New cooperation: Assistance and participation at the Niersenberg primary school

As part of the TransRegINT project, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences is working on bringing innovative assistance systems to life in virtual worlds. Under the leadership of Prof Dr Christian Ressel, the Digital Showroom team is developing various systems designed to support people in different life situations. The aim is to enable greater participation through technological assistance.

The centerpiece of the project: STREEN

A central component of the current cooperation with the Niersenberg primary school is the further development of the ‘STREEN’ (Story Reading Environmental Enrichments) app. This app is designed to support holistic reading promotion and offers functions such as reading aloud, a dictionary and a recording function. Special attention is paid to the ‘illusmaker’ function, which allows children to playfully accompany what they are reading with digital effects such as light and sounds. The app also includes an educational programme for teachers and special training sessions. The aim is to use technological support to make reading easier for children and to get them excited about it.

Partnership with the Niersenberg primary school

The Niersenberg primary school understands itself as a living, learning and experience space in which all children and teachers learn with and from each other in a good atmosphere and in a supportive environment. The goals of the ‘Digital Showroom’ project fit perfectly with the school’s development goals, which include promoting reading and digitalisation. Headteacher Heike Vellar is positive about the project: ‘We hope that this project will help pupils to enjoy reading more and engage more with books.’

Visiting the school

IAs part of the cooperation between Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences and the Niersenberg primary school, several meetings of the “erweitertes Lesen Entdecker AG“ have already taken place, in which the children work with the STREEN app. Around 15 children take part in a typical session. The sixth meeting had a special focus: collecting feedback from the children in order to further develop and adapt the app. This dedicated collaboration notonly promotes the children’s reading skills, but also strengthens their creativity and co-determination in the design of modern learning tools.

Prospect

The ‘Digital Showroom: Assistance and Participation’ project impressively demonstrates how innovative technologies and pedagogical approaches can be combined to promote children’s reading skills and motivation. The collaboration between Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences and Niersenberg Primary School is a promising example of interdisciplinary and regional cooperation that promotes both technological innovation and social participation. We are excited to see what else this collaboration has in store for us in the future. Stay tuned!

Are you interested? You can contact the team here.