ERIC Number: EJ1230382
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1855-9719
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Digital Making in Educational Projects
Bosco, Alejandra; Santiveri, Noemí; Tesconi, Susanna
Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, v9 n3 p51-73 2019
Digital Making as an Educational Project is an innovative educational experience that has been carried out with students of the Primary Education and Social Education degrees for three consecutive years. The experience introduces digital making as an activity in which students create an object using digital technology. In the process, they not only gain an insight into how the technology works, but also learn the content and competences of the curriculum. This innovative teaching practice was carried out as action research in order to improve traditional higher education practices. In this sense, the proposal puts the student at the centre of the process as the author and protagonist of their own learning process. The experience is based on their own interests: they decide what to make based on a given context. The students work in groups and look for what they need to learn to overcome a particular challenge, while the teacher supports the process as a facilitator, offering guidance and resources when necessary. The evaluation of the whole process is regulated via a group diary (a shared online document) and an individual diary (a blog) that the students produce. The final evaluation is not only of the printed product; the students also produce a video in the form of storytelling, in which they explain how the process evolved from the initial idea to the final impression of the object. They also reflect on what they have learned, how teamwork has worked and what possibilities they believe digital making offers in the primary and non-formal educational contexts in which they will work. All of the processes are compiled in the students' blogs, as well as in the teachers' field notebooks. The experience was executed in collaboration with the Digital Fabrication Centres of Barcelona. The results were organised to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of using technologies to improve higher education offering an approach in which students are at the centre of the whole process. Strengths: strong student motivation, promotion of self-directed and collaborative learning and learning by doing, and familiarisation with a transforming integration of technology as protagonists. Weaknesses: hesitance and resistance to facing the challenge, management of scarce time, large time investment by the teachers, and the difficulty of achieving in-depth reflection on how digital fabrication could be introduced in educational contexts such as primary school and non-formal contexts.
Descriptors: Creative Activities, Cooperative Learning, Active Learning, Student Projects, Technology Integration, Foreign Countries, Educational Innovation, Manipulative Materials, Teacher Education, Elementary Education, Audiovisual Aids, Independent Study, Student Motivation, Time Management, Young Adults, Preservice Teachers
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education. University of Ljubljana Kardeljeva plošcad 16. Slovenia. Tel: +386-1-5892-344; e-mail: editors@cepsj.si; Web site: https://ojs.cepsj.si/index.php/cepsj/index
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Spain (Barcelona)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A