DiPA-KOM
The project "Digitalisation of Educational Work Processes: Securing a Skilled Workforce through Digital Competence and Participation" (DiPA-KOM) aims to investigate the potential for digitalisation in the early years of the education system – particularly at the transition points from nursery to school – and to translate this into sustainable structures. The aim of the project is to investigate methods for improving transitions in STEM education between nursery and school.
Background information on the topic
In line with OVGU’s strategy, our project adopts a research- and application-oriented approach to the further development of teaching, the development of part-time study and continuing professional development programmes, and the implementation of evidence-based digitalisation and participation concepts for practical application; it will cooperate closely with the relevant stakeholders at OVGU, particularly in the STEM field. These areas must be integrated into the field of early years and primary education, both through research and through the transfer of knowledge into practice, in order to systematically support existing expertise for the strategic management and substantive design of the digital transformation through initial and continuing education in this educational sector in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, which is characterised by a severe shortage of skilled workers. The focus of the research and networking is on the pathways towards developing a strategically interlinked digital infrastructure within the education system of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Project objectives
At its core, the project is dedicated to securing a skilled workforce through digital competence in early years and primary education settings, including childcare facilities.
Research-based digital tools are being developed and evaluated to facilitate transition-related digital process and organisational innovations in the cooperation and communication between different educational institutions and sectors
- individually (with regard to the child and the family, e.g. through the development of tools for participatory, transition-related educational documentation),
- at a group level (relating to groups or school classes),
- at the institutional level (relating to nurseries or schools) and
- across institutions (e.g. through IT-supported forms of cooperation and transition practices in the field of STEM education).
What is considered new and innovative here is the integration of early years education with subsequent stages of STEM education. There is a need here for the initial and continuing professional development of specialists, which contributes significantly to securing and recruiting skilled staff and ensures the long-term participation of children and families in these educational sectors. The aim is to contribute to a progressive educational approach to digitalisation that is future-proof and, in terms of transitions, is coordinated in such a way that, on the one hand, it innovatively maps out digital work processes and, on the other, conceptually integrates STEM topics into educational institutions from the early years onwards.
Key areas of work
A total of 36 months has been allocated to the research project, with the following key areas of work:
- AI methods to support pedagogical work processes (e.g. development of digital tools using interactive and haptic (communication) systems; use of sensor technology and robotics)
- Establishment of a digital infrastructure to raise awareness of digitalisation
- Exploring children’s living environments and the ways in which they engage with digital media (e.g. for the design of digital learning and research spaces)
- Concepts for the (re)design of initial and continuing professional development in the use of digital tools to ensure a skilled workforce
- Evaluation and dissemination of new technologies and concepts
Project activities:
Our network
Klein-Wanzleben Learning Village
‘SchuleKitaUni’ educational initiative
Magdeburg City Council (Education Management, Coordination of Child and Youth Participation, MagdeMINT)
Day-care centre operators (Independent Living Foundation, Evangelical Youth Welfare Foundation, Magdeburg Evangelical Church District, Kita-Gesellschaft Magdeburg mbH, Mandala Childcare Magdeburg)
State Education Authority, after-school care centres, primary and secondary schools in Magdeburg and the surrounding area
Symposia
Elif Güzel, Andreas Printky, Kerstin Eschwege: Children as ‘users’ in the digital world – discovering new, interdisciplinary research approaches (17 September 2025: Conference ‘Research Approaches and Methods in Transformative Times’ organised by the Empirical Research Working Group of the Commission on Early Childhood Education of the German Society for Educational Science in Alfter)
Elif Güzel, Andreas Printky, Kerstin Eschwege: Digital participation and digital agency – children’s perspectives as a starting point for educational research in early years education (17 September 2026 Conference ‘Participatory Research between Inclusion, Power and AI’ organised by the ‘Communities in New Media’ conference series, University of Dresden)
Andreas Printky: ‘The KinderLAB at FIN – Theoretical Concept and Implementation of an Epistemic, Interdisciplinary Research and Meeting Place for Children, Parents, Professionals, Students and Researchers’ Poster presentation on the topic of ‘laboratories’ in the humanities, social sciences and educational sciences. Epistemic frameworks, methodological perspectives, methodological tools and empirical analyses in research, development and teaching (26 November 2026)
Workshops and professional development sessions with practical applications
June 2026: Training for childcare professionals on the ‘Scratch’ programming language at the ‘Am Kannenstieg’ after-school care centre
Publications
Current publications
- Elif Güzel, Andreas Printky, Kerstin Eschwege (to be published in 2026): Digital participation and digital literacy – children’s perspectives as a starting point for educational research in early years education. In: Proceedings of the ‘Communities in New Media 2026’ conference on the theme ‘Participatory Research between Inclusion, Power and AI’, Dresden.
- Elif Güzel, Andreas Printky, Kerstin Eschwege (forthcoming 2027): Children’s Resonance Research – Reflexive Transformation in Research with Children. Proceedings of the conference ‘Research Approaches and Methods in Transformative Times’ organised by the Empirical Research Working Group of the Commission on Early Childhood Education of the German Society for Educational Science (2025)
From the predecessor project ‘Digital Support for Participatory Pedagogical Work Processes in Institutions for the Education, Upbringing and Care of Children and Young People’ (KiJuAssistenz); BMBF (FKZ 02L18B541); 2020–2023:
- Kerstin Eschwege, Andreas Nürnberger (2025): Pedagogical shaping of children’s upbringing in institutional childcare from the perspective of digital participation, In: Shaping Children’s Upbringing. Jens Kaiser-Kratzmann, Lars Burghardt, Andrea G. Eckhardt, Katrin Lattner, Susanne Viernickel (eds), pp. 147–163, Beltz Juventa, Weinheim. https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/100517
- Mirko Steckel, Roman Auchter, Christoph Bernig, Kerstin Eschwege, Lisa Lorenz, Andreas Nürnberger, Marcus Thiel (2023). Digitalisation in child and youth welfare. In: Nitsch, V., Brandl, C., Häußling, R., Roth, P., Gries, T., Schmenk, B. (eds) Digitalisation of the Working World in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 3. Springer Vieweg, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-67024-8_11
Project Lead
Project Leader: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Nürnberger andreas.nuernberger@ovgu.de
Principal Investigator (Education): Prof. Dr Kerstin Eschwege kerstin.eschwege@ovgu.de
Funding
The project is funded by the European Union through the ‘Saxony-Anhalt SCIENCE Research and Innovation’ programme.
