Preparing for a digitalized working world

12/22/2022
Reading time 3 min.

From the factory to the hospital ward – digital skills are playing an increasing role in almost every profession. In the TUM-DigiLLab digital education laboratory, pre-service teachers gain a realistic sense of how the digital transformation will look in everyday life and the workplace. This will help them to prepare high school students and students in vocational education and training for an increasingly digitalized world.

Pre-service teacher Lisa Teichmann controls a fully digitized production system via the touchscreen. — Pre-service teacher Lisa Teichmann uses a touchscreen to control a fully digitalized production facility. The Industry 4.0 scenario is part of the TUM-DigiLLab teaching and learning lab.

Pre-service teacherLisa Teichmann stands at the control panel, tracking manufacturing orders on the dashboard. As she keeps an eye on the defect quota and assesses production times, her fellow students are putting together remote control cars at the assembly stations. In principle, a production facility like this one could be in a real factory. But it is set up in the Industry 4.0 space of TUM-DigiLLab – a teaching facility at the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology where students can experience the digital transformation as it will look in everyday life, the career world and the classroom. Assembling the toy racers is just one example of how students preparing for careers as vocational and high school teachers can simulate fully digitalized and adaptive production processes. “With two 3D printers, we can even take customized orders from our fictitious customers,” says Lisa Teichmann.

Realistic scenarios from the career world

Along with the Industry 4.0 production facility, the TUM-DigiLLab contains a Smart Home, a digitalized hospital room and the Baker Space. They cover specific scenarios in the career world, but are also interconnected. “In these authentic surroundings, students experience the digital transformation in the occupational areas where they will teach in vocational schools,” says lecturer Amelie Hiemer. “They work together, actively explore problems and engage in practice-centered learning.” Studies show that digital learning and teaching labs increase students’ motivation and interest in the material. This boosts creativity, critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Woman operates digitized production processes via screen. — The display shows the next assembly steps. Through this experience with digitalized production processes, the pre-service teachers will acquire skills for teaching and working with students in vocational education and training.

Woman talks to students. — In the TUM-DigiLLab digital classroom, the effects of new technologies on learning and teaching are investigated. It is equipped with tablets, smartphones, VR and AR glasses and smartboards.

Teaching in the digital classroom

That applies not only to vocational education. Pre-service teachers preparing for careers in secondary schools also use the digital laboratory and the related programs. These include a mobile learning lab – a digital classroom equipped with tablets, smartphones, VR and AR glasses and smartboards. Here new digital teaching and learning concepts are developed for use both in high schools and vocational schools. With video equipment, lecturers and students can review classroom practice as often as they wish for reflection and analysis. Here TUM researchers also collect data to study learning behaviors. The results are used in teacher training curricula and in continuing education seminars.

Digitalization is fundamentally transforming the way we teach and learn. This includes personalized education, which refers to individual learning objectives and tailor-made learning progress, as well as new learning experiences through the use of augmented and virtual reality. The new TUM Center for Educational Technologies (TUM EdTech Center) will combine the many ed-tech activities at TUM, including the TUM-DigiLLab. It will develop, test and optimize new approaches to teaching and learning through educational technologies and will also support start-ups in this area.

Further information and links

The TUM-DigiLLab teaching and learning lab enables students to experience the digitalized career world in four prototypical scenarios – digitalized production, Smart Home, Healthcare 4.0 and Baker Space. Rounded off with a digitalized classroom, this infrastructure can be used for research and training purposes. The lab, which is part of the TUM School of Science and Technology, is headed by Prof. Claudia Nerdel, Prof. Maria Bannert and Prof. Eveline Wittmann. The goal of the Knowledge Hub of the TUM DigiLLab is to provide Open Educational Resources (OER) on the topic of Artificial Intelligence.
Digitalization is fundamentally transforming the way we teach and learn. This includes personalized education, which refers to individual learning objectives and tailor-made learning progress, as well as new learning experiences through the use of augmented and virtual reality. The new TUM Center for Educational Technologies (TUM EdTech Center) will combine the many ed-tech activities at TUM, including the TUM-DigiLLab. It will develop, test and optimize new approaches to teaching and learning through educational technologies and will also support start-ups in this area.

The whole issue 4/2022 of the magazine TUMcampus with more stories from our university can be downloaded here (PDF in German).