About Global E-Learning

Objectives

The objective of monda.eu is to give an exciting introduction in various controversial and complex topics in order to raise people’s awareness sustainably for global issues. The platform enables people from the European Union and beyond the European borders to deal with global issues in an interactive, creative and divers way. In doing so users reflect their own values, stereotypes and attitudes, change their own perspective and exercise critical thinking. Additionally users can get in direct contact to others, e.g. through the forum, Facebook or with the messenger and hence to be a part of the global discourse. The users get the possibility to understand global issues and to identify and use scopes for actions in our globalised society in terms of a sustainable development and social justice.

Themes

The themes of the courses on monda.eu are key issues in our days, referring to the educational scientist Wolfgang Klafki (Klafki 2007, p. 56-60). All themes are complex, interconnected, inter- and transdisciplinary and offer links on a local to global level. Moreover all themes have a strong connection to the experiences of the users. The platform assembled courses with the following topics:

Approach

Precisely because there are no location-independent objectives and tasks of Global Learning (see Seitz 2002, p. 378), it is essential to make the theoretic approach of educational offers transparent. In this passage the approach of Global Learning used on monda.eu is introduced briefly.

Numerous educational programmes and practices of Global Learning are set within the tension between political and pedagogical positions. This tension can be characterised as a continuum of understandings: ranging from an understanding that education must include the task of striving for a better world, to an understanding of education as something that is necessarily open-ended, therefore not amenable to a pre-determined result.

The German-speaking discourse and beyond (e.g. Slovak National Strategy of Global Learning) about the conceptual direction of Global Learning is particularly marked by a focus on the way in which normative aims in education are dealt with. It’s characterised as a distinction between action-oriented and evolution-/ systemic-oriented approaches to theories of Global Learning.

The action-oriented approach puts the vision of a sustainable future on the basis of social justice at the centre. As a priority it aims at a competency of action in solidarity. Systemic models, on the other hand, (based on evolution theory) place a concern for the growth of complexity and progress towards a global society at the centre. The priority is to educate for thinking and judging in interconnected situations.

The prepared courses on monda.eu are based on the systemic-oriented approach. It starts from the assumption that education can prepare learners to deal with complexity and life in a global society by taking into account how to deal with uncertainty, not-knowing and the risk of lack of orientation. In close connection with it Global Learning follows a pedagogical understanding of learning processes, which are self-organised and individual and which are initiated by learning situations in one’s own environment, but not determined through them (Scheunpflug 2008, p. 1). Thus work with global issues on monda.eu should promote the understanding, critical reflection of global developments and a differentiated ability to judgement as well as to contribute to an independent and creative opening up of alternative possibilities of interpretation, communication and action. (Strategy Group Global Learning, 2009, p. 9f)

Method

All courses are based on the introduced approach on Global Learning and follow a consistent structure:

• Organised as a self learning process, including some suggestions to start discussions and exchanges with other users, e.g. in the forum
• “Warm up” through exploratory starting questions around the topic
• Interactive starting exercise, which allows the user to experience the relevance of the topic for their daily life
• Getting into a topic from different perspectives through a methodical diverse instructed learning process
• Usage of relevant examples in order to increase the comprehensibility of complex issues for the users
• Search for alternatives or personal opportunities for action
• Closing questions
• Duration per module: approx. 4 hours

Methods used within the courses amongst others are, simulation games (so called serious games), search for traces, researches, guided phases of reflection, videos, music, questions to start discussions in the forum and lots of small playful varieties to gain knowledge.