Frederic Salmen presented his dissertation project WebWriter with several contributions at the conferences “Workshop Bildungstechnologien” (DELFI) and the European Conference for Technology-Enhanced Learning (ECTEL). This was accompanied by a short research stay at the Technical University of Vienna.
The practical contribution FAIR Learning Technologies with Web Components and Packages presented at DELFI introduces a concept that allows learning technology prototypes to be designed according to scientific standards, making them findable, accessible, interoperable, and reproducible. In collaboration with the learning technology community, a flowchart has been created that can be applied in the development process.
The demo contribution Web-based prototype of a visual and interactive deep learning simulation, also presented at DELFI, introduces a so-called widget, an interactive element that can be integrated into learning applications such as WebWriter. The content focuses on simulating neural networks, which has become an even more relevant topic due to rapid advancements in AI. This contribution originated from an outstanding thesis within the WebWriter project. An online demo video (3 min) is available as an impression.
During the research stay at the Technical University of Vienna in the research group Learning Technologies and eDidactics, cooperation opportunities between projects were discussed. For example, a potential use of WebWriter for materials in the student laboratory eduLAB was considered.
At the international educational technology conference ECTEL in Krems an der Donau, Austria, the overall project WebWriter: Authoring and Remixing Explorables was finally presented as a demo. The presentation showcased WebWriter’s practice-oriented approach, which allows teachers to create interactive learning content for tomorrow’s education using a simple web application—completely without programming! Conference participants from around the world engaged in direct exchange during the open demo session.
The dialogues with individual research communities brought new ideas for the project and also possibilities for collaborations that will be explored in the future.