Author: Kai Pata

The project partners in Greece held the multiplier event in April, 4th, 2019 in Volos, Greece, which went very well. An audience of 75 teachers attended. In the beginning of the event the presentation of the DesignIT project was made. Then a workshop followed in which the audience worked in teams to design a learning process for mathematics using the gamified DesignIT tool. We believe that the audience really enjoyed it. They used the platform on mobile phones. The event was covered in the press (Taxydromos newspaper) https://www.taxydromos.gr/Topika/328767-platforma-gia-kainotomes-idees-apo-to-panepisthmio-thessalias.html The press release was reproduced in several newspapers and portals: UTH http://userauth.noc.uth.gr/events/4683-20190327-design Istigmes https://istigmes.gr/imerida-schediastiki-skepsi-kai-mathisi/ UTH http://uth.gr/genannounce/4311-20180802-designit Career UTH https://career.duth.gr/portal/?q=node/75931#.XKbytfZuLIUECE UTH https://www.e-ce.uth.gr/category/announcements/ e-Thessalia https://e-thessalia.gr/mathisi-meso-schediastikis-skepsis-stin-tritovathmia-ekpaideysi/ Hellenic Mathematical Society http://eme-mag.uth.gr/ Taxydromos https://www.taxydromos.gr/Topika/305335-mathhsh-mesw-sxediastikhs-skepshs.html MyVolos http://www.myvolos.net/μάθηση-μέσω-σχεδιαστικής-σκέψης-στην/ The press release is also available in English http://uth.gr/en/events/759-20190327-design-en

Announcement for multiplier event for project DesignIT on using design thinking in learning, targeting STEM educators, taking place on April 4 in Volos, Greece. Working with the Greek Mathematical Society and the Secondary Education Administration. Event "design thinking in learning", department of electrical engineering and computer engineers of the University of Thessaly and iwo-Eketa in collaboration with the mathematical company, Directorate of Secondary Education Magnesia, coordinator of educational project of region of Thessaly, April 4, 2019. Addressed to teachers of sciences.

In Estonia the multiplier events were conducted as training sessions. The registration for two training was advertised in open calls. https://ttu.ee/taiendusoppijale/koolituskalender/algavad-koolitused/infotehnoloogia-7/?id=26999&koolitus=17539 The firts multiplier event was be held in Tallinn Technical University 12.04.19 10-12 targeting the higher education teachers. Six participants from Tallinn Technical University different institutes, and the Archimedes communication specialist attended. We also recorded the training session. [embed]https://www.slideshare.net/kpata/designit-kasutamine-krghariduse-disainimtlemise-praktikas[/embed] Design thinking - how to use it in practice The second multiplier event was held at HITSA 16.04.19 10-12, targeting the teachers from schools. 9 teachers from schools and vocational universities participated. We played the design problem with DesignIT tool and discussed its applicability in educational contexts. https://koolitus.edu.ee/training/2308 One multiplier training was held at 19.04.19 in Tallinn University for the international group of teachers attending the STEM education course with…

We have presented the DesignIT project at the Open Technology Enhanced Learning seminar in Tallinn University. The audience was 12 participants from Tallinn University, Tartu University and Mondragon University. The participants discussed the possibility to use collaborative gamified design thinking tools at interdisciplinary and project based higher education courses. https://www.slideshare.net/kpata/designit-multiplier

DesignIT platform was this autumn in use in Metropolia UAS in a mobile project course. The course spans two months and worth 15 ETCS and last for one period and includes students from various countries as the course belongs to the international ICT program. Thus, the student teams have members from various countries and cultures. In addition, this year we also had exchange students to bring even more variety into the student population. The aim of the course is to solve wicked problems provided by external real customers. Usually the situations are mobile application or something that is usable with mobile devices.             This year we had 6 customers and 13 student teams. Meaning most customers had two teams which tried to solve the challenge they had provided for the course. The…

22-23rd of November the Erasmus+ DesignIT project team met in Porto Polytechnic. Project coordinator Kai Pata and Anet Põdra introduced the results of the interrim report and the team discussed how to meet the upcoming challenges. Olivier Heidmann introduced the final developments the team has made with DesignIT tool. The tool is coming close to the planned functionalities and can be used now with different design challenges settings. The new features relate with gamified approach of motivating the players to submit the challenges according to the preplanned templates, doing peer-review to challenges to gain points, inviting the competing teams to contribute with ideas on their challenge (it takes off points), or asking advice from the game master (takes off points). The team is still working in developing the feature  for…

Today i run another successful event of testing DesignIT prototype with a group of ten Andragogy students during my course Community involvment technologies for adult learners. The learners were all working on the same challenge during the ideacollection phase in DesignIT tool. They tried to identify digital opportunities of outdoor learning for adults. After the idea collection phase the group was divided into two design groups who used the collected information for ideation. Finally the students in groups presented the ideas and uploaded the images of their final ideation model back to the DesignIT tool. They also filled in the feedback survey.  

Today my students from educational technology and gaming (17) were successfully testing out the design thinking process with our DesignIT tool prototype in Tallinn University. I prepared three challenges: smart and sustainable digital learning ecosystem in schools, inclusive digitally enhanced learning ecosystem in schools, and the digital learning ecosystem that promotes wellbeing and health. The first impression was that it supported very well the creative process. Some additional advancements were suggested, such as uploading images from links, allowing to lock the note you are working with so that others would not delete it. Students generalised digital learning ecosystem models based on the ideas, and used the mobile version of the tool in discussions. Final ideas were embedded back to the next stage of the challenge. Students are eager to test…

The project team conducted the survey among 250 higher education students from Estonia, Greece, Portugal and Finland to establish the state of art of Design thinking skills development. Figure: Approaches to Design thinking at higher education courses Almost half of the participants (40.3%) responded that they don’t really know if their university offers a specially designed course that focuses on design thinking approaches. Only 27.8% have been involved in a design thinking related course, while 72.2% have never attended any of these. 17 % of students were unaware of the Design thinking concept, 45 % had heard of it but did not know what it really standed for, and 36 % of students were familiar with Design thinking principles. As claimed by the participants, design thinking is   “a creative approach, which…

DesignIt project meeting was held in Tallinn University, Estonia at May 10-11th, 2018. The project members from Finland, Greece, Estonia and Portugal discussed the wireframes of the gamified DesignIT ideation tool. The tool enables the game master (teacher or student) to prompt design challenges. Related with each challenge the boards with ideation templates can be set up. The tool enables to upload various open source design thinking templates to support the phases of: Contextual inquiry Interview users to get their problems Develop design idea, validate the idea what are user challenges Do first mockup and validate it Validate prototype Players can assign themselves to the design challenges. Process of collecting evidences is gamified. Each challenge has a time-frame, and after it ends the players need to upload it to the review.…