“and today?” – education hub

How much history is there in our everyday lives? How do Nazi-era crimes reverberate today? What would my life be like if I had a different passport? And why do people migrate (and always have done)? Questions like these give young learners exciting opportunities to examine history from different perspectives and share their ideas in an open atmosphere.

Our digital education hub “and today?” is a future-oriented, interactive, multi-media resource for historical and political education. It uses an informal approach and is tailored to the needs of young people growing up in a digital world. Explorative learning modules (mini games) look at the history of the Nazi era as well as focusing on issues connected with marginalization and participation since 1945. The platform is being developed and expanded all the time.

A playful approach – for groups or individual learners

Students can play the mini-games on their own or in groups. The platform features special group functions and dashboards for the purpose. “and today?” is a protected, non-judgmental space, where young people use avatars to move around, collecting points as they go. Elements like dialog boxes, which can be used for anonymous polls, encourage students both to reflect on what they have learned and to talk to each other about it.

“and today?” is available free of charge. There are no access restrictions. The applications run on a PC or tablet, but they are not optimized for smartphones. The only things users need are an up-to-date browser and an internet connection.

What young people say

A number of schools from all over Germany have already had the opportunity to test our new education platform. Watch this trailer (in German) to hear what young people have to say about our digital educational resources:

Classroom use

Using “and today?” in the classroom requires very little preparation. The mini-games work in different areas of the curriculum ─ and are equally suitable for regular lessons, project weeks, and cover lessons. Some elements, such as interviews, audio clips, or video sequences, enable students to explore topics in greater depth. In our experience, “and today?” can be used to offer low-threshold options to students from the 9th grade up and in-depth options to older students taking advanced courses.

Read our guide to using the educational platform for teachers and other educators (in German).

Involving young people in the development process

We actively involve young people  in the process of developing and expanding “and today?” That enables us to create digital educational resources that young people can really relate to and that encourage them to engage with history.

Information for educators

Our education newsletter will tell you everything you need to know about the education initiative “and today?” It also includes information about our current workshops. Sign up here.

Do you have any questions? Or would you like to talk to our education team? We offer digital office hours on the first Thursday of every month at 4.30 pm (CET). Use this link to register in advance.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with information about the meeting.