Learning is a social process that occurs through interpersonal interaction within a cooperative context. Individuals, working together, construct shared understandings and knowledge.
Silke Grafe is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the work group “Didactics and K-12 pedagogy with particular regard to media literacy education” in the College of Education at the University of Paderborn in Germany. She is a Visiting Scholar at the Media Education Lab during the Spring 2010 semester.
She is currently working on a comparison of media literacy education in the United States and in Germany. Furthermore, she is involved in a research project about media learning environments of children and teenagers funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Her book “Use of Computer Simulations for Problem-Solving,” published in German by Klinkhardt Press in 2008, provides evidence of the impact of learning with computer simulations on teenagers´ problem solving skills. She co-authored another book about the current situation of digital media in German schools funded and published by Deutsche Telekom in 2007. She is author and co-author of numerous scholarly journal articles, book chapters, reviews, curricula and educational materials. She is a member of the BMBF´s Ministerial Team of Experts for Media Literacy Education. She has taught courses on media literacy education and educational technology at three different universities in Germany. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Paderborn in 2007 and a State Teacher Certification in the subjects of English, Chemistry and Art and Design in 2001.