The PH Zurich is founding a center for research into digital change in education and filling six new professorships.
The PH Zurich is strengthening research and teaching on digital change in education and is establishing the Research Center Education and Digital Change on January 1, 2021. Starting in 2021, six new professors will conduct research at the new center on the focus areas Education and Digital Society, Digital Learning and Teaching and Computing Skills in Education.
Education and Digital Society
In the research focus Education and Digital Society, the structural changes in the education system are examined: How do educational institutions deal with digital change and how do educational concerns develop in a digital society?
Michael Geiss will take up the position of professor for education in the Vice Rector for Research & Development from January 1, 2021. He studied pedagogy, sociology and philosophy at the University of Zurich and did his doctorate in the field of general pedagogy. Since 2016 he has headed the Research Unit Education in Working Life at the Institute for Educational Science at the University of Zurich. He is also the founding editor and managing editor of the English-language online magazine “on_education”. One of his particular concerns is to internationalize the pedagogical and educational policy debate. Michael Geiss will head the new Center for Education and Digital Change.
Patrick Bettinger will fill the professorship for media education in the Vice-Rector for Research & Development from January 1, 2021. After studying educational sciences with a focus on media education and adult education, he did his doctorate on media education at the University of Hamburg. Patrick Bettinger has been a junior professor for educational media research at the University of Cologne since January 2018. From an educational science perspective, it deals with methods of social and media research as well as learning and educational processes in the context of digital change.
Barbara Getto will be appointed professor for media education in the Vice Rector for Continuing Education and Services on February 1, 2021. After studying business education, psychology and international technical and economic cooperation, she did her doctorate in educational sciences at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Since 2014 she has been working there as a research assistant at the Learning Lab of the Chair for Media Didactics and Knowledge Management and in 2020 she was also a substitute professor in the field of media didactics at the University of Hagen. As a sideline, she accompanies universities as a consultant on projects for the digitization of studies and teaching.
Digital Learning and Teaching
The focus of the Digital Learning and Teaching focus is on questions about new digital learning formats and their effects, such as the use of artificial intelligence in learning processes. This research focus also examines how didactic concepts can be further developed in the context of digital learning environments.
Tobias Röhl will fill the professorial position of Didactics Media in the Vice-Rector for Continuing Education and Services on January 1, 2021. He is a sociologist and did his doctorate at the University of Mainz on the subject of “Things of Knowledge – School Lessons as Socio-Material Practice”. After a substitute for a professorship at the University of Duisburg-Essen, he is currently working as a research assistant in the Collaborative Media Research Center at the University of Siegen. In his research, he deals with different variants of the delivery of education, including the question of how schools, school authorities and the teaching material industry react to digital change and adapt to one another.
Computing Skills in Education
The research focus Computing Skills in Education focuses on the imparting of IT education in the classroom and addresses the question of its status in educational institutions.
Thomas Schmalfeldt will be appointed to the position of professor for computer science education in the vice-rectorate for education on January 1, 2021. He completed a doctoral degree in natural sciences at the Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design at ETH Zurich, where he received his doctorate in 2019. In his dissertation in the field of architecture, he dealt with digitization and topics such as machine learning and big data. He has been a lecturer in the fields of computer science and mathematics at the PH Zurich since 2018 and has a teaching diploma as well as extensive teaching experience at secondary level I.
Bernadette player will fill the professorial position of IT education in the Vice Rector for Continuing Education and Services from February 1, 2021. After studying information management and e-health at the Johanneum University of Applied Sciences in Graz, she received her doctorate in technical sciences in 2018. She is currently working at the Institute for Mathematics and Applied Computer Science at the University of Hildesheim, where she heads the Department of Computer Science Didactics. Her current research interests include basic IT education, e-learning concepts, maker education, playful programming (game design) and agile software development, with a focus on the advancement of girls and inclusion.
Digitization initiative of the Zurich universities
The center will make a contribution to the research activities that the PH Zurich is undertaking together with the University of Zurich, the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and the Zurich University of the Arts as part of the Zurich Universities’ digitization initiative (DIZH). The Canton of Zurich is supporting the PH Zurich research cluster within the framework of the DIZH with 5.7 million francs for ten years (2020–2029).
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