WDR’s Doku & Digital editorial team, represented by editor Klaus Geiger, is thrilled about this recognition. “Our aspiration was to design digital school lessons on climate change in an entirely new way: innovative in form, immersive in experience and participatory in content development,” Geiges states. Obviously, this approach was appreciated not only by experts, but also by the Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft.
The climate app uses augmented reality to allow students to experience regional climate events, such as the catastrophic flooding of the Ahrtal or the forest fires in Gummersbach, in their real classrooms via tablet or smartphone. Using the app, they can interactively and playfully reflect on their own role in climate change. To factor in the student’s requirements during the app development, the WDR team and the interdisciplinary MIREVI programmers and visual designers from the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf worked closely with a school class from Cologne.
The Deutsche Digital Award, presented annually by the Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft (BVDW) e.V. in Berlin, honors outstanding achievements in the digital economy from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The climate app was therefore recognized as a pioneering guide to digital education.
This award emphathizes the relevance of digital solutions to the school curriculum and the importance of supporting teachers in creating engaging educational content. The WDR climate app allows to raise awareness of regional climate events and to actively involve students. It is an excellent example of how technology can be used to communicate the topics of climate change and climate protection.
We congratulate the entire team at WDR, the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf and the participating school class for this well-deserved success. This achievement is a milestone in the search for a more sustainable future and encourages us all to continue looking for digital approaches and solutions that can further promote and advance climate protection.