Media Competence with Muddy Hands

More than 600,000 children and young people are addicted to media. An estimated 1.8 million children and young people have been insulted, exposed and socially marginalized by their peers online. And one in seven children has been asked to undress in front of a webcam or turn on their cell phone camera. One in seven children has also been sent nude photos unintentionally. These figures are based on various studies by DAK-Gesundheit, the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, the Bündnis gegen Cybermobbing e.V. and the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia. And all of them are higher than in previous years.

And now? Demonize all digital media and ban them from the lives of children and young people? Retired Waldorf teacher and media educator Edwin Hübner has a clear stance on this: «The problem usually sits in front of the computer and is not inside it. The decisive factor in the media issue is whether we succeed in educating our children so that they can handle the media responsibly.»

In his latest book entitled Chat GPT: Symptom of a technical future, he provides suggestions on how such education could be implemented. In it, he distinguishes between direct and indirect media education. And while he would like to locate the beginning of direct media education in the sixth school year across the board, he sees indirect media education as being in the cradle, so to speak. Because: «Indirect media education means everything that strengthens a person's core. What is their willpower like? Are they mentally balanced? Have they been able to develop resilience? What ideals do they have? Are they connected to the world? These are the questions that make up this core, which also represents an antithesis to the digital world.» At a very young age, it is the basic sensory experiences that are necessary and helpful in order to be able to face the world later on with interest, responsibility and the ability to act. Running around with others on a meadow, playing imaginatively with undefined objects, digging in the mud with the hands - this is where media education began for Edwin Hübner a long time ago. Indirectly.

For Hübner, the path to becoming a person who masters the media and does not allow themselves to be dominated by them takes place in three steps. The first step is to get to know and use the real world, then analog technology and finally digital technology. «The most important thing for us humans here on earth is our body. We need it to walk, speak and think, to use our senses. And without the senses, there is no world for us. It would remain closed to us without the senses,» says Hübner. According to Hübner, taking hold of the body, feeling comfortable in it, using it and placing ourselves in the world in it and with it is the step in which we acquire the real world. Media, on the other hand, would always lead us into an alien universe that is separate from the real world and in which we just sit still. And Hübner emphasizes that books are no different from other media. That is why they should not play an overly important role in the first years of life. He says: «In early childhood, any separation from the real world is poison, but gold is every hour in which a child is actively engaged.»

Once children have found a home in their body, they can relate it to the world, «extend it into the world», as Hübner says, and learn to use the tools of the world — a bicycle, a whisk, a flute, a rake, stilts, pliers, scissors. The possibilities for important physical experiences are endless.
At around the age of twelve, the body undergoes another major change. Puberty sets in, the body is remodeled and so is the brain. Impulse control becomes increasingly possible. For Hübner, this is the time when children can understand how the Internet works and how they can use it skillfully. How do I research the web sensibly? Where does my data end up? What is cyberbullying? These are just a few of the many questions that should be discussed from sixth grade onwards. From year nine onwards, computer science lessons should be added everywhere to make it clear what happens invisibly and almost as if by magic in the computer, on the Internet, etc.

Hübner also advocates that all students should take a course in photography and produce a film during their time at school. «When I understand processes because I've done them myself, it demystifies the medium — a film, for example. I can suddenly look at it differently and relate to it more freely,» explains Hübner. He remembers well how beneficial it was to watch a documentary with students about film flaws in the fantasy movie Lord of the Rings. «In one shot, the wizard Gandalf had his wand on the left, in the next on the right. Something went wrong during filming. Only ten minutes of this movie are enough to discover such mishaps,» says Hübner. Exposing mistakes demystifies the film and at the same time awakens appreciation for the work behind it. Not just anyone can make a movie, because there are a thousand things that need to be known and taken into account.

To understand artificial intelligence, however, good computer science and mathematics lessons are helpful. To understand AI, it makes sense to know how to calculate with matrices. Because AI is also applied mathematics. An AI is human thinking of the past crystallized into a device, so to speak. An AI does not think, it has been thought; an AI merely functions.

AI has a double face: it can be a giver of freedom. «AI can take a lot of things off our hands, simplify or speed things up. That's good for now. The key question is: what do I as a human do with the capacity that has been freed up? What do I use it for?» asks Hübner. «AI can also be the instrument that, in the wrong hands, can lead to the worst dystopias.» On the one hand, it is important for people to use digital devices a lot, but on the other hand, it is important to look up to the spiritual. This is the only way for people to maintain a balance between above and below. And Hübner has a very specific idea of how this can be achieved: «Some of my contemporaries may think I'm crazy, but I think there are very simple things that can help. For example, standing in awe of a tree and feeling the wonder of life manifesting itself in it, really listening intently to a chirping bird, and also being able to respond to another person's thoughts with respect and tolerance. Those who are still able to do this are asserting themselves in everyday digital life. But of course I have to practise this, it doesn't happen by itself,» says Hübner. Because smartphones and the like keep distracting us from the here and now with their ringing and flashing lights, cutting us out of it to a certain extent, we are mentally «tattered», as Hübner calls it. This makes it necessary for us to «reconnect» at least once a day, i.e. to come back to ourselves, to our center.«This is inner work and we can't avoid it. It may sometimes seem tedious and annoying, but nothing else will do. After a while, it's also enjoyable and it sets us apart from all the intelligences in the world,» says Hübner with a wink.