran ilmu pengetahuan (Syarifuddin, 2010;Susanti, 2014;Aditya et al, 2022) ditengah maraknya isu (angrayni, 2019;Handoyo and Zulkarnaen, 2019;Nurhuda, 2022) ketimpangan sosial, ketidak merataan, hingga minimnya tenaga pendidikan formal di Indonesia. Bahkan pendidikan non formal dapat dikaitkan dengan berbagai keilmuan lain (Cabello et al, 2021;Oyigbo, Ngwu and Nwachukwu, 2021;Kohler et al, 2022;Lyapuntsova et al, 2022;Młynarczuk-Sokołowska, 2022) Saat ini terdapat ribuan taman bacaan di Indonesia, baik yang sudah terdaftar secara resmi ataupun belum. Peneliti ini dilakukan di salah satu taman bacaan masyarakat yang telah mewakili Provinsi Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta dalam acara perlombaan taman bacaan masyarakat tingkat nasional pada tahun 2019.…”

Images of the Future in a Participatory Online Course – Empowering Student-Driven Projects for Higher Education Sustainability Transformation

“…In transformative fields such as sustainability learning, digital media have taken a more prominent role already before the Covid-19 restrictions went into effect (Abad-Segura et al 2020; Bond et al 2018; Zhan et al 2015). On top of that, more recent literature reflects how pandemic-related restrictions to in-person tutoring have spurred digital transformation in ESD (Kohler et al 2022; Leal Filho et al 2021). Emerging programs have progressed and diversified significantly compared to earlier efforts to establish nationwide digital courses and learning materials in ESD (Müller-Christ and Liebscher 2016).…”