Two projects by students at the University of Oldenburg were honoured today in Berlin with prizes in the "Teaching for Life" ideas competition. Ilse Aigner, Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, presented the awards to the students.
Anne Niemayer, Marco Schmedes, Antje Katharina Stulken and Gülcan Tayan, student teachers from the Institute of Economics Education (Politics and Economics degree programme), received second prize for their teaching idea "My new scooter: just a bit of fun?". They developed the pedagogical concept for a teaching unit that promotes rational decision-making skills. The special prize for "Media Competence" went to Thomas Fischer and Stefan Grazius, students of Vocational and Business Education. They developed the webquest "Flirt Community". This is an internet-based teaching and learning arrangement for pupils on the subject of "new media".
The teaching unit "My new scooter" was developed in a didactics module by Prof Dr Dirk Loerwald, university lecturer at the Institute for Economics Education. "Consumer education is an important component of Economics Education," says Loerwald. "In the seminar, we systematically linked consumer topics with innovative methodological concepts." The teaching unit is aimed at pupils in year nine and focusses on independent learning. Using the example of buying a scooter, the pupils are asked to make a rational purchase decision. They have to obtain detailed information about the scooter and weigh up their decision according to rational criteria. Through the use of media, research exercises and case studies, they uncover the complex mechanisms behind the purchasing process. In a further step, they learn to transfer the skills they have acquired to everyday situations and to behave as responsible consumers.
The idea for the "Flirt Community" webquest, which was awarded the special "Media Literacy" prize, was developed in a seminar offered by academic appointment and business teacher Wiebke Schröder at the university last year. Fischer and Grazius designed "Flirt-Community", an interdisciplinary and virtual learning platform aimed at students at vocational business schools in Lower Saxony. The "Flirt Community" offers simulations of chat situations and high-risk contracts on the Internet that are harmful to young people. Students use the internet platform to train their factual and judgement skills, as well as their social and methodological skills. They improve their knowledge of consumer law and purchasing decisions. They also learn to assess data protection and security measures and to reflect on the opportunities and risks of modern means of communication. So far, the "Flirt Community" is planned to be used at schools in Stade, Hameln and Lüneburg and as part of the ILIAS cooperation platform for vocational schools.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Protection organised the ideas competition last year. It was looking for teaching concepts for secondary levels I and II on the subject of consumer education. These should improve pupils' everyday skills in dealing with information, media and money and address their rights and duties as consumers. A total of over 120 projects took part in the competition, five of which were honoured today in Berlin.
