SMASCH – Smarte Schulen
The SMASCH (Smart Schools) project, led by Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg since 2021, first in collaboration with KU Leuven and, since 2024, with PH Zurich, supports schools in developing sustainable, pedagogically meaningful and context-based digitisation concepts. The approaches of UNBLACK THE BOX hereby serve as an important foundation for the critical investigation and (re)design of digitalization and datafication in education practice. During the first phase of the project, the focus was on working with individual schools. Results of this work have been processed and are now publicly available on the so-called SMASCH Labcademy platform. Since 2025, the project shifted the focus towards linking digitization-oriented school development with transnational cooperation. For this reason, a platform is designed on which schools from (currently) Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Poland and Denmark test concepts and practices in transnational tandems.
Critical Big Data and Algorithmic Literacy Network (CBDALN)
https://www.bigdataliteracy.net/
The Critical Big Data and Algorithmic Literacy Network is an international network for researchers from all disciplines and practitioners who are interested in critical data literacy – education about big data and datafication. The network was founded in 2020 with the goal of promoting interdisciplinary dialogues about concepts and concrete approaches for a critical data education and strengthening the exchange between theory and practice.
On its website, the network provides a glossary for digital sovereignty (‘Glossar Digitale Souveränität’), which explains core terms in the area of data, digitisation and media education. The CBDAL Network has further developed a freely accessible database for ‘critical data literacy resources‘. The database includes websites, games, videos, teaching material and many more resources for a critical education about data. It can be filtered by topics, languages, formats and target groups. This database in particular offers a valuable collection for the educational approaches of UNBLACK THE BOX.