Prof. Dr. Sandra Leaton Gray, Foto: privat

Without anticipating that the topic of digitalisation in education would become much more relevant and urgent due to the pandemic, Professor Sandra Leaton Gray and Professor Jutta Mägdefrau, holder of the Chair of Education at the University of Passau, began as early as 2018. At that time, University College London was conducting intensive research into the influence of digitalisation on education and was looking for a university to collaborate with in this area. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) then brought them together with the University of Passau. The professors then investigated how the structural conditions in their region affect school education and specifically talked to young people over the age of 16 about this topic. In doing so, they found a surprising number of similarities between Lower Bavaria and the northeast of England. For example, young people from more affluent areas of both countries were more likely to receive advertising for university courses on their smartphones than those from disadvantaged areas or those that are rather overlooked by local government.

During her current research stay at the PICAIS - Passau International Centre for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Professor Leaton Gray is working with students and teachers from the region to find out what they expect from the future of education and teaching. ‘The pandemic has shown how important technology is in education. However, we are not only asking about technological aspects, but also about political, social and economic aspects and their influence on schooling,’ explains Leaton Gray. To this end, the participants are invited to the DiLab, the Didactic Innovation Lab at the University of Passau, where they develop scenarios about the future in 2040 and describe what a typical school day might look like.

The technique of scenario writing, which Leaton Gray has been using for her studies for twenty years, is established in various disciplines and is also used in business, for example, to reflect on how companies will need to change in the future. ‘By using this technique to reflect on a possible future, we often also gain valuable insight into what people think about the present right now – but may rarely talk about,’ says Leaton Gray. At the DiLab of the University of Passau, an ‘entertaining space is created for the participating students and teachers to reflect on the changing world and at the same time ask themselves what could change for the better and what influence they themselves can have on it’, says Leaton Gray.

Artificial intelligence is also repeatedly discussed as a future prospect. However, AI is not only a hot topic in the field of school education. For some time now, universities have also been faced with the question of how to deal with the new possibilities offered by this technology.