The Dalai Lama already said: “Today’s children are tomorrow’s society.” For 11 million children in Germany, it will soon be “back to school” again. Or it is even the very first day of school, which is eagerly awaited. We have to make sure that they have the best start in life. This also includes dealing with new technologies at an early stage. After all, children grow up in a world that is changing rapidly and is shaped by technical progress. That’s why they should not only consume technologies, but also understand them. Learning how to use it and developing digital skills.
It is good that digitalization is progressing in schools. Digitally supported teaching, combined with modern technologies and comprehensive teacher training, aims to modernize schools while fostering student development and preparing them for future professional challenges. But there are still numerous challenges to overcome. The current International Computer and Information Literacy (ICILS) study on the state of digitization shows: “The framework conditions for digital teaching have improved significantly in Germany – but digital skills have not.”
It is more important than ever to support students, but also teachers! That’s why we, as Deutsche Telekom and T-Systems, are committed to digital education. We help children to use smartphones, social media and Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT & Co competently and responsibly and support them in optimizing school processes.
We are all seeing how AI is increasingly shaping our everyday and professional lives – and will have an even greater impact on both in the future. This makes it all the more important for children to learn at an early age to use AI competently and responsibly.
That’s why AI also belongs in schools: Together with DeutschlandGPT, we are bringing the BildungsLLM language model into German classrooms – for sustainable education. This Large Language Model (LLM) was developed specifically for school use and is based on an open source language model. It is operated in the highly secure data centers of our T Cloud. Data processing takes place exclusively in Germany, fully GDPR-compliant and without storing personal information.
In this way, we are creating a trustworthy basis for digital education – independent, legally secure and transparent. The BildungsLLM helps students to achieve learning goals and develop solutions – without telling them the way. Teachers are relieved while a safe and responsible use of AI is promoted.
Or take our cooperation with the textbook publisher Cornelsen: The Berlin textbook publisher offers 17,000 titles from around 40 disciplines. And every year, 1,500 new textbooks are published. However, Cornelsen is also making more and more educational content available digitally, via the Internet or via app. For example, the Cornelsen.ai, an AI toolbox that helps teachers to organize themselves, creates material, plans lesson sequences and provides feedback.
At T-Systems, we offer the platform for the Large Language Model – and thus a suitable combination for the sovereign development and operation of the AI toolbox. We provide a private and secure development, test and production environment that meets the strictest requirements for data security and data protection. AI models and services are already preconfigured, ready for immediate use, and thus provide the basis for scaling AI solutions. We thus offer reliable performance, even with increasing loads, and easy and secure access. Thanks to our platform, Cornelsen Verlag has quickly established its solution and is one of the first publishers to offer such a service.
At the Smart Country Convention in Berlin at the end of September, we will also be presenting our “Classroom as a Service” solution. In the future, we will offer cloud and cybersecurity services, application management and other services. This service is intended to educate students – with expert support – on topics such as cybersecurity, password security and fake news.
By the way, we also use our AI know-how to make the way to school safer for children. In Landshut, a town in Germany, we started the Safe2School project. With the help of AI, sensors, cameras and 5G, we bring students safely to school. To do this, our team installs dynamic traffic signs that control traffic in real time and slow it down as soon as larger groups of children move on the way to school. We have already successfully tested this AI solution at a primary and secondary school in Landshut. And these are just a few examples of many ways in which we are supporting digitization in schools.
We are all seeing right now how AI is increasingly shaping our everyday and professional lives – and will influence them even more in the future. This makes it all the more important for children to learn at an early age to use AI competently and responsibly.
Dr. Ferri Abolhassan, CEO of T-Systems and Member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom AG
But for us, digital education does not stop at school. We live in the age of the explosion of knowledge. There is more and more knowledge in the world and the amount of information is growing faster than originally thought. This also has an impact on our working world: Finished learning was yesterday! The rapid growth of information makes it necessary to keep up to date – to keep your finger on the pulse. In addition, knowledge becomes obsolete more quickly, especially in technical professions.
New technologies require new knowledge. It takes the willingness to want to learn new things day after day. We find it difficult to do well-rehearsed things differently. Our brain has its routines, if only because a basic need for security lies in human nature. However, curiosity, this constant questioning and improving, makes us unique and has always brought us forward as humanity. Albert Einstein was once asked about his formula for success. His answer was: “I don’t have any special talent, I’m just passionately curious.”
We support lifelong learning and thus also adult education in Germany. States, cities and municipalities in particular are facing new challenges due to digitalisation. Here, for example, we provide support with an online training platform for training administrative staff for the Regional Finance Directorate in the state of Baden-Württemberg, with a learning management system for around 16,000 employees of the Hessian Ministry of Finance or a learning platform for the Lower Saxony district of Schaumburg.
The new discipline has many dimensions and requires courage. In addition to the challenges of everyday work, this is definitely not an easy task. But in my view, there is no alternative. We are role models for our children. Let’s learn from them and with them!
