Alone or in groups, at home or at school, at the workplace or in a museum – knowledge emerges everywhere. Digital media are present in all these places and surround us at all times in our daily lives. At the IWM we are interested in the processes that happen during knowledge acquisition or exchange and in how these processes are influenced by digital media.
In our research about knowledge processes with digital media, we mainly focus on
In our research into knowledge processes with digital media, we mainly focus on on this fields of practice:
Knowledge processes in formal learning settings
Teaching and learning with digital media in schools
Teaching and learning with digital media in universities
Knowledge processes in informal learning settings, e.g. museums, memorials, portals, archives
Knowledge processes in everyday media use
In order to guarantee application of our research, the IWM also collaborates with schools, universities, museums and partners from the business world. Together with our partners, we realize pilot scenarios and test them for their practicability. On the following pages we present our work especially for (potential) application partners from schools, universities, museums and organisations.
In more and more German classrooms, notebooks, tablets & co are being used. Students search on the internet, present their results with the help of multimedia on digital whiteboards or use interactive simulations to understand complex scientific causal relations. However, both teachers and students have to deal with various challenges: When is a lesson that is conducted with the help of digital media a good lesson? How do I learn properly by using a simulation? How do I prevent being distracted or disoriented by the vast amount of information available on the internet?
Looking to the school of the future
The IWM researches how digital media can be used to complement and change the traditional model of teaching and learning arrangements in a way that is conducive to learning. This includes identification of characteristics of teachers and students that are important for successful learning with digital media. Once these are identified, their development can be supported with selective measures. To this end, the IWM is participating in the TüDiLab(Tübingen Digital Teaching Lab), among others. The TüDiLab is an institution of the Tübingen School of Education (TüSE) of the University of Tübingen. The TüDiLab simulates a classroom which is equipped with digital media that are typically used in schools, as well as with evaluation tools whose data enable a high temporal resolution analysis of real-life teaching and learning processes. Thereby, didactic media expertise is intended to be conveyed to future teachers. Furthermore, the TüDiLab enables process-oriented research on the effects of media-based teaching. Additionally, also in the context of TüSE, a new junior professorship for teaching and learning with digital media (in teaching methodology) was established at the University of Tübingen as well as at the IWM. The position is filled by Andreas Lachner.
The IWM generates user-oriented knowledge that is important for the design of media-based lessons and of digital lesson material. In order to ensure the transfer of our results into educational practice, we cooperate with educational publishers and other producers of educational media and are involved in teacher training. At the same time, we present our research to user-oriented publications and at conferences.
Teaching with digital media
Which didactic scenarios with digital media are helpful for teaching and learning at school? Which are particularly inspiring for lesson design? And which developments in this context pose particular challenges or risks? These and similar questions are addressed by the online portal schule-mal-digital.de and the future space ("Zukunftsraum") of the competence network lernen:digital.de, with which the IWM aims to promote the exchange between science and practice on school education with digital media.
The offerings provide scientifically sound information on the design of school education with digital media and aim to network committed actors from research, school practice and transfer to form a community. In joint formats and online events, they discuss how the latest technological developments can be used in a research-based and didactically meaningful way for teaching and learning in schools.
Transfer into practice
The IWM generates practical knowledge that is important for the design of media-based lessons and digital teaching materials. In order to ensure the transfer of our findings into educational practice, we cooperate with textbook publishers and other manufacturers of educational media and are involved in teacher training. At the same time, we present our research on our portal schule-mal-digital.de, in the Zukunftsraum as well as in practice-relevant publications and at conferences.
The following examples provide a concrete insight into the research activities at the IWM.
Examples of questions in the practical field of schools
The IWM has always regarded the practical field of universities as relevant. The portal e-teaching.org run by the IWM has already been supporting the design of higher education with digital media since 2003. It has set up a community for stakeholders in which current developments are discussed and presented to the public. With its extensive materials, online events and social media channels, it provides an important basis for the qualification of university lecturers.
Similar to the practical field of schools, the practical field of universities represents a formal learning space in which learning processes are intended and didactically supported.
At the same time, the e-teaching.org portal sees itself as an informal place of learning that offers all interested parties the opportunity to obtain information independently and to exchange ideas with like-minded people. The portal content is continuously updated and further developed - sometimes in innovative formats such as content sprints together with the community. (AuftAkt - Visibility and Update - content- and community-oriented further development of the e-teaching.org portal)
Potential of digital university teaching
University teaching has always been a field of innovation for the use of knowledge media - and since the online semesters during the corona pandemic, the possibilities for use have once again expanded considerably. This applies to classic forms such as multimedia-enriched texts, simulations, distributed labs or interactive and dynamic visualisations as well as current developments such as the design of hybrid learning spaces and teaching scenarios or the use of digital media.
Digital media support self-directed and cooperative learning both in traditional face-to-face teaching concepts such as lectures and seminars as well as for the preparation and follow-up of events or for hybrid learning scenarios in which, for example, some of the students take part in a course on site while the others are connected online.
Examples of questions in the practical field of higher education
How can digital media be meaningfully integrated into teaching and how can research findings in this subject area be translated into practice? (Portal e-teaching.org)
Museums and exhibitionsare an important place for informal educational processes. With the progressive development of technology, museums use more and more digital media, e.g., in digital installations or as digital guides for exhibitions.
Focus on knowledge transfer
The way knowledge is transferred in museums has some special characteristics which lead to interesting perspectives for the pedagogic-psychological research and theory building. One example is the high significance of authentic physical objects or the mechanisms of an effective, aesthetic and entertaining orchestration of exhibition topics. In current exhibitions innovative digital media is often used, ranging from multi touch tables to multimedia guides or immersive installations.
On the basis of psychological theories and methods, the IWM gains insights into the reception of exhibition content and the role of digital accompanying media.
Examples of questions in the practical field of museums
Knowledge processes with digital media take place not only in the formal setting of schools and universities or in informal learning centres such as museums, but also in everyday life.
In addition to self-directed activities (e.g. searching for information, using Wikipedia), communication environments are primarily used in these processes.
Communication between people - or between people and agents
The communication environments used include social media in which people exchange information with each other (interpersonally), but also scenarios in which people interact with artificial agents, such as ChatGPT, to acquire knowledge or create products together.
Conscious and unconscious processes
The knowledge-related processes range from fully conscious processes to less conscious (learning) processes when scrolling through social network timelines.
IWM research in the practical field of everyday life focuses on the use of digital media in two types of communication environments:
1. interpersonal communication in social media; and
2. human-agent communication with AI
The following examples of research questions provide concrete insight into the research activities at the IWM.
Interpersonal communication in social media
How does skimming social media feeds affect the memory of senders (e.g. scientist vs. layperson) and to what extent does this influence the credibility of information? (NewOrder)
How does the mix of information and disinformation in social media influence the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood? (Info noise)
How do people use ChatGPT and similar chatbots for information search and creative tasks? (ChatGPT)
How do trust, perceptions, self-efficacy and the willingness of users to interact with AI systems over a longer period of time develop? (HMC_AI_trends)
