Yesterday, a consultation upon the request „Chancen und Potenziale der Digitalisierung für Niedersachsen nutzen - Digitalisierungsprofessuren fördern“ (Exploiting opportunities and potentials of digitization for Lower Saxony – Promoting professorships in digitization) by the SPD and CDU is taking place in a public session with the committee “Science and Culture” at the Landtag of Lower Saxony. Prof. Dr. Stephan Schwan of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) has stated his opinion as an expert yesterday at the Landtag. On the basis of the IWMs profile, his position will concentrate on the role of digitization professors – as mentioned in the application – regarding the transfer of knowledge on digitization, the digitization of education as well as the development of digital and media literacy in university studies and training, especially in teacher training. Overall, the IWM supports the introduction of digital professorships that provide expertise in both computer science and social science.

The postdoc network Cognitive Conflicts during Media Use hosts a workshop on “Selective Information Processing during Digital Media Use” on 10 and 11 April at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen. Scientists – including some IWM alumni – from Germany and the Netherlands present their current research.
Digital media nowadays provide access to a wealth of information. “But with a high density of information comes the danger of overload. Users often don’t know which information is relevant for their purposes,” says Dr. Anne Schüler (IWM), Deputy Head of the Multiple Representations Lab at the IWM and one co-organiser of the workshop. “It is crucial to understand how users process information in order to systematically prepare and edit content so unfavourable processing does not occur.” In the workshop, the researchers examine quite different (positive and negative) examples of selective information processing such as the formation of opinions in echo chambers, information biases in science as well as the processing of data in digital environments and during multimedia learning.
“The workshop offers the unique opportunity to bring together researchers from various fields like Communication Studies, Social Psychology, Political Psychology and Multimedia Research and to discuss from the different perspectives how information is processed in the digital age and what possibilities digital media offer in this area,” so Anne Schüler. 

Math and numbers are everywhere – at the supermarket, when looking at timetables and when reading prescriptions and expiration dates. They are also central for the use of modern technology. Dr. Julia Bahmüller of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) investigates with the junior research group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity the behavioural and neural underpinnings of numerical processing as well as the development of numerical competencies.
The Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society (MCLS), too, set itself the aim of promoting the communication of scientific research on mathematical cognition and learning, and advancing the study of its typical and atypical development, neural substrates, genetic and environmental influences, cultural variation, and malleability. At the international conference Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society on April 8 and 9 in the heart of Oxford, Julia Bahnmüller presents her work about the influence of linguistic factors on the cognitive processing of multi-digit numbers. Furthermore, Silke Bieck, PhD student of the LEAD Graduate School and associate researcher at the IWM, talks about the outcomes of a game-based study on the learning of fraction numbers. In the study training success was measured by performance indicators as well as on a neuronal level. 

The Phaenomenta, a Science Center of Flensburg University, bought a LEGO table and set it up with the software of the media development department of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). Dr. Uwe Oestermeier, head of software development at the IWM, presented the table to the press on Thursday, March 29th.
The Phaenomenta counts around 65.000 visitors every year and shows exhibits that invite visitors to explain, describe and even test them. For example, a long metal spiral allows producing transverse and longitudinal waves; there are cable pulls where one can lift oneself up and many other mechanical, optical and acoustic experiments. Visitors should be encouraged to engage in a dialogue about the interesting and astonishing phenomena.
Chairman of the Phaenomenta e.V. Dr. Michael Kiuple first heard about LEGO table during a presentation of Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress (IWM) at the 5^th Sankelmanker Talk on Teacher Education in Flensburg. The meeting of the IWM and the Phaenomenta now aimed at remodelling the LEGO table – which overall serves to develop a composition course of 8 to 10 double lessons – as exhibit that is suitable for the short stays at different stations of an exhibition. The Phaenomenta is going to try several variations in the course of a voluntary social year. The plan is to offer workshops for teachers and school classes together with the Education Department of the University of Flensburg.

Wooden turtles, colourful plugs and a treasure – Ph.D. student Katerina Tsarava of the project group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) plays for science.
With her life-size board game “Crabs and Turtles”, Katerina Tsarava examines how the game environment affects the computational thinking development of children between 8 and 9 years. In the game children solve math related tasks with variables or have to figure out the most efficient way to collect treasures by creating effective sequences of commands which is similar to coding concepts. By doing so, computational thinking related skills are trained like abstraction, pattern recognition and decomposition.
“Games or game-based applications are an increasingly important mechanism for cognitive training, learning and educational interventions because of their ability to keep players motivated to play and to interact with the application or learning environment, respectively,” says Tsavara. Recent research even indicates that game-based learning is more effective in terms of learning and retention than conventional instruction methods.
In her Master thesis project, Tsavara has already studied computational thinking and designed a life-size board game for teaching students basic programming skills. Her current game was further developed and integrated into a new Core Course (“Verstehen wie Computer denken”) of the Hector Kinderakademie in collaboration with Luzia Leifheit from the LEAD Graduate School. The game was tested so far in a Student Enrichment Center in Thessaloniki, at the Kinderakademie of the Hector Institut fuer Empirische Forschungsbildung in Tuebingen (Wanne) and in several beta-test playing sessions at the IWM. The upcoming months, Katerina Tsavara and Lucia Leifheit will apply “Crabs and Turtles” in other Hector Kinderakademien in Baden-Wuertemberg (inter alia in Reutlingen, Nuertingen and Lossburg).
 

The Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) cordially invites you to its Summer School on “Multimodality and Knowledge Processes“ on June 6-8, 2018 in Tübingen. The Summer School is jointly organized by Katharina Scheiter's Multiple Representations Lab and Stephan Schwan's Realistic Depictions Lab at the IWM.

The main topic of the Summer School is the interplay of different sensory channels (e.g., vision, sound, haptics) as well as different information modes (e.g., texts, pictures, animations) with respect to perception, cognitive processing, and knowledge acquisition when using different media.

During three days, morning lectures will be given by leading researchers from various disciplinary fields, including learning sciences, experimental psychology and linguistics: Neil Cohn (Tilburg University) will provide an introduction on visual language and his cognitive multimodal model. John Bateman (University of Bremen) will present his linguistic and semiotic work on multimodality. Mike Stieff (University of Illinois at Chicago) will talk about learning from multimodal representations. Zacharia Zacharias (University of Cyprus) will discuss the role of physical and virtual manipulatives in learning about science concepts. Leila Lyons (University of Illinois at Chicago) will give an overview on using multimodal interaction devices in informal learning settings.
Each lecture will be accompanied by an afternoon workshop offered by the keynote speakers.

The morning lectures are open to the public. For registration please return this registration form via email to Luitgard Fink (l.fink@iwm-tuebingen.de). Participation is free of charge. Please note that the number of participants is limited to 40, preferably at the Ph.D. and postdoc level.

Registration deadline: April 30.
Notification of acceptance by May 7.

The full program will be made available here by the middle of April.

Euroscepticism, Brexit, and the rise of populism – only three of the challenges with which the European Union is currently faced. Each of these phenomena harbors great social and political explosiveness, rendering them an interesting field of application for psychological research.
Recent results of this research will be discussed at the symposium Brexit & The Rise of Populism - Insights from Political and Psychological Sciences which will take place at the University of Kent in Canterbury. In this context, Dr. Lara Ditrich of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) will present a poster displaying her research on the identity-related dynamics among Scottish residents that are associated with the situation in the United Kingdom after the Brexit-referendum. In her research. Ditrich focuses on what factors and processes influence group composition in offline as well as online contexts.

The use of serious games has received increasing attention – also in health care. Serious games have already been used in clinical medicine, surgery and public health successfully, allowing participants to observe the impact of their decision-making, practice clinical skills safely, and exposing them to infrequent yet critical scenarios.
Researches, clinicals and game designer have discussed future implementation and challenges of health games at the International Summit on Serious Health Games of the Imperial College London yesterday. Dr. Manuel Ninaus of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien shows as keynote speaker the importance of emotional engagement in games. In his research Ninaus focuses on game-based learning environments. His motivational approach and his different evaluation methods are crucial for the use of serious games in the health sector.

People in high-power positions experience more stress if they are aware of their responsibility than if they recognize the freedom their position provides. Research of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen has shown this. If power-holders think about their responsibility (rather than their personal freedom) they do act more fairly towards others – but at the same time, their own stress level rises. 

On 2 March 2018, the second meeting of the Leibniz ScienceCampus “Cognitive Interfaces” took place at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). The meeting aimed to discuss first results of pre-tests and studies as well as current developments that have arisen from present findings.
All 14 projects presented their current status of work in a poster session to the Scientific Advisory Board. It revealed the diversity of the projects, all focusing on the question, how thinking, action and work can be improved by human computer interfaces. Hereby, multidisciplinarity is the defining feature through cooperation between psychology, computer science, medicine, dentistry, didactics of biology, media science, educational science and sports science.
After the short presentations practical relevance – for example the applicability of an app for patients with osteoarthritis – and contribution to the development of psychological theories were discussed. Overall, the meeting showed how well the projects are progressing. The dyadic teams of IWM employees and scientists of Tübingen University allow the experience of intensive interdisciplinary work.

Dr. Annika Scholl of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien is visiting the department of Social Psychology and Prof. Dr. Gerben van Kleef at Amsterdam University from 1 February to 27 March. Both scientists are working on a joint research project.
Gerben van Kleef conducts research – like Annika Scholl – on power and social norms. She reports: “It is enriching to combine different perspective and to develop a joint idea so intensively.” The visit is supported by the SAW postdoc network Cognitive Conflicts. The projects examines in which cases people give power to others. Still little is known about how the behaviour of people can influence others to transfer their power. “To shed light on this issue, we combine theoretical approaches on power, perception of persons and leadership. A conflict occurs: Having power often leads to persons behaving selfishly (i.e. to hold back knowledge).  However, self-seeking behaviour on the other hand does not seem to result in power transfer of others. People might expect that especially power holders share their knowledge instead of keeping it to oneself. In this project we observe how this conflict can be explained and solved in order to support, for example, the knowledge work of organisations”, Annika Scholl explains.

Logging in Facebook or other social networks is nowadays part of our daily routine. While constant checking of status messages is often associated with stress, envy and reduced wellbeing, researchers of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) found out: Stress is influenced by external factors and not by Facebook usage. Concerns that Facebook has a negative impact on the wellbeing are therefore exaggerated. The platform even offers possibilities of social support. The professional use of social media pays off as well: Anyone who uses LinkedIn has professional information advantages. 

The second VECTOR workshop on virtual reality (VR) and games in psychological, medical and educational research takes place at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen on 25 till 27 July 2018. The VECTOR workshop 2018 aims at bringing together excellent researchers who uses virtual reality, serious games and related technologies as new approaches within the field of education and health. 

More information 

Controversy and transparency are quality characteristics of journalistic work. This includes the reporting of limitations of scientific findings. “However, our research suggests that the juxtaposition of contradictory positions lead to more negative attitudes towards the reported scientific approaches. Readers may even find the report less credible. How this problem can be solved, has to be shown by further studies. One possible solution might be that journalists address this problem and emphasize the processual character of research in order to resolve the apparent contradiction of fragility and credibility”, so Apl. Prof. Dr. Joachim Kimmerle of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IMW) in the interview. “Our findings offer a basic approach for further examining how laymen understand the fragility of scientific results and must therefore be regarded as provisional. But they also show possible starting points on how recipients can be supported in understanding scientific information.  Most obvious is, that science journalists help their readers recognizing fragility by explicitly describing the results as preliminary and by offering a balanced presentation. When presenting new results and findings with weak evidence, contradictory positions should be reported as well. This is part of a good scientific practice anyway, but is often not realized in practice”, he adds. Kimmerle is Deputy Head of the Knowledge Construction Lab at the IWM.  In his research, he examines the fragility and uncertainty of scientific findings and their perception. In a field study on the reception of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), or in other words of pacemakers, Kimmerle investigates how the temporary character of scientific knowledge can be explained and clarified and how it is processed.

In times of digitization, mobility, networking, clouds and artificial intelligence are possible success factors for the future of companies. Further training in this area should be part of strategic corporate objectives. Thus, following questions arise: “What kind of educational opportunities do companies want or need?”, “How can the success of further training be measured?” and “How does future training look?” Concerning cooperation within the company, it is interesting to examine how social processes affect computer-related collaboration. Social psychologist Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) studies exactly this topic. With his lab „Social Processes“ he focuses on how social factors (such as hierarchy, identification, influence, power, collaboration or competition) help or hinder cooperation. His research findings enrich the panel discussion with Matthias Schäfer (CEO of MÖRK GmbH & Co. KG), Bernd Heinzinger (Solution Specialist Intelligent Cloud, Microsoft Deutschland) and Evelyn Koch (Management Emil-Gminder-Akademie). The discussion was organized last friday by the vhs Reutlingen together with its new institution, the Emil-Gminder-Akademie.

This year’s spring meeting of the newly composed scientific advisory board of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien took place on 19 and 20 February 2018. (In the picture from left to right: Prenzel, Jonas, Leutner, Cress, van Merriënboer, Spinath, Stürmer, Aleven)

The new members Prof. Dr. Vincent Aleven (Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, USA), Prof. Dr. Eva Jonas (University of Salzburg, Austria), Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Manfred Prenzel (Technical University of Munich) and Prof. Dr. Stefan Stürmer, (FernUniversität in Hagen) provide very different scientific perspectives – form social psychology to educational research to human-computer-interaction – and therefore excellently complement the other members of the scientific advisory board of the IWM with Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Detlef Leutner (Universität Duisburg-Essen), Prof. Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer (Maastricht University, Niederlande und Prof. Dr. Birgit Spinath (Heidelberg University).
We look forward to continue working with this strong team and like to thank the former members Prof. Dr. Monique Boekaerts, Prof. Dr. Bettina Hannover, Prof. Dr. Marcus Hasselhorn und Prof. Dr. Josef Schrader for their expertise and professional input in the last eight years.

“Digital learning must become a standard practise in German schools. All experts, who present themselves at the education fair Didacta in Hannover this week, agree on this point.  But how well are publishers prepared for it?“ says the introduction of the article. 
Katharina Scheiter is head of the Multiple Representations Lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and full professor for Empirical Research on Learning and Instruction at the University of Tübingen. Together with her research group, she investigates cognitive processes underlying learning from multiple representations as well as means of supporting these processes. Results from this research are used to design digital textbooks and tablet-based applications for education. Therefore, she is an expert when it comes to evaluating and developing digital learning media at schools. Regarding her work at school, she notes: “Excedingly few media are designed in accordance with latest findings in teaching research” and “You have to consider under what circumstances digital learning has an advantage”.

Your research focuses on learning processes from a psychological perspective, examines different facets of learning success respectively the characteristics of digital learning environments or deals with the evaluation of learning and teaching methods?
The Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) organises a symposium about learning processes – research on digital media in university teaching – on 11 and 12 October 2018. The conference is aimed at scholars of psychology and related disciplines, project participants of the current funding line on digital higher education of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as well as at interested teachers and students. Following research topics will be presented: Learning process during learning with digital media; empirically measuring the success of learning with digital media; digital learning environments in the university; theoretical approach towards learning and teaching with digital media.

Papers can be submitted now: Go to the event website or download the Call for Papers as PDF here (in German)

Detailed information about the symposium: https://learnmap.iwm-tuebingen.de (in German)

Within the framework of the CCS, the Department of Journalism and Communication Research at Hannover University of Music, Drama, and Media has invited selected professors to a “Roadmap Conference” on 15 and 16 February. In addition to training courses, the event aims to discuss possibilities and challenges of digital research with and on large data sets that can be addressed by the community. Key issues are “Access and Availability of Big Data Resources”, “Analysing Software and Techniques”, “Research Ethics and Data Science”, “Combination of computational and conventional Methods” and “Interdisciplinary Arrangement between Computer Science and Communication Research”. 

Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien is excited: “Computational methods offer many possibilities. But since they are not part of the course of study, they are currently posing challenges for researchers. I greatly welcome that the topic is explored systematically at the Roadmap Conference and I am looking forward to synergy effects through new co-operations.”
Participants are Noshir Contractor of Northwestern University, Jan Kleinnijenhuis of VU University Amsterdam as well as data science experts who are not based in the field of Communications Research such as Wolfgang Nejdl (Computer Science) of the Leibniz Universität Hannover – principal investigator of a thematic ERC Advanced Grants and head of the Learning Labs Lower Saxony (L3S). In order to ensure the sustainability of the joint discussion and brain power, the results will be documented and published in a special issue of the “International Journal of Communication”.

Since 2008, the Alliance of Science Organisations has successfully contributed to an improved provision of information in research and teaching through its Priority Initiative “Digital Information”. Now the initiative starts into the third project phase (2018-2022) and responds to challenges of digital learning and teaching with a new project group. 
More and more digital services allow learning, teaching and even graduating online. Providers are not only educational institutions but also commercial suppliers. In order to support an effective positioning of science organisations regarding this wealth of information, intensive co-operation between the players is more important than ever.
At this point the new project group „Digital learning, teaching and networking” of the Alliance sets in.  Dr. Anne Thillosen of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) represented the Leibniz Association at the first session of the project group in Berlin yesterday: “Unlike universities, teaching is not in the main focus of science organisations. But yesterday’s meeting has shown: Teaching and networking with digital media is crucial for all – within the organisation as well as in areas like Citizen Science. Until the next meeting, the open-minded and very active discussion about the future key topics the project group likes to determine – in comparison to universities – will be continued online. I have the impression that the group will deliver very constructive impulses not only for the science organisations but also for the education system and the society."
The Alliance of Science Organisations is an association of all large science organisations in Germany. It regularly comments on important issues of science policy. Besides the Leibniz Association additional members are: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD),   German Research Foundation (DFG), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Helmholtz Association, German Rectors' Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz - HRK), Max Planck Society, German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Wissenschaftsrat (German Council of Science and Humanities).

In 2004, the first edition of the handbook was published, which has since become a standard work on teaching and learning with digital media.

In January 2018, Dr. Anne Thillosen of the Leibniz-Institut füt Wissenmedien (IWM), Patricia Arnold (HS Munich), Lars Kilian (TU Kaiserslautern) and Gerhard Zimmer (formerly HSU Hamburg) published the 5th edition. The manual was updated and supplemented again this time. It now includes, e.g., a section on the use of humanoid robots in learning contexts and an index. The eleven chapters provide a basic, application-oriented overview of all central areas of teaching and learning with digital media (except for the technical implementation). Topics are: ”Education with E-Learning”, “Virtual Educational Space”,  “Didactic Conception”, “Educational Resources”, “Competencies for Teaching and Learning”, “Learning Outcomes and Competency Web Testing”, “Quality Management”, “Evaluation”, “Standardization”, “Legal Foundations” and “Implementation”.

Anne Thillosen about the new edition: “The ongoing interest in the manual E-Learning indicates that the target group is steadily expanding.  As author I recognize with every necessary update how fast this area develops.  Of course, there was a major step between the first edition in 2004 and the completely revised edition of 2011 – but between 2015 and today many things have changed as well.”

10.000 visitors attracted the E-Learning fair LEARNTECT last week. Among the 302 exhibitors, the visitors could examine the cooperation project LISA – Learning Analytics for sensor-based adaptive Learning – of the Leibniz-Institut für Wisssensmedien (IWM). 
Project LISA shows how learning processes can be made more personalized and adaptive. It is a cooperation between the IWM, the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft in Berlin, the Humboldt Universität Berlin, Neocosmo, Solutions & Global Media GmbH and Promotion Software. At the booth of Neocosmo (Pic.1-3), visitors could measure by their pulse rate how their mood and power of concentration affected learning activity (Pic.4). Then, via smartphone they received information on how they could improve their learning situation. (Pic.5-7)
Regarding the evaluation of sensor-based data, the area of Learning Analytics still lags behind major providers like Google – with that Prof. Albrecht Fortenbacher of the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin opened his speech on „Learning Analytics für erfahrbares Lernen“. LISA takes an important step forward: It shows the link between learning content and learning success on the basis of sensor measurements, thus providing significant implications for the development of didactic concepts.
                          

Psychologists of the Leibniz- Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tuebingen from the team of Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg found out: The fear of cancer influences whether people after searching medical information online go to cancer check-ups or not. People who look up information on cancer screening on the internet, plan to go to their screenings more often – but only if they are afraid of getting cancer. 
Although modern medicine has made progress in the fight against cancer, the fear of cancer diseases is widespread. Still, regular screenings are no matter of course.  Only almost every fifth person over 55 years has undergone a colonoscopy even though it is recommend for this age group as cancer prevention. What influences people to undergo these screenings?

Press Release

Following an invitation from the speaker of psychology at the secondary school department of the Regierungspräsidium, Apl. Prof. Dr. Joachim Kimmerle of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) is holding a lecture today. In doing so, he starts off the training day on media psychology for teachers who teach psychology at course level in the 170 high schools of the Stuttgart region. 
Kimmerle offers an introduction to “Media and Media Psychology” and focusses on the choice of media, for example the media teens select, and on explanations of emotion-related media choices. In addition, he discusses media impact like for instance in relation to aggressive behaviour as well as media literacy. Workshops on teaching practice will follow the lecture. “The everyday reality of teens is highly influenced by the use of media. Thus, it is crucial that teachers are sensitised to the media consumption habits of their students and that they examine possibilities of increasing media literacy,“ says Kimmerle.

Several research projects on digital media in higher education teaching of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) have been presented at the e-learning trade fair LEARNTEC in Karlsruhe last week. 

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hirt (Pic.6) of the university clinic Tübingen reported about the BMBF-project (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) “Open Teach” – a cooperation project between the IWM and the online platform Sectio Chirurgica. The key question of his lecture was how digital media can support collaborative working in different medical professions. The BMBF-project “Digital Learning Map 2020” was presented the second time at LEARNTEC after its start in 2017.

Gabriele Irle and Elke Kümmel (IWM) invited the audience to join the best practice database (Pic.1 & 5) which is developed within the project and will go online in summer 2018. Gabriele Irle: “The database offers university teachers from all over Germany the possibility to share their experiences on digital teaching and to get to know the best practices of other teachers. The database is characterized by two features: It shows interdisciplinary solutions across universities and focusses on the individual learning process – not on the tools used.”
Both speeches were held at the well-attended exhibition forum university@LEARNTEC. The forum was again organized by the team of e-teaching.org and was moderated by its members Dr. Anne Thillosen (Pic.4 & 7) and Markus Schmidt (Pic.2). The presenters provided exciting insights into a broad range of applications of digital media in teaching: From agility to peer assessment, from robot vehicles to augmented reality, from gamification to the consequences for curricula and university administrations.
The forum was followed by a workshop for ten digitization projects at national universities that are currently funded by the program „Digital Innovations for Smart Teaching – Better Learning“ of the Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg. Organizer of the workshop was the IWM’s accompanying program „Smart Teaching Baden-Württemberg“ which supports the sustainable implementation of the projects inter alia through a series of events. Mareike Kehrer and Dr. Michael Hellermann (IWM), for example, talked in their workshop about the workflow during the production of open educational resources (Pic.8).

The Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (HFD) has taken first steps to advance the set-up of a national platform for Higher Education Teaching. In the final report of the first project phase (2014-2016), the HFD supported the idea of creating such a platform. There are several reasons for it.
First, on the existing non-European (MOOC-)platforms like edX and Coursera, the protection of student data cannot be guaranteed.  Second, the German – and in the medium term the European – university sector should be strengthened for example by a platform that all German higher education institutions can use for their own teaching and that strengthens university cooperation.

In order to evaluate the possibilities for the concrete implementation of such a platform, the HFD and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research had ordered a feasibility study in summer 2017. The study was given to the MBB institute and to neocosmo which invited experts – including Dr. Anne Thillosen of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) – to a “Stakeholder workshop” to discuss possible development scenarios and variations. At the workshop, first ideas and results will be presented. The key agenda is: How could and should a national university platform ideally look like and which requirements and options for development as well as problems and risk have to be considered?

“In any case it is useful to take different perspective into account especially at the beginning of the discussion process since e-learning actors, university administration and data centres all have very different views and interests – and they all, of course, should use such a platform. I am glad to bring the perspective of e-teching.org and our community into discussion”, says Thillosen.

Future school education without the use of digital media would be inconceivable. Thereby, children of new generations (the so called digital natives) seem to know more about the use of digital technologies than adults who did not grow up with those media. But is this true? Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensemedien answers this question. In an interview with Die Debatte, Cress also talked about how digital media is changing school education and about their specific use for different age groups: 

“If we successfully integrate media into school lesson as teachers, it means, that teaching changes as well. Lessons will be more self-directed, more collaborative as well as interactive.”   

Die Debatte discusses controversial scientific issues. It is organized by Wissenschaft im Dialog, the Science Media Center Germany (SMC) and the Technische Universitaet Braunschweig.

Link to the video  (german only)

To engage African scholars in advancing the Learning Sciences, the first Workshop of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 12 and 13 February 2018. The workshop will showcase inspirational research, drawing from multidisciplinary areas of the Learning Sciences, and presenting new and provocative debates on how people learn.

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, director of the Leibniz-Insitut für Wissensmedien in Tübingen, is one of the keynote speakers. She will talk about “Knowledge creation in mass-collaboration scenarios”, for instance on the online platform Wikipedia. Cress: “Although Africa is working on exciting research questions, it is still underrepresented in the international research of Learning Sciences. The workshop aims to explore possibilities for cooperation and to discover the different research foci.”

The International Society of the Learning Sciences is an interdisciplinary society dedicated to the empirical investigation of learning as it exists in real-world settings. It is concerned with the question how learning may be facilitated both with and without technology.

Workshop program

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, director of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), was again elected member of the program commission of the Virtuellen Hochschule Bayerns (vhb) -  Bavarian Virtual University. Since 2017, she accompanies the development of the vhb: “I am very impressed how Bavaria is consequently spreading digital teaching with the vhb. It succeeds in identifying the mutual needs and offers of higher education institutions, thus facilitating cooperation between universities. Therefore, I am looking forward to continuing working at the vhb.”

The Bavarian Virtual University is an association of all Bavarian universities and higher education institutions for applied sciences. The VHB offers multimedia online courses on a wide range of scientific areas for students as well as non-students.

On 26 and 27 April 2018, the Annual Research Meeting LERN takes place at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen. Subject of the meeting is “Digitisation and Education: Potentials and Challenges from the Perspective of Educational Research”.

The Leibniz Education Research Network (LERN) aims to identify with the meeting the current state of research and expertise of its member institutions as well as further research demands. In order to prepare the conference, all LERN member institutions are asked to submit suggestions for presentations via mail to leibniz-bildungspotenziale@dipf.de until Wednesday, 31 January 2018.

Call for Papers (PDF in German)

Most German universities use digital media for teaching. However, their potential is not yet fully utilised. How the use of digital media in higher education can be improved, is the topic of the exhibition forum university@LEARNTEC.

On 30 January 2018, scientists from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) will present new impulses for the future of university education at the LEARNTEC fair:  Gabriele Irle (IWM) and Prof. Dr. Johannes Moskaliuk visualise the current state of digital university education with the Digital Learning Map 2020. They will answer the question, what makes teaching with digital tools effective. Prof. Dr. Joachim Kimmerle (IWM) together with Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hirt from the University of Tübingen will show how learning between specialists can be supported – especially between medical professionals.

“We expect exciting insights into innovative ideas and best practice examples” says Dr. Anne Thillosen (IWM), head of e-teaching.org. The team of the information and qualification portal has organised the program and will moderate the forum. E-teaching.org offers extensive scientific content on the integration of digital media into higher education.

Information on the program (in German)

The internet is an integral part of our everyday life. Here we connect with each other. We use the internet to search, place and expand our knowledge - and the knowledge of others: consciously and unconsciously. The Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen is researching how the Internet is used in a knowledge-based way. The IWM focuses not only on digital knowledge processes at universities or in workplaces, but also on knowledge acquisition during our leisure time. At the IWM a series of research questions on knowledge processes are being investigated. Alone or in groups, at home or at school, at work or in the museum - knowledge emerges everywhere. Digital media exist in all these places and they accompany us at all times in our daily lives.

Link to video

With regard to its digitization, the future of teaching at universities seems uncertain. Yet, in the area of e-learning – the electronically supported learning by the use of media – much has happened. Anne Thillosen from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien talked to studienwahl.de about the future of higher education institutions. She is head of e-teaching.org, an e-learning information and qualification portal that provides extensive and scientifically based content about the integration of digital media into higher education.

In January 2011, the journey of the online journal wissensdialoge.de, supported by the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, began (IWM). Here, employees work as editors and guest authors, thus contributing to a continuous exchange of knowledge between research and practical fields. In the last seven years over 300 articles on current research questions and findings have been published on the platform. Topics include personnel development, teamwork, employee management as well as organisational learning and knowledge management.

To celebrate the 7^th anniversary, the editorial team likes to offer you seven tips – their personal kit – for a successful work day (in german): For example “After the break is before the break” by Dr. Christina Matschke and “Practise active listening” by Dr. Annika Scholl.

More information on the online journal:

 http://www.wissensdialoge.de

“Misunderstandings are part of everyday life. They disturb communication but also stimulate it. Misunderstandings trigger arguments, are the source of conversation and not uncommonly only strategically simulated.” So how can we learn to better understand the process of understanding from misunderstandings? And what happens if we just do not understand.
On 12 January 2018 at the interdisciplinary workshop “misunderstanding”, researchers from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmeiden (IWM) present latest insights and developments in psychology on this topic. With its focus on knowledge processes the Leibniz Institute provides a valuable input for the workshop. Therefore, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress and Prof. Dr. Joachim Kimmerle address the question “How well do laymen understand the fragility of scientific content?” and Prof. Dr. Stephan Schwan gives insights into “(Mis-)understanding text-image combinations”. From the perspective of various disciplines, the participants want to discuss, inter alia, which roles context, medium, perspective and affects play in processes of understanding. The workshop will end on 13 January 2018.
Processes of understanding also take centre stage of the joint cluster application “Understanding Understanding“ of the universities of Stuttgart and Tübingen as well as of the Deutsche Literaturarchiv (DLA) (German Literature Archive) Marbach and the Leibniz-Institute für Wissensmedien Tübingen (IWM).

Program of the workshop (in german)