Teaching and Learning with and About Media in Cooperation with Schools, University and Museum Using the Example of the 'Reuchlin digital' Project

Abstract

This article introduces the development project ‘Reuchlin digital’ (RD). The project aims for the further development of ‘Museum Johannes Reuchlin’ (MJR) in the southern German town of Pforzheim. MJR is a museum dedicated to the humanist Johannes Reuchlin who lived during the time of the invention of printing. Johannes Reuchlin advocated tolerance and stood for the exploration of the unknown. These principles are guiding project development. RD works at the intersection of cultural education (in both school and extracurricular activities), media education and teacher training. The project is related to practice but includes evaluative elements leveraging both qualitative and quantitative methods. The article aims to outline theoretical and conceptual aspects of RD and conveys important preliminary results. RD resides at the Pforzheim cultural office and is funded by the city itself, the Baden-Wuerttemberg innovation fund, the ‘Arbeitsstelle literatische Museen BW’ and cooperates with different institutions (University of Education Ludwigsburg, Medien- und Filmgesellschaft BW and a number of schools). One of the main project goals is the exploration of new and action-oriented learning paths guided by creative, critical and reflexive methods of media production for the museum as an extracurricular learning environment. Visual, auditory and audio-visual expressions are playing a key role in this cultural, aesthetic and media related appropriation of the museal space.