May 2020: Science Minister Sibler opens DigiLLab

At the opening of the DigiLLab by Science Minister Bernd Sibler, the guests were given an overview of the concept and activities of the competence centre and a tour including hands-on stations in the InnovativeLearningLab, one of the four digital teaching-learning laboratories. Sibler emphasised: "The digital school already starts with teacher training at our universities. Facilities such as the DigiLLab in Bayreuth make it possible to prepare future teachers for future tasks in school in a targeted, comprehensive and up-to-date manner. In the digital school, too, they are and remain important companions, advisors and supporters for our children. After all, a decisive task of today's teachers is to sensitise pupils to the opportunities and challenges of the Internet and to give them orientation in the digital world.

The new digital teaching-learning labs of the DigiLLab...

are an important measure for the promotion of media-related competences of future teachers, because they have to be better in handling digital media than their future pupils. Therefore, the training of student teachers includes the handling of interactive blackboards, tablets and notebooks, of learning software and e-learning platforms as well as background knowledge about media and their responsible use. In the DigiLLab at the University of Bayreuth, prospective teachers are not 'working with new media', but 'working with media in a new way', i.e. trained to become media professionals who can use digital media with added value.

The InnovativeLearningLab offers seminars on learning and teaching with and about digital media for student teachers of all subjects.

The InnovativeLearningLab as the heart of the Bayreuth DigiLLab

The respective requirements of the individual disciplines are reflected in the laboratory's innovative and diverse equipment: On the one hand, flexible furniture allows for numerous forms of action and social activities. In addition, different projection options (e.g. interactive flat panels, full-surface wall projection) are available for different sources (e.g. tablets, smartphones). Furthermore, the InnovativeLearningLab is equipped with a wide range of current and future-oriented technologies, such as apps from the field of augmented reality, 360-degree cameras for the individual design of virtual reality applications or GPS trackers for terrain recording.

Region benefits from the Bayreuth 'classroom of the future

By focusing on the needs of teaching and learning with and through digital media, the InnovativeLearningLab can provide impulses and inspiration for schools in the region as the 'classroom of the future'. On the one hand, interdisciplinary and subject-specific further training events are offered for teachers and trainee teachers, and on the other hand, students and teachers can benefit from the technical equipment of the laboratory within the framework of supervised opening hours for the preparation and conception of teaching experiments, courses or (school) internships.