At the 11th International Summer School on AI and Big Data, Dr. Pia Lucia Diergarten (Friedrich Schiller University Jena) will give a keynote speech on AI and the German Concept of Bildung.

Keynote: AI and the German Concept of Bildung

As part of the BMBF-funded joint project ‘THInKI – Thuringian University Initiative for AI in Higher Education’, TU Ilmenau and the University of Jena are enhancing higher education in the area of teaching and learning with and about AI-supported technologies. The project focuses on the development and establishment of a certificate programme on the subject of AI. The Chair of Historical Pedagogy and Global Education contributes to THInKI in the context of an accompanying educational research project. As part of a qualitative-explorative interview study, the perspectives of all working groups involved in THInKI will be analysed with regard to the cross-project operator of `Bildung`. The German-language term ‘Bildung’ traditionally serves as a genuinely pedagogical term that represents the dimension of a reflective and responsible approach to AI and new technology.

The accompanying research takes a hermeneutic approach: its aim is to gain a fundamental understanding of the plural perspectives of the working groups on the core operator of ‘Bildung’. Methodologically, the accompanying research assumes that the operational knowledge of the interviewees consists of certain ideas about AI, ‘Bildung’ and education that are not necessarily shared, which are implicitly effective in practice and guide the teaching-learning formats as well as the use of digital and AI-supported technologies. This knowledge reflects a certain understanding of education, which is to be reconstructed.

The keynote will explain the context and methodological assumptions of the research project on artificial intelligence in higher education. In addition to presenting the methodological approach and an outlook on the initial results that are emerging, the keynote will also provide space for exchange and discussion following the presentation: How is the amplification of AI in the context of university teaching changing our idea of higher education? And what impact will this have on the development of higher education in the future?

Dr. Pia Lucia Diergarten

PhD 2024 on the topic “‘Bildung’ in digital media worlds. Jean-François Lyotard’s contribution to aesthetic judgment”, Pia Diergarten is currently research assistant at the Institute for Education and Culture at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. In addition to that she coordinates two sub-projects in the BMBF-funded joint project THInKI-Thuringian University Initiative for AI in Higher Education since 2021.

Her work focuses on the philosophy and theory of education, in particular ‘Bildung’. Main research areas are education and social transformation, in particular digital transition and the (associated) transformation of the democratic public sphere