From Augmented Reality to interior design planning to smart learning room systems to the user manual read out by Alexa - the “DigiHand” traveling exhibition showed current trends in craft in six federal states. The participants of the exhibition covered a total of 4.300 kilometers between May and December 2018. A popular offer was the moderated format, which attracted about 1.500 trainees. After a thematic introduction of all learning stations, they could go through the exhibition supervised and discuss their impressions afterwards. In total, around 20.000 visitors visited the exhibition - including Anja Karliczek, Federal Minister of Education and Research. The final report was handed over on June 24, 2019.

The eight learning stations of the exhibition were developed in early 2018. The “Smart Learning” station, which was created by Fraunhofer FOKUS business unit FAME, played a special role: as a Smart Learning application, it guided through the other stations of the exhibition and provided instructions in a specially adapted learning app.

Smart Learning is a way of learning that uses innovative digital media for professional education. In this case, smart, like a smartphone, means that no static learning application is used, but that the learning app adapts to the user and his needs. For this purpose, a learning recommendation system has been developed which reacts specifically to the acquired knowledge of the craftspeople and indicates suitable recommendations for learning. It determines how much the learner already knows, or where gaps in knowledge are suspected, in order to provide an individual recommendation. For example, exam-oriented learning is organized more efficiently and effectively, and the user is better motivated.

At the “Augmented Reality” exhibit, visitors were able to immerse themselves in a virtual reality. Supported by the smartphone, they were able to furnish living spaces both creatively and technically. The vision of the Fraunhofer research team is that in the future the interior design of buildings will no longer be done with ruler, spirit level and hand-drawn floor plans – instead a smartphone or tablet will be used.

The project was a cooperation with Institute for Future Studies and Technology Assessment, University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Technical University of Berlin and Wuppertal Institute. It was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).