Conference Agenda

Conducting online searches requires continuous decision-making. The decision-making process regarding the selection of information sources, the choice of search terms, the refinement of search queries, the pursuit of further information and the termination of search processes, rests with the searcher. Furthermore, decisions must be made at a meta-level, for example with regard to the intensity of the approach, the content verification deemed necessary and the appropriate effort. These decisions are not made in isolation, but are also embedded in external, often uncontrollable, framework conditions. These framework conditions include, for example, the technical conditions of digital systems, time constraints, social expectations and economic resources.

For young people these decision-making requirements arise under special conditions. They have limited experience in dealing with complex information situations and operate in digital information spaces that are increasingly characterised by contradictory content, uncertainty and deliberate manipulation. In particular, the emergence of different types of information disorder – such as mis-, dis- and malinformation – which differ in terms of accuracy and intent to deceive (Baines & Elliott, 2020; Wardle & Derakhshan, 2017), as well as new information technology approaches such as artificial intelligence are increasing the demands on search, orientation and decision-making processes in online search.

Research on online search strategies shows that young people's search processes are rarely linear, but are characterised by heuristic shortcuts, situational adaptations and recurring patterns of behaviour (Materna & Brüggen, 2024). At the same time, the current systematic literature review by Chakrabarti et al. (2025) indicates that there has been limited empirical research to date on how children and young people deal with mis-, dis- and malinformation, particularly with regard to search and decision-making processes, differentiation by age group and beyond a narrow focus on ‘fake news’.

This article addresses this research gap by focusing on search strategies as a central form of information-related behaviour. Search strategies are defined as deliberate, goal-oriented approaches to processing information-related tasks at the cognitive level, which include analytical, evaluative and decision-related processes (Barzilai & Zohar, 2012; Brand-Gruwel et al., 2005; Kurt & Emiroğlu, 2018). These are not conceptualised as completely pre-planned courses of action, but rather as processually realised contexts of action that unfold, change or stabilise in the course of online research under real conditions and are located in the context of media and information literacy.

UNESCO symbolically understands media and information literacy (MIL) as an ecological roof under which a very diverse network of competencies in dealing with information and media content interacts, enabling individuals to participate sustainably in society at the individual, institutional and social levels (Grizzle et al., 2021; UNESCO, 2013).

Empirically, the research looks into the search strategies of secondary school students (eight-grade) in topic-specific online research on climate change and health in Austria. The focus is on how these search strategies unfold throughout the information process when young people are confronted with information and different types of information disorder and which similarities and differences become apparent in the process.

These search strategies are analytically reconstructed based on the decisions that students make in the course of their online research, such as selecting, discarding or pursuing information. Decisions are not considered as an independent focus of analysis, but as an empirical approach through which search strategies become visible and comparable in the process. The article's empirical findings contribute to our understanding of media and information literacy as a processual, action-oriented practice. It explores how young people manage uncertainty and information disorder in socio-technical contexts.

Current calls for smartphone bans in schools and age restrictions on social media signal a broader societal uncertainty about how to deal with digital communication in educational contexts. International policy monitoring shows that restrictions are expanding across education systems, yet their enforcement and effects are inconsistent (UNESCO, 2025; OECD, 2024). While some countries, such as Australia, already have age restrictions for social media and similar developments are emerging in others, such as France, lively political debates are taking place across Europe. These political debates often foreground academic performance, safety, and health, while pedagogical perspectives are rarely taken into account. However, empirical evidence indicates that restricting smartphone use in schools alone does not reduce overall use or reliably improve wellbeing outcomes, pointing to the limitations of approaches based solely on bans (Goodyear et al., 2025).
Research findings also suggest that digital technologies are reshaping professional work, communication patterns, and relationship building in schools and leadership positions (Heffernan & Selwyn, 2021; Krein, 2025). On the one hand, these can promote digital communication between families and schools, transparency, and the involvement of stakeholders, but on the other hand, they can also exacerbate misunderstandings and conflicts (Macià & Garreta, 2019). Consequently, an ambivalent picture emerges regarding the use of smartphones and social media in schools, which has both advantages and disadvantages, but which is usually discussed in a narrow context. It is also apparent that debates mostly reflect the perspectives of politicians, teachers, and school leaders, while the perspectives of students usually remain unheard or unconsidered.
This contribution addresses these issues and aims to shed new light on current debates surrounding smartphone bans from various educational science perspectives. In doing so, we will address the following questions: How can we develop a common approach to smartphone use that reconciles children's rights, youth communication cultures, media education and professional boundaries in schools?

‘Learning with media’ and ‘learning about media’ as core activities of Media Education is part of many school curricula throughout Europe. This contribution will present a research & development project that enables teachers and pupils to learn about and discuss social media. With a focus on ‘learning about media’, pupils can share visual material in safe environments such as classrooms.

Research on young people’s use of social media has shown that sharing visual material is common and popular. This relates to recent theoretical developments on “conceptually linking visual competencies and digital sovereignty” in the course of young people’s socialisation process (c.f. Kramer et al., 2022) and even in processes of self-optimisation (c.f. Flasche & Carnap, 2021). These practices of sharing visual material include e.g. biographical photography-related memory (c.f. Kramer, 2020), politically motivated material (e.g. Klawitter, 2025; Kramer et al., 2025; Bellinger et al., 2025), even very intimate material (c.f. Kramer et al., 2022), etc.

In relation to school, it was found that “checking” social media, a highly entangled practice of perceiving and producing representations (i.e., social media posts), primarily on the three platforms #WhatsApp, #SnapChat, and #Insta (i.e., Instagram), is involved in the practice of doing homework (Rummler et al., 2019, 2020).

Promoting the competence of ‘digital sovereignty’ in school means ‘learning about media’. Teachers and youth workers therefore play an important role in exploring, and practising the use of social media with young people. Teachers and supervisors face the challenge that commercial platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and similar services cannot be used to design learning scenarios because data protection, the protection of minors, and protection from disinformation, hate speech, or bullying cannot be guaranteed for school use. At the same time, these are the aspects that need to be addressed in lessons in a secure and reflective way. The lack of protection often prevents exploratory engagement with a highly relevant topic in which reflected experiences are substantial (Boyer et al., 2025).

For the active exploration of social media topics, the open-source project opostum (www.opostum.ch; https://github.com/opostum/opostum) has been developed at the Zurich University of Teacher Education since January 2024. On this secure and protected platform, pupils can experience social media in a safe environment.

Teachers and supervisors have complete control over the data generated by the application. Teachers, administrators or facilitators, via a dedicated dashboard, can decide who is accepted into the network, and even larger networks, such as the entire school. Flexible user management allows for the use in extracurricular youth work. opostum provides teachers with various support tools that allow them to control the options for interaction, as well as identify undesirable behaviour, and respond appropriately, or irrevocably delete posts (right to be forgotten). In addition, opostum can be used to address other relevant topics such as personalised advertising, user tracking, or recommendation algorithms, etc. Young people can design their own advertising campaign and display them to specifically selected users. This allows the topic of advertising to be covered comprehensively.

An accompanying wiki (wiki.opostum.ch) currently contains four scenarios on topics that are increasingly prominent in public discourses on social media (fake news, influencer marketing, self-presentation and privacy, personalised advertising). These scenarios have been developed for classroom use. In addition, there is one scenario for extracurricular work (a simulation game in leadership training simulation game) and one during an activity week. A handout for teachers, worksheets and import files for artificial profiles are provided. These artificial profiles allow a hub to be ‘filled’ with content and can be used to lay the foundation for introducing a topic. Pupils can then respond to these posts and create their own.