Mission statement
Digital media nowadays take on an increasingly important role in everyday life. Computers, the internet, and mobile devices have all become constitutive requisites of work processes and recreational activities. However, also for in-class and extracurricular learning, media devices are becoming more and more important. The appropriate handling of a growing stock of available digital tools calls for a certain degree of media literacy.
The Knowledge Media Research Center contributes to highlighting potentials and constraints of digital media for the acquisition, exchange and communication of knowledge. By cooperating with educational institutions such as schools, universities as well as museums, the KMRC identifies critical elements of media usage and co-develops resolution methods. The KMRC shows competence both in evidence-based educational research as well as in the development of learning environments.
The KMRC's research makes a strong contribution to meeting current challenges in the educational sector. For the higher education sector, such a task for instance is to implement the guidelines of the Bologna-process. Developed on the European level, these criteria for measuring quality can only be fulfilled if the potential of digital media for teaching and administrative procedures is entirely made use of. Besides, the advancement of mechanization at the workplace poses new challenges. Through close cooperation with educational institutions we must develop new approaches to support lifelong learning. Especially for informal and collaborative (group based) learning, digital media are devices with a large scope of possibilities.
The institute's multidisciplinary approach guarantees that different perspectives and methods are introduced into the research activities. In the field of cognitive and educational science, human behavioral sciences and social sciences, the KMRC has achieved a good reputation within the international community. It is our aim to further strengthen our role as a professional partner for research and industry. For us, transferring research outcomes into politics and the public also means to assume social responsibility.
High scientific quality must be institutionalized to be lasting. With the Leibniz Graduate School for Knowledge Media Research at our institution we make a strong contribution to this standard. It is an important step for structurizing PhD education and to ensure innovation in the long run. Moreover, headhunting for the brightest minds the KMRC considers it its duty to ensure reconciliation of work and family life. Reconciling vocational ambitions and family is for many scientists an increasingly important factor in career-related decisions. The KMRC takes reconciliation of work and family life into account at each executive level.