Team Archives - EduTec Science

Apr142025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

Zhifan Sun Joins the Team

Team

We happily announce that Zhifan Sun has joined the EduTec team as a PhD candidate. Zhifan will be working in the ML2MT project (From Machine Learning to Machine Teaching – Making Machines AND Humans Smarter). Zhifan has a Master of Science in speech and language processing from the University of Edinburgh. Before joining our team, he collected further academic experience as a research intern at the UKP Lab of the Technical University of Darmstadt. His research interests include Natural Language Processing (NLP), linguistics and applying NLP to educational technology. We look forward to working with you in the years to come. Welcome, Zhifan!

Apr22025 by Daniele Di MitriNo Comments

Daniele Di Mitri Joins German UDS as Professor of Multimodal Learning Technologies

Alumni, Job announcements, Team

As of April 1st, 2025, Daniele Di Mitri has taken on a new position as a Professor in Multimodal Learning Technologies at the German University of Digital Science (German UDS). This newly established private non-profit university, located in Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany, is dedicated to pioneering digital education. In this role, Daniele will be setting up a new research group focused on multimodal learning technologies and coordinating the new master's program in Advanced Digital Realities. German UDS represents an innovative model in higher education, offering fully digital bachelor's, master's and MBA programs. Every course is delivered online, allowing students from anywhere in the world to access a German education through a flexible, MOOC-like structure that supports self-paced learning. This approach aims to redefine higher education by embracing digital transformation, reducing geographical…

Mar282025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

Job Adverts: 5 Student Assistant Openings in CORE Project

Team

In the context of the CORE project we are looking for 5 student assistants to join the EduTec team: 1 student assistant for 10 hours weekly for 6 months with the possibility of extension to help us with the following tasks: Development and testing of hypotheses related to the CORE dataset Datamanagement Support in managing online surveys Applications are possible till May 2nd. For more information, check out the position description on the DIPF website. 4 student assistants for 10 hours weekly for 6 months with the possibility of extension to help us with the following tasks: Development of the existing infrastructure for the CORE project Datamanagement Support in managing online surveys Applications are possible till May 2nd. For more information, check out the position description on the DIPF website.…

Mar242025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

Best Senior Reviewer Award Presented to Hendrik Drachsler

Award, Conference, Team

At the LAK 2025 conference in Dublin, Ireland, Hendrik Drachsler was honored with the Best Senior Reviewer Award. We congratulate Hendrik for this high level of recognition for his outstanding contributions to the scientific peer-reviewing process! The Best Senior Reviewer award is not just a statement of appreciation, it represents a commitment to academic integrity, knowledge exchange and high-quality research. At a time when the peer review process is under increasing pressure, recognizing and valuing reviewers is a crucial step in maintaining the credibility and advance of Learning Analytics as a discipline. Especially in fast-moving fields like Learning Analytics and AI in education there has been a rapid increase of academic publications, which has created a large bottleneck in the peer review process. Many journals and conferences struggle to find…

Mar72025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

A Warm Welcome to Our Guest Researcher Paola Pavone Salafia

Artificial Intelligence, Team

We are pleased to announce that Paola Pavone Salafia, a doctoral researcher from the University of Macerata (UniMC) and the European University of Rome (UER), will be joining us as a guest researcher from 10.03 – 10.06.205. Paola's work focuses on the use of advanced technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), in education to foster inclusive and innovative teaching practices. Her research aligns closely with our ongoing studies on learning disabilities, educational accessibility and teacher agency, particularly in the context of AI-supported teaching methodologies. Paola's research aims to explore how AI can enhance personalized learning for students with special educational needs, as well as investigate the role of AI as a “dual teacher”, which works alongside educators to enrich teaching experiences. Paola will join the HyTea project led by Daniele Di Mitri…

Mar52025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

Saying Farewell to Dana Kube

Team

With one laughing and one crying eye we bis our farewell to Dr. Dana Kube. A crying eye, because after over 6 years of being an integral part of our EduTec team, we must sadly say goodbye. Dana originally started working at DIPF for the German Education Server. We luckily were then able to win her over to our EduTec team to work with us in the AR4STEAM project. Later she contributed with her exceptional project management skills to the IMPACT and ALI projects. Besides her expert collaboration during the various project phases, she supported us with her public relation work at digital conferences and events and her valuable contributions to research transfer initiatives. We will miss not only her meaningful expertise in social science research and educational technologies, but…

Dec192024 by Prof. Dr. Hendrik DrachslerNo Comments

Its a Wonderful (EduTec) Life: Reflecting 2024.

Alumni, Higher Education, School, Team

Near Christmas time, many people traditionally watch the movie classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” about a man named George, who loses his courage to face life on Christmas night due to a series of difficulties and ends up being saved by an angel who shows him how life would be for the people around him if he had never been born. Poor George has let himself get so caught up in the troubles of everyday life that he has lost sight of all the positive things that he has achieved and the impact he has on those around him. This movie reminds us that we are like George sometimes: we tend to focus on the negative things in daily life and sometimes lose our view of the bigger picture and…

Sep192024 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

From Office Talks to Lecture Halls: Congratulations and Farewell to Joshua Weidlich

Team

It doesn’t happen often that one can witness a colleague taking an inspiring leap into a new and exciting chapter of their careers. But today, we celebrate just that, as we send our warmest congratulations to our esteemed colleague Dr. Joshua Weidlich as he takes up a tenure track professorship at the University of Zurich and the Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich starting in October. To embark on this new journey, Joshua will be swapping the Frankfurt Skyline for the Swiss mountains. We are excited for him for this change of scenery, but will miss him dearly. Joshua has been part of the EduTec family for 3.5 years – which accounts to roughly 1,278 cups of coffee and probably even more team and project meetings. His incredibly helpful and consistently friendly nature…

Sep92024 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

A Warm Welcome: Our Guest Researcher Víctor Alonso-Prieto Begins His Visit

Team

We are very excited to welcome Víctor Alonso-Prieto, who has just joined the EduTec team as a visiting researcher from the University of Valladolid, Spain. His three-month research visit from 10.09 till 15.12.2024 promises to inspire new collaborations and bring fresh insights into the field of educational technologies. His research stay at DIPF will be supervised by Dr. Daniele Di Mitri and he will work together with members of the HyTea project as well as other researchers from the EduTec and EduCS team. We look forward to this time of research and exchange! Here is a short introduction of our visitor Víctor: Current PhD project Víctor is currently pursuing a PhD in Transdisciplinary Research in Education. Víctor’s PhD project, which is co-supervised by Dr. Sara Lorena Villagrá-Sobrino and Dr. Yannis…

May62024 by Sebastian WollnyNo Comments

Dr. Daniel Schiffner Receives the First Edutec Award

Award, Team

The newly created Edutec Prize was awarded to Dr. Daniel Schiffner, a leading supporter of the Edutec team. He has shown exceptional commitment to keeping the educational technologies up and running and restoring the systems after the cyber attack. [caption id="attachment_6284" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Hendrik Drachsler and the Edutec team congratulate Dr. Daniel Schiffner on this achievement.[/caption] A Trailblazer in Education Technology Dr. Daniel Schiffner serves as the Arbeitsbereichsleiter (Head of Department) for Bildungsinformatik (Educational Informatics) at the DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education. His work focuses on leveraging technology to enhance teaching and learning processes. Dr. Schiffner’s expertise lies at the intersection of education, data science, and digital tools. Together with his team, he enables educational researchers to make use of state of the art technologies.…