With 4,000 active and almost 6,000 registered participants, the digital education congress was a success. It was possible to gain new perspectives and concrete strategies for teaching practice in an increasingly digitized world. The congress brought science and practice together.
The had around 4,000 active participants in the contributions and workshops as well as almost 6,000 registered participants Digital congress “Networked! Learning and teaching in the age of digitality “ last Saturday, October 2, 2021. The event is thus one of the largest virtual congresses in the field of education in Germany to date and was a success. Teachers, school administrators and people interested in education from all over Germany attended the digital congress in order to gain new impulses for the sensible use of digital media in schools and lessons.
“We wanted to gain new perspectives and concrete strategies for teaching practice in an increasingly digitized world – and we succeeded,” says Minister of Education Theresa Schopper, adding: “We will now evaluate the findings and use them to continue working on the digitization of education. “The Congress that Center for School Quality and Teacher Training (ZSL) together with the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Culture, the State Media Center (LMZ) as well as the University of Stuttgart organized, was also for ZSL President Dr. Thomas Riecke-Baulecke a success: “An exceptionally high number of registrations, the impressive range of contributions and workshops, the numerous prominent speakers – the key data of the event clearly demonstrated the topicality and importance of the topic of ‘teaching and digitality’. “
Prominent cast
After welcoming words from ZSL President Riecke-Baulecke, Minister of Education Theresa Schopper and the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ministry of Education, Prof. Ulrich Trautwein, two eagerly awaited keynote speeches followed: Glenn González, Chief Technology Officer of SAP, spoke about “Formulas for the digital transformation”, before the internationally known education researcher John Hattie gave interesting insights into his research in his overall keynote live from Melbourne. Among other things, he vividly explained the conditions under which social media can have a positive effect on the performance of learners and advocated using the experiences from distance learning for the future instead of returning to the old status quo.
Subsequently, the 14 “themed houses” by high-profile keynote speakers – including nationally and internationally known personalities such as the philosopher Prof. Julian Nida-Rümelin, educational scientist Prof. Frank Lipowsky or Prof. Andreas Schleicher from the OECD Education Directorate. This was the starting shot for the most extensive part of the congress: a wide variety of almost 230 practice-oriented individual contributions and workshops, presented by around 380 speakers in the individual themed houses. In contributions, some of which were interactive, participants could not only try out applications themselves, but also enter into a dialogue with the speakers. An active exchange between the congress visitors was also promoted via a dedicated networking area in which participants could network at random. “The congress brought science and practice, theoreticians together with the local people involved, in order to discuss the major guidelines and the concrete implementation in the classroom. That was exciting and interesting at the same time, ”says State Secretary Sandra Boser.
Forward-looking discussion
The day of the congress ended with a panel discussion with education experts from politics, science and school practice. State Secretary for Culture Sandra Boser, ZSL President Riecke-Baulecke, Prof. Katharina Scheiter vom Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media, Head of Studies Rüdiger Hocke, Head of the Carlo-Schmid-Gymnasiums Tübingen, as well as Kevin Erath, chairman of the State Student Council of Baden-Wuerttemberg, discussed the congress topic from different perspectives and developed outlooks for a digitized future. Moderator Ute Soldierer ensured a lively exchange among the discussants and confidently led through the entire supporting program of the event.
At the event, a wide variety of practice-oriented ideas and scenarios could be obtained – from very specific instructions, for example on the possible uses of the iPad as a teaching tool, to realistic digital implementation strategies in schools. And as ZSL President Dr. Thomas Riecke-Baulecke emphasized in his welcoming address: The digital congress should not remain “a lonely milestone”. Therefore, the aim is to consistently continue the training offensive for the profitable use of digital media in schools and lessons through further events and offers in order to prepare children and young people as best as possible for a digitized world of life and work.
You can also get more information via the Threema feed of the ZSL, send “start zsl” or “start digitalkongress” to the contact * BC1WX37 “
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