As the title of this Master’s Thesis states, the content revolves around the world-famous Danish vicar, author, journalist, poet and playwright, Kaj Munk. Through his example, he was killed by the Germans occupancy during World War II because of willingness to speak out against them, and his works and mainly through an analysis of the play “Han sidder ved Smeltediglen” or as it is called in English “He sits at the melting pot”, several perspectives on how to communicative world views digitally to young people in The Danish Folkeskole and Gymnasiums are presented.
Communicating world view is never an easy task. Kaj Munk’s fame to this day can be ascribed to the persuasive powers of his pen. As few, he knew how to present a topic in a way, so that it was easy for most readers, spectators or listeners to take in any unpleasant truths.
Over the course of the thesis, a number of suggestions for how to structure a persuasive digital education system based on among other the principles found in Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld’s book “Information Arcitechture for the World Wide Web” and B. J. Fogg’s book “Persuasive Technology” as well as the received teaching in the subject “Information Arcitechture and Persuasive Design” are presented and discussed.
When designing a digital system with both an educational and a persuasive intent, there are several things to consider. If you design for The Danish Folkeskole, it is important to know the guidelines for the school in general and for each subject in particular. Interdisciplinarity is getting more and more common as time goes by, and there is nothing wrong with a system designed especially for interdisciplinary use, but it can be a help for a teacher to know, which subjects can benefit from the teaching available in the system and how.
One of the important conclusions in this thesis is that a digital education system never should stand alone. Even adolescents need guidance from their teacher and especially if there is also a persuasive intent behind the system.
Another important conclusion is that even if the content intended for this persuasive digital education system; Kaj Munk’s “He sits at the melting pot”, is brilliantly suited to be part of the foundation for the formation of the young people. Formation is traditionally being viewed as one of the most important aspects of teaching and influencing. In the term “formation” lies, however, the condition that the individuality and integrity of the learner should be kept safe, and that there therefore are limits to how far one can go, when it comes to persuasion.