From June 25-30, 2023, a delegation from HBdV participated in the multinational teaching-learning training “Service-Learning and Digital Empowerment. How can we make it work?” in Zagreb. Julia Derkau (University of Mannheim) and Jörg Miller (University of Duisburg-Essen) from the board of the university network traveled along. The group from Germany was completed by Julia Nitsche (University of Witten/Herdecke), Oscar Yendell (also University of Mannheim) and Philipp Senft (Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences).
The five-day event took place at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zagreb. It kicked off with the keynote address “Intergenerational Digital Service-Learning,” which was followed by a session on “Patterns of success in Service-Learning & Digitization” led by Jörg Miller. The first day ended with “Challenges of Inclusive Design in Teaching & Learning”, where participants were able to try out a newly developed online self-study course for the first time – this will be made available to all interested parties at a later date. During the next days, interactive workshops and a Worldcafe on the topics “Designing Service-Learning with Technology and Storytelling”, “E-Service Learning Course Design” and “Creative Methods for Reflection and Evaluation in Online Settings” were on the agenda.
Practical insights into Croatian service learning were provided by a visit to a local cooperation partner who runs STEM programs for children, young people and school classes. On the last day, there were sessions on “Digital Empowerment through Service-Learning” and “Ethical reflection on e-service-learning, digital education (and artificial intelligence)” as well as a concluding keynote on “The Digital Teacher’s Checklist”.
The service learning training is part of the Erasmus+ project SLIDE (Service-Learning as a pedagogy to promote Inclusion, Diversity and Digital Empowerment), which is supported by the HBdV and one Dutch, one Austrian, one Italian, one Croatian, one Slovakian, one Romanian and one Spanish university. The focus of the various activities is on the transformation to digital education and the use of corresponding technologies.
Further information on the SLIDE project
