Only recently TU Dresden has launched the Center for Open Digital Innovation and Participation (CODIP). With that centre TUD joined the CO-MAP project, bringing together its expertise in community research and development (preferably with digital technologies) and the idea of a collaborative community mapping as it is addressed by CO-MAP, especially toward young people’s learning experiences during COVID-19. Led by Birmingham City University the Erasmus+ project responds to the urgent need to understand these impacts in relation to the most vulnerable young people, including refugees, and to ensure that school leaders, teachers and parents are equipped to respond to their recovery needs.
CODIP will present that approach at the 2021 Conference “Communities in New Media”, which takes place in Dresden on October 06th – 08th in Dresden but as well online for researchers and practitioners not only from Germany (www.geneme.de). The conference GeNeMe has stood for „Communities in New Media“ for more than 20 years and deals with online communities at the interface or from the perspective of several disciplines such as computer science, media technology, economics, education and information science as well as social and communication science. As the forum for transdisciplinary dialogue between science, business, organisations and administration, it facilitates the exchange of experience and knowledge between participants from a wide range of disciplines, organisations and institutions. In 2021, we are striving for a close integration of Face2Face and online formats in order to further develop last year‘s hybrid conference experience together with all participants. The following thematic focuses provide an orientation and serve as an open invitation to submit contributions.
Digital participation in hybrid realities and communities
The pandemic has given digitalisation in business, science, education, private networks and public institutions an enormous boost and has revealed both innovative ideas and weak points. Infrastructures, working methods and competences are at the forefront of many debates and are increasingly determining the future viability of entire sectors. But where is the journey really going? How will we learn tomorrow? Will communities be primarily constituted in hybrid realities in the future? Are big data a threat or an opportunity? Can we process it at all or does it require fundamentally changed professional skills, tools and methods – such as advanced, social or visual analytics, virtual reconstruction, virtual engineering, conversational agents and cooperative VR? While IT innovations were something for digital experts until recently, hybrid communities in digital realities are now commonplace. But what do business, science and society have to adapt to? Are organisational processes becoming more participatory? How can an organisation assume digital leadership? What ethical and legal frameworks need to be considered? Digitalisation means new opportunities for openness, transparency and participation. But how can social discourses be (co-)shaped through digitalisation? Do we integrate AI into management via human-centred interfaces?
A comparative study on the pandemic and education in Germany
Just recently CODIP has research the meaning of the first phase of the pandemic for K12 education in Germany in a comparative study. The pandemic-related school closures in spring 2020 prompted extensive media coverage and numerous scientific studies. Some of these studies focused on school teachers’ perceptions of distance learning and were published in February, April and May 2020. Five studies were subjected to a comprehensive meta-analysis on the use of digital media during the pandemic-related school closures. The meta-analysis focused on three key areas which are presented, summarized, and compared. This meta-analysis provides a comprehensive portrait of how the challenging first lockdown impacted on teachers, students, and parents alike. It reveals how digital media are used, as well as the development trends in education in Germany. It highlights the need for action on the part of politicians, school administrators, school boards, and school managements. It provides a basis for subsequent studies; the meta-study offers a template, for example, for studying the period after the lockdown in summer 2020, the renewed school closures in winter 2020/21, or after the future return to regular schooling.
An open access version of the research report may be found via: https://doi.org/10.25368/2021.66
