The Project

digDAS – Digital Media in German Schools Abroad

A project at the Georg Eckert Institute, Leibniz Institute for International Textbook research

German Schools Abroad offer a unique combination of German and local educational practices, offering a specifically transnational perspective on educational technology. The selected schools in Bolivia, Singapore and the USA received awards from the Federal Foreign Office as part of the ‘Innovative Learning’ Initiative. Through classroom observations, interviews and focus groups, this study aims to gain insight into the ‘everyday’ media practices in schools, to reflect on central concepts in current debates on digital educational media, and to open up perspectives on how these media can be used in the future.
Project duration: August – December 2016

Questions

1. Practices: How are digital educational media implemented in lessons and how does this affect the use of ‘traditional’ media such as textbooks? How do the participants evaluate their experience with digital media to date and what further potentials or challenges do they envisage?
2. Context: What role do the local, national and transnational contexts play? What role does the specific status of German Schools Abroad play? Which of the debates and controversies surrounding digitization are reflected in their education practice?
3. Perspectives: Which ideas for future developments emerge through the experience of using digital media and to what extent are these ideas controversial?

Methodology

We will use the following qualitative social research methods:

• structured interviews with selected teachers
• structured interviews with the school leadership
• focus groups with students
• lesson observations in a range of subjects (upper and lower secondary levels).

The Georg Eckert Institute

The Georg Eckert Institute (www.gei.de) is a member of the Leibniz Association and conducts applied and multidisciplinary research into textbooks and educational media, informed primarily by history and cultural studies. It also provides advisory services to national and international education policymakers, practitioners and organizations, and frequently conducts studies supported by the Federal Foreign Office into issues of current interest.

Participants

Project management: Prof. Dr. Felicitas Macgilchrist
Research USA: Dr. Annekatrin Bock
Research Bolivia/Singapore: Johanna Ahlrichs
Coordination: Magdalena Markones

funded by: