The 1980s and 1990s saw a change in the public perception of the computer: The computer was no longer seen as simply a technical calculating machine used primarily in the military, research, and the world of work, but had evolved into a multifunctional consumer product and learning medium in schools and family homes. This shift in the public perception of the computer from an exclusive technical artefact of the adult world to a learning device that was not only deemed suitable, but even predestined for children to discover and play with, was largely driven by the development of specialized learning software for kids. In this way, the design of educational software manifested the ideas of technologists and educationalists about which children's needs and modes of appropriation gave young learners access to the computer device. The development of the computer as a learning medium for children thus raised questions about the child-friendly design of software and the educational added value of the new educational technology. At the same time, the development of educational software was accompanied by the emergence of a profit-oriented market for educational software at the interface between education and entertainment.

The project examines the historical development of educational software for school-aged children in West Germany, paying particular attention to the social and cultural processes of negotiating and appropriating the computer as a tool for teaching and learning. The development of educational software is studied within the historical economic context of the emergence of an (inter)national software market, which sought to leverage the development of digital learning media as a sales argument to market computer technology to schools and parents. The interplay between pedagogical appropriation and the economic logic of exploitation thus emerges as a defining aspect of the relationship between education and the economy in the digital age, which is inextricably linked to issues of equity and educational justice.

PI: Dr. Carmen Flury

Duration: 2024-2026

Funding: Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony (MWK)