Please introduce yourself briefly and describe your current role at DFKI
I am Berit Blanc and I live with my family in Berlin. I studied Communication in Social and Economic Contexts at the Berlin University of the Arts and then completed a PhD in Communication Studies at the University of Erfurt. I joined DFKI Berlin as a senior researcher in November 2018 through a cooperation project with my second employer and DFKI partner – the mmb Institute.
In which of the 29 research departments do you work at DFKI?
I work at the Educational Technology Lab in Berlin. We are a team of about 20 colleagues from a range of different disciplines, including computer science, psychology, education, sociology and political science. Our projects focus on supporting educational processes in all areas of education, i.e. in schools, in vocational education and training, further education and higher education, by means of AI-supported educational technologies.
What are you working on at the moment, or in other words, what are your plans for saving the world?
I'm currently working on three projects: With ‘INVITE-Meta’, we have promoted the networking of 34 projects of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research-competition ‘INVITE - Digital Platform for Continuing Vocational Training’ and researched into the standards of an innovative digital continuing education space. In the ‘KI-Kompass Inklusiv’ project, we are building a competence center for AI-supported assistance technologies and inclusion in working life by 2027. And finally, we are continuing our work for the Deutsche Telekom Foundation in a three-year project on the topic of AI in schools. These projects share the mutual goal of using AI to make learning and working easier or even possible for people at all.
What are your strengths and what has been your greatest success or favourite experience so far?
I can use my communication skills particularly in application-oriented research and project results that are useful in practice. I question idealized assumptions about the potential of AI, and I ask and listen to the people who learn and teach with AI applications about their experiences, their needs and desires. A great moment was when a colleague from the choir, who is a teacher and responsible for media education at his school, said enthusiastically: ‘Oh, the evaluation report was written by you! It's my constant companion and I've already worn it out.’
What do you enjoy most about your job at DFKI? What inspires and fascinates you?
Working on practical projects with societal and social impact, conducting research in interdisciplinary, constructively critical and friendly teams, and presenting and communicating the scientific results at a wide range of events – it's challenging, never gets boring and is simply great fun.
If you weren't a scientist, what career would you have pursued?
Oh yes, the two hearts in my chest... Had I been a bit braver, I would have taken the acting-singing-dancing direction. But at the end of the 1990s, the realistic communication researcher prevailed over the dreamer. I now give the latter space in my free time: singing in the fine Carl von Ossietzky Choir and (salsa) dancing, alongside my wonderful family, make my life complete and beautiful.
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