DS - Digitale Spielgaben

The research project “Digitale Spielgaben” (“Digital Play Gifts”) represents the attempt to sustainably consolidate the idea of Digital Humanism (DH) both in research and in the field of knowledge and art transfer, as well as in artistic education. Funded by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) and in collaboration with the Wiener Bildungsserver as well as international cooperation partners (HTW Berlin), Digital Play Gifts are to be developed as a “vision for new educational content” (Wiener Manifest für Digitalen Humanismus) and anchored at the University of Applied Arts Vienna using a strategic roadmap. In the sense of the digital humanist approach, Digital Play Gifts can be understood as “literacy on informatic play material” (Pias 2004). With them, children, especially in elementary and primary education, should learn what digitality is by incorporating knowledge about technological processes into the game itself. This challenges the common assumption that computer knowledge can only be generated or learned with the help of electronic devices – and their attention-grabbing screens. As a research and educational institution that plays a central role in Austria, not least in the field of art education, we are addressing the forward-looking question: How can digitality be learned in early childhood without increasing screen time?