DK-DE: “Across borders: digital learning”, Infostand Berlin
The module emerged from initial cross-national dialogues between Danish and German MYRE teachers, as a joint initiative including 2 Danish students and 4 German students, all of them young women.
The module was prepared locally and trans-nationally during the period Jan. – April 2024, resulting in a joint info stand and presentations at Konferenz Bildung Digitalisierung 2024, 24-25 April, as the final highlight.
Info stand - about
MYRE DK-DE provided the framework for a transnational information stand featuring 6 female students, 2 teachers and 2 managers.
These young women, drawing on their education at the business high schools of RBZ Wirtschaft Kiel and Svendborg Vocational High School in Funen, experimented with advanced future technologies. Their learning products included, among other things, robots and avatars.
Visitors to the stand had the opportunity to learn about these technologies directly from the students.
Additionally, the teachers and project management provided information on the teaching module concepts and cross-border cooperation.
Extract from the conference program:
“Das deutsch-dänische Projekt MYRE bildet den inhaltlichen Rahmen für einen transnationalen Infostand mit sechs Schülerinnen und zwei Lehrern. Diese jungen Frauen nutzen ihre Ausbildung an den Wirtschaftsgymnasien des RBZ Kiel, bzw. der Svendborg Berufsgymnasien auf Fünen, um mit fortschrittlichen Zukunftstechnologien zu experimentieren. Ihre Lernprodukte umfassen u. A. Roboter und mit KI qualifizierte Avatare. Besucher des Standes haben die Möglichkeit, sich von den Schülerinnen in diese Technologien einführen zu lassen. Zudem bieten die Lehrer und die Projektleitung Informationen zum Konzept der Lernmodule und zur grenzüberschreitenden Zusammenarbeit.”
Teaching Design
The cross-national teaching module was agreed upon between teachers within Informatics respectively physics, Kiel, and teachers within German respectively Economics, Svendborg. The preparations were undertaken locally and aligned in cross-national virtual dialogues.
The students´ co-influence was crucial and materialized in the students´ cross-national decisions on a joint design and content for the info stand as their joint learning product. In this joint framework, the students presented each their personal learning products:
The learning products of the German students consisted of
– Robots with sensors, created with Lego Mindstorm
– AR-illustrated posters about solar energy
– A fully working 3D-printet water power-plant station
– Interactive animated Power Point presentations for documentation of the students´ productions and learning processes
The learning products of the Danish students consisted of
– AI created avatars for professional communication in new languages
– Roll-ups for vizualiation of the students´ production steps
– Results from “AI-tools for marketing”, such as AI-generated commercials, AI-translated videos
Evaluations were conducted in personal dialogues between the teachers and with the students, including the responses from stand visitors. The following conclusions were drawn.
The stand was a very well-visited activity at the conference with high interest and appreciation from educational managers, researchers, and teachers.
The teaching module was considered having been a success for all involved students and teachers. The students underlined their educational and cultural learnings and benefits. In addition, the module certainly also had challenged the young women, when presenting to professionals and experts in education and technology.
Technical obstacles from the settings of the conference caused some frustrations, but all girls staid couraged and found alternative solutions. Furthermore, the Danish girls had to overcome logistics regarding their travel schedule and simultaneous preparation on an important examination. Despite these circumstances, all of them highlighted great personal value of the activities.
The teachers could proudly confirm the great learning impact on their students and their well-being, as well as personal benefits for themselves. However, improvements could be undertaken. According to their evaluation, the next joint module will contain more shared learning and production processes – genuine co-creation.
Digital production
The students’ digital production had been carried out during local teaching modules in Svendborg and Kiel, respectively.
For the conference stand, the students had carefully selected illustrative learning products. Furthermore, in both countries, they had described their learning processes through retrospective reflections. This enabled them to communicate effectively with the highly professional stand visitors, using the correct technological terminology, explaining digital production processes in detail, and demonstrating their products.
Students from Svendborg: Roll-up with applied tools and described production process.
Students from Kiel: ´Learning journey´ as selv-produced videos
Students from Kiel: AR-illustrated posters about renewable energies
Jan. 2024: Students grade 11, Business High School RBZ Wirtschaft Kiel, explored the world of programming robotics, as a new approach in the subject Informatics.
Feb. 2024: Meanwhile, students from Svendborg Vocational High Schools undertook experiments with AI to qualify their avatars for easing communication processes across the Danish-German country border.
Digital literacy
The students from RBZ and HHX Svendborg formed a temporary community of practice focused on preparing the joint info stand and introducing visitors to their digital production.
Students in both countries learned about each other’s educational systems as well as crucial do’s and don’ts regarding virtual meetings and digital production. In this context, different perspectives on GDPR rules were explored and explained to each other. IN this context, various limitations and approaches to integrating and managing AI in educational practice became a highly relevant topic.
Furthermore, the teachers inspired each other in promoting their students’ competencies. Examples of previous teaching modules and mathematical expertise were shared, including how to use small drones, where to find and how to AI-translate advanced mathematical video explanations.
The critical thinking of both students and teachers was challenged and ultimately strengthened.
Environment
The infostand was designed during cross-national dialogues in web meetings between Danish and German students and teachers. Language barriers had to be overcome, and GDPR-related restrictions had to be considered. Altogether, the cross-border collaboration enhanced the students’ and teachers’ critical thinking and their awareness of both opportunities and challenges.
The concept for the infostand provided added value for local development and future cross-national collaboration.
Both vocational high schools concluded that continued cross-national collaboration in the form of genuine student co-creation would be beneficial. New ideas for joint teaching modules were generated based on the principle of leveraging their complementary core competencies: combining in-depth digital production at RBZ Wirtschaft Kiel with commercial business innovation at Svendborg HHX. Personal student exchanges are planned for 2025 – read more.
Additionally, RBZ Wirtschaft Kiel built on this event with a similar concept for their infostand at Science Days in Kiel on September 27, 2024. This infostand expanded on the presentations by young girls from the Berlin stand and introduced a new feature: programming small drones. Visitors had the opportunity to steer and land these drones, guided by young students. This stand supported younger pupils´ career learning and informed on educational pathways.
Infostand RBZ Wirtschaft Kiel, Science Days: Exploring the landing of a drone. Both young pupils, their parents, and professionals took the opportunity for experimenting with the drones after indstructions by students from RBZ Wirtschaft Kiel, studyline Informatics.
