Education Drives Digitisation

On an enlarged area, LEARNTEC presents the future of learning

Digitisation continues to accelerate and is causing profound transformations in all areas of life. Fields of activity and job descriptions are changing rapidly. Digital education plays a major role here as a driver of digitisation. Once again from 30 January to 1 February, 2018, LEARNTEC – the leading trade fair for digital education in schools, universities and vocational training – will be a platform for current trends and future developments in digital education. More than 7,500 specialised visitors are expected to attend the three-day fair.

“Learning with digital media is relevant nowadays in all areas of education. Digital education has become a growth market that gives LEARNTEC progressively greater dynamism with each passing year”, says Britta Wirtz, Managing Director of Karlsruher Messe- und Kongress GmbH. “For the first time, LEARNTEC will occupy two halls and thus make available more exhibition area than ever before at the trade fair. I am very pleased about this because we are eager to comprehensively present the full spectrum of offers in this industry.”

At LEARNTEC 2018, more than 280 exhibitors from 13 countries present the latest applications and programmes for learning with IT. Nearly all of the biggest providers of e-learning in Germany will be represented at the upcoming LEARNTEC. Alongside hardware and software, the fair will also present concepts and services: for example, visitors can see learning-management systems (LMS), learning portals, authoring tools, virtual classrooms and learning programmes, as well as solutions for talent management, performance support, online academies and providers of VR and 3D learning worlds.

Enlarged start-up area with its own action stage

LEARNTEC also offers optimal surroundings for the next generation in this industry. Thanks to its strong success in past years, the startup area will be further enlarged at LEARNTEC 2018. A total of more than 20 young businesses will present themselves here. After a successful premiere at last year’s event, the Start-Up Pitch will now take place on its own action stage. The participants will be the companies that are exhibiting in the start-up area. They will compete with one another in various categories: each company will have a few minutes to present its innovative concepts to the audience and the jury, which includes representatives from the areas of start-up, schools, universities and vocational education. The startup pitch is supported by Hightech.Unternehmer.Netzwerk CyberForum and Deutscher Gründerverband.

Lifelong learning in the focal point

Digitisation does not yet play a role in daily life in schools. This is one of the findings of the recent study of Bertelsmann Stiftung of the status of digitised learning in Germany’s secondary schools from the viewpoint of the participants. Although school directors and teachers basically welcome the new technologies, their pedagogically meaningful implementation is impeded by a lack of concepts, continuing education and infrastructure. For the fifth time, LEARNTEC turns its attention to the school of the future, for which it offers the school@LEARNTEC thematic area. In an open learning landscape with the character of a workshop and conceived in cooperation with the Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart and other partners, experts show, for example, how a smartphone can be used as a mobile physics laboratory. The fair’s visitors experience why learning ateliers can free up resources for individualised learning and how teachers can train themselves with (rather than for) medial utilisation. The findings of the Bertelsmann Foundation’s study will also be presented. For the third time, the university@LEARNTEC thematic area will host leading experts in digital university-level teaching, who will give exciting lectures and participate in roundtable discussions which show how the implementation of digital media can succeed in collegiate praxis.

“Education drives digitisation” is the motto of the convention of the 26th LEARNTEC. Among other topics, the convention will explore self-organised and informal learning, VR and 3D learning worlds, digital leadership, modern learning, big data, learning analytics, adaptive learning and performance support. The convention’s participants can experience, for example, how to cope with the speedy increase in the volume of knowledge and information, and how data can be sensibly utilised for learning. Experts show how we learn in the era of Industry 4.0, how digital games function as a learning medium of the 21st century, and how learning contents can be flexibly adapted and individually modified for users, their current situations and tasks. (ps)

Infos: www.learntec.de