Gone with the internet - How the old education was lost

Despite its young history, Computer Science Education has seen a number of "revolutions". Being a veteran in the field, the author reflects on the many changes he has seen in computing and its teaching. The intent of this personal collection is to point out that most revolutions came unforeseen and that many of the new learning initiatives, despite high financial input, ultimately failed. The author then considers the current revolution (MOOC, inverted lectures, peer instruction, game design) and, based on the lessons learned earlier, argues why video recording is so successful. Given the fact that this is the decade we lost print (papers, printed books, book shops, libraries), the author then conjectures that the impact of the Internet will make this revolution different from previous ones in that most of the changes are irreversible. As a consequence he warns against storming ahead blindly and suggests to conserve - while it is still possible - valuable components of what might soon be called the antebellum age of education.

Individuals' (re-)action in the face of global warming

Climate change remains a major challenge for today’s and future societies due to its immense impacts on human lives and the natural environment. This thesis investigates the extent to which individuals are willing and prepared to voluntarily contribute to climate protection and to adjust to new climatic conditions in order to cope with the consequences of climate change and reduce the severity of potential negative impacts. The thesis thereby combines research in the fields of the private provision of environmental public goods and adaptation to climate change, which is still widely unconnected in the existing literature. The six contributions of this thesis mainly focus on microeconometric analyses using data from international surveys in China, Germany, and the USA. The main findings are: (i) A substantial share of individuals is willing to voluntarily contribute to climate protection and to adapt to climatic change. The engagement in both strategies is positively interrelated at the individual level and the analyses reveal hardly any evidence that adaptation activities crowd out individuals’ incentives to engage in climate protection. (ii) The main determinants of individuals’ adaptation activities seem to be the subjective risk perception as well as socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics like age, gender, education, and income, while their climate protection efforts are found to be broadly motivated by financial advantages from these activities and additional immaterial benefits. (iii) The empirical findings also suggest a significantly positive relationship between certain climate protection activities. Substitutions are found to occur merely if one measure is perceived to be more effective in providing climate protection or if individuals have high environmental preferences. (iv) This thesis further reveals a common understanding of a (normatively) fair burden-sharing in international climate policy across citizens in China, Germany, and the USA. The highest preferences are found for the accountability principle.