The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how important digitalisation and digital learning are in education. While in 2019 only 8 per cent of all 10- to 15-year-olds used digital learning platforms and portals, only one year later the figure had jumped to 59 per cent, the Federal Statistical Office reported at the end of last year. The numbers have thus increased by a factor of more than 7. For the over-16-year-olds the percentage of young people using digital learning platforms rose from 25 to 72 per cent. Good examples for digital education are thus in more demand than ever before.

Chancellor Angela Merkel will be hosting an online dialogue on digital learning on Tuesday 27 April. This will give teachers, innovators and influencers an opportunity to share innovative ideas and positive practical experience with digital learning. It is part of the Digital Education Initiative.

You can follow the dialogue live here on www.bundesregierung.de on Tuesday, 27 April, starting at 17:30 CEST (in German only).

Examples of best practices and long-term prospects

The planned online dialogue is to focus in particular on examples of best practices, especially innovative ways of addressing the challenges posed by the pandemic. At the same time, long-term prospects are to be identified for digital education that go beyond the pandemic. The question of how to successfully establish innovative ideas will be pivotal. 

Participants will include influencers and innovators who will present successful examples and new formats in the field of digital education. Some of them are teachers who are actively involved in forums like the Twitter staff room or who use YouTube to share learning videos. But there will also be actors who have developed innovative online services alongside schoolwork.

Education experts will also be attending, as will Federal Minister of Education Anja Karliczek and Minister of State for Digitalisation Dorothee Bär on the government side.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal Minister of Education Anja Karliczek together launched the Digital Education Initiative on 22 February 2021. It aims to further improve learning with digital materials and build knowledge about the most important fields of digitalisation – for people of all ages and with every level of previous education. Every generation should be able to navigate the digital world with confidence.