lernen:digital – Competence Network for a Digital Transformation of Schools and Teacher Training

The competence network "lernen:digital" (“digital learning”) organises 24 project networks nationwide, which set up teacher trainings, teaching material and school development concepts for digitally supported teaching. Materials will be made accessible as Open Educational Resources.

The competence network "lernen:digital" serves to create ca. 200 research and development networks that are run across the nation, as well as organising evidence-informed teacher trainings and materials and school development concepts for digitally supported instruction. Expertise is provided by four competence centres (KomZen) in the areas of STEM, language/society/economy, music/fine arts/sports and school development. The development process integrates practitioners and state institutes for teacher training who will enter a dialogue with scientists. A transfer unit will make outcomes visible to teachers, it will promote a co-constructive development alongside practitioners and support a nationwide transfer to teacher training.

Participating Platforms

The Information Centre for Education at DIPF will set up an information and communication portal (transfer platform), which particularly targets teachers. Innovative and practice-oriented formats (e.g. podcasts) will present competence network outcomes and information about activities and events. The platform will also refer to the products developed by the KomZen (digital instruction material, digitally focused teacher trainings and development concepts). Digitally focused training modules and concepts will be presented on the platform ComPleTT – a platform for teacher training jointly developed by the federal states. Trainings offered by state institutes respectively universities will be available for download for further use. Digital teaching materials will be offered at MUNDO/SODIX. Project partners will be offered metadata so that products can be found easily. By integrating ComPleTT and MUNDO/SODIX and thus existing systems, a sustainable solution is ensured beyond the duration of the project.

Thematic Dossiers on the German Education Server

Thematic dossiers will be prepared for the German Education Server, a web guide, oriented towards teaching practice and offering immediate links for the target group. The dossiers will give an overview of materials offered by the network and contributions to digitally supported learning that are available online. A technical link of the platform to the German Education Server enables long-term access to important digitally oriented topics. Other contents of the platform and findings from the transfer projects are curated in preparation to ensure a sustainable hosting on the German Education Server.

Systematic Reviews

We will also investigate how methods from Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are used to support the process of creating systematic reviews. A particular role here can be attributed to Large Language models (LLM). A special focus is placed on how LLM can support answers to the question whether a paper can become part of a research synthesis (decision about relevance). This could be important for updates of reviews. In the long term, we intend to study if language models can be helpful for coding.

DIPF assists the "learning:digital" competence network by documenting work procedures and project outcomes in a clear manner, ensuring accessibility to the general public, with a particular emphasis on teachers.


Funding: BMBF

Co-operation: Forum Bildung Digitalisierung e.V., Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), University of Potsdam

Duration: 02/2023 - 06/2026

Status: ongoing

Project team (Subteam at the TBA centre): Daniel Schiffner, Britta Upsing, Dennis Kasch, René Bartsch, Yara Youssef

Contact: Britta Upsing

Further Links: https://lernen.digital/