Research

Term: December 2018 — May 2022 
Promotion: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Researchers: Prof. Dr. Felicitas Macgilchrist, Dr. Annekatrin Bock, Jasmin Troeger 

The use of digital technology in schools entails an increasingly comprehensive system of data collection. These (digital) data in turn influence processes across the school system, shaping the opinions and decisions of policymakers, school inspectors, school administrators, teachers, students, parents and the broader public. This project assumes that the genesis, interpretation and use of data are not (value) neutral. Inscribed in the data are ideas of ‘good education’, ‘good schooling’ and ‘good lessons’. At the same time, this datafication is potentially changing the roles of teachers, students and other actors in the education system, as well as their relationships to each other.

The Leibniz Institute for Educational Media explores changes in the relationship between software providers, teachers and students through the integration of new data-based, digital educational media in everyday classroom practice. The project unpacks the digital tools used in classrooms and analyses the interface between digital learning software (providers) and classroom practice. It asks how the software prefigures particular data practices, educational priorities and teacher and student roles.

Term: 2019 — 2023 
Promotion: The joint doctoral scholarship of the University of Göttingen (UGOE) and the China Scholarship Council (CSC)
Researcher: Xiuli Huang 

With the increasingly availability of virtual reality (VR) technology, educators are beginning to recognise is potential in a range of subjects. VR technology offers an immersive space where learners can experience learning content in a virtual scenario. Virtual reality therefore allows a targeted environment to be established where students have the opportunity for a real learning experience in terms of culture, language, geography etc.

The project has developed a collaborative, immersive virtual environment (CIVE) through which students can interact and communicate both inside and outside the classroom. The project examines how CIVE supports the learning process in the classroom. The central focus is on the impact of peer interaction on higher order thinking performance in the collaborative, immersive virtual environment.

Term: January 2020 — January 2024 
Promotion: MWK und Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus – Postdigitale Partizipation – Braunschweig
Researchers: Dr. Andreas Weich, Marvin Priedigkeit, Philipp Deny  

The Junior Research Group (JRG) at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute combines perspectives from the fields of media studies and information technology. It explores participative analysis, reflection and the design of postdigital media constellations in education. The epistemological focus is the exploration of how digital media technologies and media cultural practices are integrated into existing teaching and learning practices and how the former transform the latter. The project also examines how learning spaces, approaches to content and the roles of teachers and learners as well as their required skills are changing as a result. We wish to study these complex transformation processes, to reflect upon them and influence their design together with teachers, students and the producers and educational media. The individual processes will be agreed with the respective partners.

The Basement will be used primarily to carry out co-reflection and co-design workshops. Short formats in which possible user cases are tested are also being considered.

Term: 2021 — 2022 
Promotion: Bürgerstiftung Braunschweig
Researchers: Annekatrin Bock (PI), Nadine Wagener-Böck, Julie Lüpkes (SHK)

School as an institution frames the use of digital media in classes within fixed lesson plans aimed at the dissemination and appropriation of knowledge, and all within clear hierarchical structures. This means that there has been little room in the daily life of schools for the possibilities offered by tablets, apps and digital infrastructures to be impartially and freely explored. In order to test and experiment with alternative, participative teaching scenarios using digital media that meet the needs of pupils and teachers, projects are required that open pathways for creative, innovative work with digital media, and that are distinct from the firmly established patterns of the school day, which centre on achievement and performance. The initiative: ‘Motivating participation in digital teaching scenarios’ is developing project ideas that will fit into everyday school life. Current insights into the work of the project can be found on our project blog.

Term: April 2023 — March 2024
Promotion: Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Postdigitale Partizipation
Researchers: Dr. Maren Tribukait, Janina Becker, Xiuli Huang

This participative practical and research project aims to give students in a computer studies club the opportunity to develop a VR game in The Basement, and to research this process from a number of perspectives. The topics will be decided by the practitioners: The teachers‘ suggestion to design a game as a time travelling journey through mathematics and science will be developed and expanded by the students. The research project will explore (1) how the students incorporate the subject into their game design, for example in terms of their information technology and game programming skills and (2) how the design process in a post-digital space stimulates a critical reflection of VR technology and the content it presents.