“Eulenfisch” editor-in-chief in an interview with kathisch.de
How can you get students excited about religious topics today? Martin Ramb deals with this question every day as a religious educator. In the kathisch.de interview he talks about why it is important to get away from school books and how he envisions religious education in the future.
By Christoph Brüwer | Limburg – 17.11.2020
Educational, content and design valuable digital educational offers are awarded every year with the renowned European “Comenius MediaEdu Siegel“Awarded. This year the Internet portal of the Limburg magazine for religion and education, the” owl fish “is one of the winners. In an interview, the editor-in-chief Martin Ramb talks about what the award means for him.
Question: First of all: Congratulations on your award, Mr. Ramb! You say that the award recognizes your “innovative pioneering work in the field of religious digital education”. What does that mean for you specifically?
Ramb: We have been in the field of religious education for quite a while. Our magazine “Eulenfisch” has been around since 2008. Since then we have also made progress with digitization and have gained a lot of experience in the field. The magazine is now the foundation for what we develop digitally. We are currently pretty far ahead because we didn’t just discover the digital during the Corona crisis. It has been very important to us for a long time. We are currently facing huge transformation processes and upheavals in terms of the digital dimension of education.
Question: And do you see yourself as pioneers in this field?
Ramb: Yes. There is also a lot going on in this area at universities and in other school departments. I don’t have an overview of the entire German-speaking area, but compared to what I know, we are very well positioned and are constantly developing. For example, we have developed formats such as digital tutorials, so-called “eTorials”, with different media. Or digital showcases. These are formats for a new transfer of knowledge that we initiate ourselves. In the field of religious education, religious education, adult education and catechesis continue to be viewed too heavily. We have long thought these areas to be networked, and this gives rise to many new ideas. We believe that the Gutenberg era in religious education has been drawing to a close for some time and that we must therefore expand our educational mission in the digital space.
Question: What do you have against books?
Ramb: Nothing at all! I’m a big fan of books, and I’m sure they will be around for a long time. But beyond that, you should dig deeper and develop content differently, individualize it more and thus address other user groups. Basically, our business is the same as with a museum: Museums are also often traditional houses that reach their limits when everything is digitized. But from the traditional medium you can create a lot, develop digitally and train mixed forms, hybrid educational formats. This then results in innovative approaches to the original forms. The media are ultimately a tool for imparting religious education.
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He is one of the founding members of the “Eulenfisch” magazine and is now editor-in-chief: Martin Ramb. In the Diocese of Limburg, he heads the department for religious education, media and culture.
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Question: What do such multimedia formats look like in concrete terms?
Ramb: The basis for us is initially our magazine texts. In addition, there are videos or podcasts that are then linked to certain articles online. Or we have teaching material that is made available in a search engine and then linked to articles and offered. So everything is connected. We have also received an award for this user-friendly preparation.
Question: What does it mean to you that you have been awarded a secular prize for a religious education project?
Ramb: That made us a little proud. We are diocese employees, but we do the “owl fish” project largely on a voluntary basis. We know that a lot of money is sometimes spent in the digital sector. All the better when you can still assert yourself against large publishers and receive awards. In a way, that’s also a sporting attraction. So we are happy.
Question: In schools and other facilities, a lot has been digitized since the beginning of the corona pandemic that was previously unthinkable. What changes did you notice?
Ramb: The desire to have digital offers has increased significantly. Before Corona, you had to put forward stronger arguments to convince why digital work is so important. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, it has been self-explanatory that this is needed. After the Corona crisis, didactics can no longer run in the same way as before the Corona pandemic and the dioceses urgently need new digital support systems for religious education. One now has to consider how the training of religious educators should be designed in the future. These are all impulses in the field of the digital, but it doesn’t necessarily make it any easier. That is the downside and ambivalence of this development. Using digital concepts intelligently calls for skills that must first be developed. It doesn’t happen all of a sudden. This challenge will keep us busy in the years to come.
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Question: What is particularly important today when you want to get students excited about religious topics and convey them in an exciting and understandable way?
Ramb: The advantage of this development is that you can get away from the classic textbook and convey individual and emotional content. This way you can better respond to the different levels of knowledge and the learning behavior of the students. If you do it well, religion is a great subject that can open up the world and gives me a horizon of meaning for a good life. Basically, digitization is a real opportunity for religious education because you can “visit” the Holy Land or “walk through” a cathedral through virtual or augmented reality, for example. These are things that were previously unthinkable.
Question: So that’s where you see the future of religious education and religious education?
Ramb: That is certainly of great importance. The above also applies to all other subjects, of course, but religious education has an enormous breadth of content and offers great opportunities for networking, for example when it comes to culture. It doesn’t always have to be media that have been specially developed for religious education. The trick is to seek out the good elsewhere and then incorporate it intelligently into religious education and connect the curriculum with it.
Question: You choose an interfaith approach in your materials. Do you see the future of religious education there too?
Ramb: Absolutely! It would be a short cut to see the world only from our perspective, and it’s always interesting to hear a different perspective – which in the end you don’t necessarily have to share. But the foreign often triggers a learning process. An example: When talking about the Trinity, one doesn’t necessarily think of interreligiousness. However, if you look at and interpret the topic from a Muslim perspective, for example, there are interesting results that can also enrich Catholic religious education. Without this change of perspective it is no longer possible, because in schools there are very often children from different religions and also without a denominational background. Religious instruction has always been the place where students can speak about their faith. And it should stay that way in the future.
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The “owl fish”
The magazine “Eulenfisch” has been produced in the Diocese of Limburg since 2008 and appears every six months. Over the years, “eulenfisch.de” has also developed a cross-media offer that connects various channels and media. The main target group are religious educators and adult educators.
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