GMW Open Space 2025

Thomas Köhler has been Professor of Educational Technology and Director of the Media Centre at TU Dresden since 2005. He studied psychology and sociology at the University of Jena and Swarthmore College (USA), completing his PhD in 1999. Before joining TU Dresden, he served as Junior Professor for teaching and learning research with a focus on multimedia learning at the University of Potsdam.
He has taught internationally at universities and teacher training institutes in Austria, Vietnam, Central Asia, and Norway. Thomas Köhler is the academic director of the European doctoral programme “Education & Technology” and has been spokesperson of the eLearning Working Group of the Saxon Rectors’ Conference since 2007.
His research focuses on the analysis, design, and empirical evaluation of educational media, including vocational learning with digital tools, educational technologies and portals, digital science, computer-mediated communication, and media use and identity. He is an active member of several professional associations and has advised the European Commission on e-learning and lifelong learning.

Klaus Hurrelmann is Senior Professor of Public Health and Education at the Hertie School. His research focuses on health and education policy. Hurrelmann was the founding dean of Germany’s first Faculty of Health Sciences at Bielefeld University, where he also served for twelve years as Director of the Research Center SFB 227 “Prevention and Intervention in Childhood and Adolescence.”
From 1992 to 2006, he coordinated the German contribution to the international “Health Behaviour in School-aged Children” (HBSC) study for the World Health Organization. He is part of the leadership team of several ongoing national studies on the development of families, children, adolescents, and young adults.
Previously, Klaus Hurrelmann was Professor of Socialization at the universities of Essen and Bielefeld. He studied at the University of Münster and the University of California, Berkeley, and earned his doctorate on the relationship between education systems and society.