Digital learning, teaching, and collaboration in a time of ubiquitous quarantine

Circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have serious implications for a multitude of areas of life. Alongside a decrease in the state of health of a considerable number of people, this global crisis also shows that society – both civil and professional, regardless of the sector – is now facing new technological challenges. Furthermore, due to the extensive quarantine measures and the associated closure of educational institutions, a considerable number of deficits have become apparent in the educational sector, which is particularly evident in communication, collaboration, and teaching. These circumstances show above all that in the fields of digital and non-stationary learning, teaching, and collaboration, there is an enormous amount of untapped potential, which – with regard to the existing tools and methods – is far from being explored. This chapter provides an in-depth review of existing practices and tools for digital and virtual teaching, learning, and collaboration, as well as the necessary conditions and strategies to make the best use of technological opportunities in the future. Turning to the future, this chapter focuses on solutions and strategies for three-dimensional, virtual environments and applications. In addition to existing tools, we demonstrate the possibilities in the field of virtual and three-dimensional teaching and learning environments by the example of the so-called vannotator.