Prof. Dr. Daniel Hromada
Digital Culture :: Prolegomena to Educatio Digitale 3 :: Didactic Context
Seminar, English, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Thursdays, 10-12 h, weekly, starts 17.10.2019,
Hardenbergstr. 33, Raum 004

Didactics is science of teaching. And teaching is an art. During this seminar, we shall at first try to find out how the art of teaching developed in biological evolution and in human history. We shall also explore diversity of teaching tools, methods and principles which teaching manifests in different cultures. Subsequently, we shall thematize the art of teaching in the context of an ongoing digital transformation: we shall discuss the extent in which digital media and practices transform current education systems, knowledge-transfer processes, relation between the Teacher and the Student etc. At last but not least, usefulness – or uselessness – of non-organic, artificial or cybrid teachers will be brought into foreground and the question "Can machines teach?" will be posed.
Each seminar will be divided into three parts: during first 30 minutes of the course we will discuss short texts. Subsequently the students will be introduced to some major concepts (from "didactics", "University" and "Bildung" to "learning", "Massive Open Online Courses" [MOOCs], "Knowledge Management Systems" [KMS] and "digital Primer") and figures (Socrates, Comenius, Rousseau, Herbart, Humboldt, Steiner, Montessori, Piaget, Brunner, Papert, Negroponte and Salman Khan) accompanied and followed by discussions. Last part of the course will be dedicated to group work whereby students will prepare their "teaching concept" (c.f. "credit requirements").

Literature:
Bruner, Jerome: The Relevance of Education, 1971.
Da Bartolomeo, Fra Paolino: On Education of Children in India, 1796.
Khan, Salman: One World Schoolhouse: Education reimagined, 2012.

Requirements for the ungraded Studium Generale credit: active and regular presence. At the beginning of the semester students will divide themselves into two groups: a digital and a non-digital group. At the end of semester, each group will present their own didactic concept by means of teaching and leading a 45-minute art course. In a sort of "learning by teaching scenario", one group will be the teachers the other will be pupils, subsequently, they will switch. Students will mutually evaluate each other.

Schwerpunkte:
Ausrichtung der Veranstaltung: orientierend, vorwärtsgewandt
Kompetenz/Aktivität der Teilnehmenden: reflektieren/denken, aneignen

Daniel Devatman Hromada is since August 2018 UdK’s Juniorprofessor for Digital Education at Einstein Center Digital Future. Born in 1982 in Bratislava, he holds bachelor degrees in humanities from Charles University (Prague) and in linguistics from University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis; a master’s degree in artificial and natural cognition from Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris). In 2016, a successful defense of his thesis “Evolutionary models of ontogeny of linguistic categories”, entitled Hromada to carry a double doctorate from both Slovak Technical University (cybernetics) as well as University Paris 8 – Lumieres (psychology). Father of two children, he is a founder and first senator of the oldest Slovak digital community kyberia.sk.