Diana Knodel, 42, is actually on the move. She still has two days of work to do before she goes on vacation, albeit with a laptop. Because as the founder of a fast-growing start-up, you never really have any peace and quiet. Not when there are major innovations to be made, anyway. And anyway, Diana Knodel enjoys working with her team so much that it's a bit like being on vacation.

Ms. Knodel, what have you done recently?

I'm going on a big trip with my children in two days' time. We're flying to the USA and going on a road trip. When most people ask where we're going and I say "Ohio", they're suddenly all disappointed. But I was there as an exchange student and have always kept in touch. So we're going to visit lots of friends of mine and then also go up to Niagara Falls. After Corona, I'm really happy that it's working out now, even if I'm taking a bit of work with me on vacation.

Fobizz offers online courses by teachers for teachers. What is the demand like?

Demand is currently huge. We have already trained 280,000 teachers and the number is growing. I originally studied computer science and psychology and founded a non-profit company in this field in 2015. Education has simply always been a topic close to my heart and at some point we were asked by many schools whether we could provide training in digital skills, among other things. We did that and quickly realized, unfortunately, that it wasn't worth it. We were constantly on the road and were still only able to train a few people. So we set up the platform and were happy when we were able to get the first teachers to create online courses and others really wanted to see them. Initially, the teachers even paid for the training courses out of their own pockets because they were so keen to learn something new. I found that surprising, not all employees in Germany are that committed. But the number of our course authors is also increasing, with 80 teachers taking part at last count.

In other words, teachers teach teachers something. Do they do it for the fun of it?

The content creators receive a share of the revenue from us. In the beginning it was always 50:50, but since we also sell licenses to entire schools or even federal states, we have to calculate this in a more complicated way. The teachers then each receive a share of the revenue, depending on how often their online course is completed. So it makes sense to prepare exciting topics as well as possible so that many other teachers want to take a look at them.

What do you earn there?

We don't want to say exactly, so as not to spread resentment among teachers. But if you choose good topics and develop good courses, you can sometimes take home a five-figure sum a year. Many course authors don't just do it for the money, but also because they enjoy it and want to promote digital learning in schools.

The pandemic must have given her start-up a big boost, as all training institutes were closed and teachers suddenly had to work digitally.

That's definitely true. When the pandemic hit us, the number of inquiries exploded and our server even went down for a very short time. We now have 30 employees at Fobizz and we are profitable. That was also due to the pandemic, of course, but we not only had a peak, but have been able to maintain and increase the level since then. That's a lot of fun right now.

What have teachers been looking at during the pandemic?

Above all, we offer training courses on methodology, didactics and digital topics. For example, teachers can learn how to work with iPads, how to use whiteboards wisely or how to integrate big topics such as artificial intelligence into the classroom. So we don't offer help with specific math topics in seventh grade, but rather overarching topics, often including tips on where to find materials and which websites to surf with students.

Methodology, didactics, digital: are these the fields that are often underplayed in training?

We can definitely see that there is still a lot of catching up to do when it comes to digital. Until a few years ago, there were often no wi-fi or iPads in schools, the entire infrastructure was missing. Things are getting better now, but there is still a lot to do and digital teaching is not sufficiently represented in teacher training. The use of modern media is also not a big issue, but we absolutely need children to have good media skills and digital literacy. Many of them are already using software such as ChatGPT. Teachers therefore need to know how to work with it and how to make pupils aware of the weaknesses, for example that an AI doesn't always have to have all the facts right.

Have you also noticed an increased demand for AI training at Fobizz?

Definitely. It's the biggest trending topic at the moment and lots and lots of teachers want to do further training. On the one hand, how to address AI in the classroom. But also how they can integrate AI into the classroom. We have therefore built a whole host of tools that make teachers' lives easier thanks to AI. We have also programmed applications based on ChatGPT, albeit in compliance with the GDPR, so that schools can use them without hesitation. I believe AI will play a huge role in schools, in some cases much sooner than many might think.

What can the AI tools from Fobizz already do today?

We already offer teachers assistance that they can use in the classroom. This can be in the area of images, but also for texts or videos. This means that teachers can write, for example: Please give me ten creative ideas for teaching about Egypt - and the assistant will spit them out. That's great and a great support for teachers.

Do you also see a benefit for the pupils?

Absolutely. My wish is that, in the long term, every pupil will have an AI assistant who will assess how far someone is in the material, where he or she has difficulties and provide an individual learning path.

Like Karl the bracket only in modern.

That's thinking far too narrowly. Karl the parenthesis only existed in a few programs, but AI will be omnipresent and will also be able to plan much more profoundly. For example, which tasks can a child use to make better use of certain tasks? Does it make sense to offer a certain amount of support, even for more gifted children? AI will write entire timetables for each child individually. I think that will change school quite a lot.

Thank you very much for the interview.

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Personal details: Diana Knodel is the founder of the EdTech company Fobizz. She studied computer science, psychology and educational research and worked at XING, among others. She founded App Camps in 2014 and Fobizz in 2018.‍