,,Ist digital normal?“ – Untersuchung des Mediennutzungsverhaltens Studierender in der ingenieurswissenschaftlichen Lehre

Zusammenfassung More than ten years ago, Marc Prensky coined the digital age by his concept “Digital Native” [1]. Replies from opposing points of view were published directly afterwards, predominantly by Rolf Schulmeister in the German-speaking area. Overall, neither the homogenous characterization of a “digital generation” nor the attribution of certain characteristics like multitasking ability could be maintained [2]. Regarding habits of media usage and media acceptance, younger generations appear to be equally ambivalent: the same students who nowadays have their finger on the pulse of current technical affairs, spending most of their time surfing on Facebook and the internet with smartphones or Tablet PCs, often show a reserve towards the media offer of their higher education institutions. After the discrepancy between habits of media usage and media acceptance in educational and private context was identified by higher education institutions, the number of evaluations relating to this topic has steadily increased [3, 4]. The results of these surveys show almost consistently that e.g. web 2.0 resources are hardly ever used [5]. Regarding the evaluation of these results it has to be considered that, for example, almost every survey had an interdisciplinary approach and did not focus on specific subjects. It can be assumed that students with a background in engineering and affinity to technology show other preferences than students from disciplines in arts and humanities. Consequently, important data, especially for the adjustment and sustainable development of media offers for engineering education, is missing. Taking these aspects into consideration, the Centre for Learning and Knowledge Management at RWTH Aachen University and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology are going to conduct a survey regarding habits of media usage among engineering students during the winter semester 2012/2013. The outcomes will serve as aid to orientation in strategic media development for engineering education.