Technical University of Munich’s Center for Educational Technologies starts research for digital education technologies
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) works for stronger research, continuing education and spin-offs relating to education technologies. At the new TUM Center for Educational Technologies interdisciplinary research teams will investigate the effectiveness of digital tools for learning and teaching and will develop new applications. The center will put this into practice using continuing education programs and by supporting start-ups.
Simulating work in an operating room, practicing for the math test with a chatbot, training for corporate management in a virtual reality setting: The possibilities of learning and teaching with digital technologies are extraordinarily large. TUM is now making digital education technologies a new research focus area. The new TUM Center for Educational Technologies unites scientists from the educational sciences, computer sciences, management, medicine and other disciplines.
Which technologies help which learners in which situations? The center will investigate this question in order to enable the effective use of technological aids in teaching. In addition the researchers are developing their own digital tools. One example is PEER, based on large language models like ChatGPT. The AI tutor is capable of analyzing various text forms and suggesting improvements to students, depending on the students’ age and competence level. Another project is concerned with eye tracking, which can be used to assess for example what learners are comprehending and how high their concentration levels are.
Continuing education and support for start-ups
In addition to schools and universities, the TUM Center for Educational Technologies concentrates primarily on medicine and the development of management staff. It will develop for example new varieties of continuing education on the use of Artificial intelligence in schoolroom teaching. Accordingly, the center has been created as a part of the TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning.
Furthermore, the center will facilitate general access to the many tools, platforms and continuing education opportunities already on existence at TUM. For example, the “Toolbox Lehrerbildung” offers multimedia materials for teachers training regarding the STEM subjects, the online portal “Clearing House Unterricht” explains the current state of research on practical questions of schoolroom teaching. Data sciences students can learn on the Artemis platform. The center will also support teams that want to bring the learning technologies developed at TUM to market as start-ups.