Three questions for “People With An Agenda”

What innovations in Education are you developing, and what motivates you to do so?

Stephan Rether: As part of my innovation projects, I am developing various teaching formats that utilise time-based media. Some of these formats are brought together under the ‘Time-Based Learning’ project. Here, students independently produce teaching and learning films on topics related to their respective fields of study. For example, in a seminar on critical thinking, students created short videos on different types of arguments, which can then be used as learning materials by other students.

This approach is based on an apparent contradiction: whilst time-based media are often geared towards entertainment and diversion in their usual mode of reception, academic learning requires a contemplative engagement with a subject. My projects are based on the assumption that these opposing logics are not only compatible with one another, but that it is precisely in their intertwining that their didactic potential lies.

The central idea is not to view students primarily as recipients of time-based media, but to empower them to produce such media. This shifts their role from consuming media content to actively shaping knowledge.

This idea draws on a central aspect of design research: design processes are not merely the application of abilities, but an independent form of knowledge generation, and as such possess an inherent epistemic dimension. Knowledge is not limited here to reproduction or application, but arises within the design process and is also reflected in it.

The production of an educational film requires a deep understanding of the subject matter in question. After all, only those who have truly grasped the complexity of a subject are able to adapt it for the medium and present it in a way that others can understand. In this way, media literacy and subject knowledge are not viewed in isolation, but rather are interdependent and reinforce one another.

In what way does your innovation help students to become responsible designers of the future?

Stephan Rether: The world we live in today is a media landscape that we must navigate. Just as we need the right equipment to cross bodies of water or mountains, so too in media environments is specific equipment an essential prerequisite for overcoming obstacles and achieving our goals.

My innovation projects enable students to familiarise themselves with this equipment and put it to use. Through working with time-based media, they experience their dual role as both recipients and producers, which is inherent in today’s media landscape. This experience of their dual role fosters an awareness that media content is not neutral, but is shaped, framed and interpreted. In a world that is almost entirely mediatised, this understanding is increasingly becoming a prerequisite for participation in society.

This is a key aspect of responsible design. Those who produce media content themselves develop a keener understanding of issues relating to selection, perspective and narrative, and thus also of issues concerning interpretative authority and the ethical responsibility of media representation.

These abilities are becoming increasingly important, particularly against the backdrop of a media landscape that is increasingly shaped by AI systems. The ability to contextualise and evaluate media-based information, as well as to produce high-quality media content oneself, is a key competence in almost all current and future job profiles. Students are prepared to meet these diverse and complex demands.

How can other lecturers benefit from your innovation?

Stephan Rether: As part of the ‘Time Based Learning’ project, I have developed various workshop formats that can be integrated into existing teaching programmes or used to expand them in a targeted manner. For example, lecturers have the opportunity to incorporate a workshop on the production of teaching and learning films into their own teaching programme in collaboration with me. This format is, in principle, open to all degree programmes and disciplines.

Another workshop format is aimed directly at lecturers. Based on the ‘Teach the Teacher’ principle, I explain how time-based media can be integrated into one’s own teaching in a way that makes pedagogical sense, and how media content can be produced independently in collaboration with students.

In numerous academic disciplines, the use of time-based media has already become established as an extension of traditional research practices. A prominent example is visual anthropology, in which film and video recordings are specifically used to investigate various phenomena. Dissertations and other academic works are also already being produced in this way. I am building on this development and applying it to teaching.

Furthermore, this opens up new assessment formats. The production of educational films can serve as an alternative to traditional knowledge tests,

They take the form of assignments or papers and bring assessment closer to the students’ everyday lives and media experiences.

At the same time, the workshops and examination assignments generate media content that can be used to promote the departments and Hochschule München, with a view to reaching prospective students and drawing their attention to the distinctive features of individual degree programmes. This creates added value for students, lecturers and the university alike.

Your teaching philosophy at HM in three words:

Shaping, responsibility, agency.