What makes learning successful?

The latest PISA results show where pupils stand today. Almost at the same time, the new NANO documentary series ‘Next Level School’ poses a different question: what does it take for learning to be successful? In search of answers, presenter Eric Mayer travelled across Germany – and also stopped off at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen.

The potential of immersive technologies

The first episode, ‘A Healthy Mind – How Learning Makes You Happy’, explores motivation and curiosity, our brains, new forms of schooling – and the possibilities offered by digital technologies. At the IWM, the series’ authors explored the question of what role new technologies can play in successful learning. In the Future Innovation Space (FIS), Eric Mayer puts on the VR headset himself. Together with Prof. Dr. Peter Gerjets, head of the Multimodal Interaction lab, he explores the potential that immersive technologies offer for learning – and under what conditions this actually leads to improved learning outcomes.

Does it make a difference whether we simply observe a learning object or interact with it ourselves? And does more technology necessarily lead to better learning? Research at the IWM investigates how digital learning environments need to be designed so that they actually support learning. Eric Mayer tested this out in practice on location for the NANO documentary.