A commentary by Raphael Pohland

A meme caught my eye on a popular social media channel. I admit, it was very lurid. The approximate wording was, "Why do kids have to know all the subjects in school when there isn't even a teacher for all the subjects?" The subsequent comment sections overflowed with indignation and justifications on the part of education personnel. For me also partly justified.

But what got me thinking was the basic statement or problem behind it. Each subfield is so ramified by the wealth of knowledge and the complexity that has grown that, in addition to the penetration of the subject, the required "parallel universe" of didactics and pedagogy is also needed in the classroom in order to convey this knowledge, at least in its basic form, in everyday school life. While, in simplified terms, pedagogy deals with the theory and practice of imparting knowledge, didactics is the art of learning and teaching. Didactics, by definition, is a central component of pedagogy.

There is a broad social consensus that the digital age has arrived in education and that the future path to knowledge transfer is digital. Accordingly, pedagogy and didactics, the building blocks of "knowledge transfer," will have to expand even more by one important component: "Digidactics".

"Digidactics" could be defined like this: It is the implementation of digital learning processes and the user knowledge of digital technology with existing didactic knowledge.

I admit, at the moment the evolution of technology is not yet as self-explanatory as simply opening a book, learning to turn on overhead projectors, or rolling up maps. But the path to a self-evident use of digital end devices and management in the classroom is indispensable. Especially since the acceptance rates of digital equipment are increasing every year on the part of parents, students and also teachers.

In addition to traditional didactics, successful implementation and establishment of "digital didactics" requires strategies for imparting knowledge via digital vehicles and a basic understanding of technical possibilities. However, teachers should not be required to have an IT degree in order to teach digital lessons. Instead, teachers should be taught the topic of digitization as simply and comprehensibly as possible during their training..

Digital user knowledge means first and foremost that the barriers to use must be reduced as far as possible or at least greatly lowered. Here, the manufacturers of tools, apps and software-based applications in particular are called upon to develop democratic solutions. Digitization will only work if the focus is on the application and no in-depth expert knowledge is required.

A paradigm shift in communication, application scenarios and user-friendliness is needed. Steve Jobs proved that this has already worked in the past when he made the personal computer accessible to a wide audience with Apple. However, this does not mean that the school system should mutate into an "iPad-agogy" where individual manufacturers could establish an educational dominance and abuse their market power. This is where the legislator is called upon – and already active through complex GDPR regulations.

A key point in determining whether digitization in education will be successfully implemented in everyday life will be whether the mediators in the long-standing sender-receiver principle of knowledge transfer – the teachers – are taken by the hand. It is true that the acquisition of digital devices and software and the installation of a "digitally friendly" environment, such as stable WiFi, are essential for a digitization strategy. But without teachers' commitment to technology, even the most innovative devices and apps are of little use.