just_digital
The just_digital project (funded by the BMFTR) aims to analyze and develop quality criteria for the digitization of daycare centers, particularly with regard to the digital divide. It analyzes the organizational and pedagogical conditions necessary for successful digitization in daycare centers. The project integrates early childhood education research, media education research, and organizational pedagogy and follows a multi-method research design. In addition, the project examines how children use digital media and how the family environment influences these practices. Based on the analysis results, conditions for success and effects as well as advantages and disadvantages of integrating digital media into early education will be developed. The findings will be processed in such a way that they can be used in educational practice. To this end, a “digital workspace” with e-learning offerings (e.g., webinars) will be created. The aim of this format is to sensitize and train educational professionals on how to reduce digital inequality in early education.
Focus of the study
1. How are structural conditions (e.g., equipment), professional competencies of management and staff (e.g., attitudes and knowledge), and pedagogical processes in interaction with children and families broadly characterized?
2. How are the organizational and pedagogical practices of digitization in daycare centers structured in relation to the various quality dimensions, and what structures of digital inequality are created as a result?
3. How are children's digital interaction and usage practices structured? What milieu-specific orientations can be found in these practices, and to what extent do they create digital inequality?
4. What conditions for success can be derived from the analyzed quality dimensions with regard to digital inequalities for the formulation of quality characteristics of digitization in daycare centers?
The one-page project presentation can be found here.
Project management
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Katharina Kluczniok
Duration
November 1, 2025, 36 months
Project team
Stefanie Pietz (Department Early Childhood Education)
Stefan Neuber (Department Consumer-Organizational Pedagogy)
Sina Kleinitzke (Department German Didactics)
Project partner
FRÖBEL Bildung und Erziehung gemeinnützige GmbH