In the post-digital age, digital technologies are constitutive for the lifeworld of all people, independent of individual media practices. This becomes manifest primarily in the form of artificial intelligence algorithms. These algorithms are characterized by their omnipresence and at the same time relative invisibility - out of sight, in your mind. While software such as ChatGPT or debates about autonomous driving make AI appear visible, practices of automatic classification of users in the context of advertising-related microtargeting or the assessment of credit ratings point to the regulatory functions of AI, which, however, mostly remains hidden from the user. These are worldwide lines of development that are taking place in the same way on an international scale.

This socio-technical development is accompanied by demographic change in most Western countries. The proportion of people in the retirement phase in the population is rising significantly. One aspect that is highly relevant in this context is that digital software and hardware is currently characterized by a high degree of diversity, which is reflected in highly individualized media practices in all age groups. While these can also feature collective media practices, they cannot always be assigned to a specific age cohort or generation. A suitable example would be the instant messanger WhatsApp, in which intergenerational digital spaces and exchange processes are created in family or community groups.

From an education perspective, this context raises the question of the possibilities and conditions for shaping an algorithmized post-digital world for all generations. The planned contribution focuses primarily on the fostering of media competence according to Baacke in the dimensions of media critique, media knowledge, media use and creation with media as a prerequisite for a responsible and proficient handling and debate with and about digital(n) technologies such as the use of AI. In this context, the possibilities of shaping the post-digital world are not understood as a cohort-specific task, but as a joint field of learning and action for all generations.

This is where the research project "DigiGen - Generationen gestalten Digitalisierung gemeinsam" started. The aim of the DigiGen project was to bring together young adolescents and older people from Frankfurt and its surroundings, who would jointly acquire knowledge on the subject of AI over the course of a school year. The central questions that the participants explored were what AI actually is and where does AI appear as a technology in the participants' everyday lives? They also discussed how artificial neural networks work and where these technologies could or should be used in the future. The insights gained in the process were then captured in a self-produced podcast series of 15 episodes.

The project was scientifically supervised with multiple ethnographies of the lessons as well as two cohort-specific group discussions. The guiding research questions were, first, how intergenerational learning processes in the modes of mutual learning, learning from one another, and learning about one another were shaped or constituted with regard to the subject of AI and digitization. Secondly, the extent to which age or the generation membership showed itself as a central category of difference in the context of AI and digitization and where the generation membership rather faded into the background. This article aims to show the extent to which various learning arrangements are suitable for promoting media literacy as a task for the whole society and thus, in addition to user and creative skills, also to facilitate everyday life orientation in the post-digital age.

The project used various qualitative survey and evaluation methods. In order to address the interactions and practices in the classroom multiple ethnographies were used in the individual school lessons. In total, 15 observation protocols from all phases of the project were created. In addition, cohort-homogeneous group discussions were conducted to explore generational approaches to and experiences of the project. Here, the focus was on the perspective on the topic of AI as well as on the intergenerational learning arrangement and the experiences with the respective other generation. These data were evaluated interpretatively with the Situational Analysis (Clarke 2018) as well as the GTM.

The guiding research questions were, first, how intergenerational learning processes in the modes of mutual learning, learning from one another, and learning about one another were shaped or constituted with regard to the subject of AI and digitization. Secondly, the extent to which age or the generation membership showed itself as a central category of difference in the context of AI and digitization and where the generation membership rather faded into the background. This article aims to show the extent to which various learning arrangements are suitable for promoting media literacy as a task for the whole society and thus, in addition to user and creative skills, also to facilitate everyday life orientation in the post-digital age. First results show that the subject artificial intelligence and the associated instructed intergenerational self-learning phases primarily evoked learning about each other. The complexity of the subject led to breaking through generation-specific attributions such as digital natives and digital immigrants and made the chronological age move into background. In addition, a sensitization to the individual needs and attitudes of the other generation was observed.

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