Queer History in Digital Space and Historical Learning

The more digitalization of society progresses, the more digital aspects of learning and teaching come into focus. Unfortunately, in the case of historical learning in schools, the status quo of analog teaching forms seems to persist. The few attempts at digital historical learning often restrict themselves to simple quizzes or knowledge-based tasks, even if researchers and teachers have repeatedly pointed out the versatile potential of digital space for historical learning processes. Furthermore, we lack studies about digital historical learning processes, as little work has been done in this field.

To tackle this issue, in my project “App into History,” I address digital history learning as a process of historical thinking based on historical narrativity (Arthur Danto and Jörn Rüsen). Cooperation with extracurricular places of learning, primarily archives, is central to this digital educational platform. It allows learners to research on their own while using the potential of digital space, such as cooperation and collaboration, individual and networked learning, differentiation, subject orientation, and learner autonomy. In addition, the digital space makes it easier to bring historical topics and sources that are not part of history textbooks and analog learning materials or curricula into the classroom. “Transnationally Queer,” a new app module, benefits from all these features. The module enables students to develop historical questions about transnationally queer biographies and investigate them using multi-perspective historical sources from various archives across the globe and different digital tools to tell their own stories in small groups and discuss them in the classroom and with their peers abroad. I have already investigated these new learning opportunities and processes in two mixed-methods studies with high school and university students so that conclusions can be drawn from this for the design and concept of the new module and discussed in the panel.