Implementing the DIY philosophy in primary classrooms: possibilities and tensions

Author(s):

Judit Onsès-Segarra(presenting / submitting)Juana María Sancho-Gil(presenting)Maria Domingo-Coscollola

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

03. Curriculum Innovation

Format:

Paper

Session Information

03 SES 11, 21st Century Skills and the Curriculum (Part 1)

Paper Session to be continued in 03 SES 12

Time:

2016-08-25

17:15-18:45

Room:

NM-A106

Chair:

Majella Dempsey

Contribution

Today, digital technology is present in schools and universities; eBooks, interactive blackboards, tablets or notebooks are now commonplace in European classrooms. However, when using this technology, students are typically positioned as consumers (Sancho & Alonso, 2012; Sancho & Padilla-Petry, in press). In an effort to change this tendency, our project draws on DIY culture, encouraging students to become producers of digital visual objects. We believe that students and educational institutions need to foster learning experiences that support learners' critical capacity and digital competences. This is not a goal that can be achieved by using only one platform or tool. Instead, genuine digital competence means using available devices with pedagogical approaches that connect with youth culture (Buckingham, 2007) – and which are therefore applicable- or transdisciplinary inquiry-based projects, which guide young people to grow into active and thoughtful learners.

This paper focuses on the implementation of the European project “Do it yourself in Education: expanding digital competence to foster student agency and collaborative learning (DIYLab)” (543177-LLP-1-2013-1-ES-KA3MP) in primary school classrooms. The main objective of this project is to promote lifelong and life-wide learning by expanding students’ digital competence, agency, and creativity, by putting into practice DIY philosophies (Guzzetti, Elliott, & Welsch, 2010; Lankshear & Knobel, 2010).

The DIYLab project aims to promote student engagement in primary, secondary and higher education by proposing collaborative, meaningful and authentic learning experiences that can be sustainable and expandable after the end of the project. This practice will depend on the use and implementation of different technologies as tools (video editing software, mobile/flexible applications, html5-based services for learning, etc.), focused in one way on documenting students learning processes, and the dissemination and construction of a DIY community (Kafai & Peppler, 2011) which at the same time, it is opened to an on-line platform, 'DIYHub'.

Initiated in January 2014, this project is carried out by researchers, primary and secondary schools, and universities in Spain, Finland and the Czech Republic. The first phase of this project entailed working with focus groups (Stewart et al., 2007) of teachers, students and parents in order to understand to which extent DIY practices are already in place in each participating context.

The second phase of the project, building on information received in the focus groups, entailed the formation of participating teachers in support of the upcoming implementation of the DIY Lab. The goal of the formation process was that all partners accompanied and participated in the formation process to produce a conceptual and technical approach for the implementation of a DIY Lab in each school.

The third phase, on which this paper builds on, consisted of the implementation of the project in schools and universities during 2015. Here we will focus on the implementation in primary classrooms of the Spanish school, presenting an overview of the process, its possibilities and its tensions. We will explain the experiences from both students and teachers during this period related to the development of digital competence and collaborative learning skills.

Method

The implementation in primary Spanish school involved 2 classrooms of 10-11 years old students. In total they were 3 teachers and 58 students. The DIYLab was carried on a curriculum slot called Subject Based on Problems (ABP) which implied 2 hours during three days a week, that is, 6 hours per week from January to June. The implementation was done in the classroom gradually, in order to establish both for students and for teachers’ “adaptation times”. In this way, firstly the researchers presented the DIYLab project to students whilst teachers were introducing digital technologies in the classroom: basic skills for working in laptops and tablets; managing of e-mail; learning to searching in Internet as well as organize and store the information through pen drives or by using Google Drive. For that students worked in teams in a inquiry project about media along history, under supervision and guidance of teachers. After that, students kept working in teams decided by teachers, but they could be more creative and were supposed to develop higher digital skills. This time they worked in a more open project based on designing the smartphone of the future. In the last part of semester, students entered in a full implementation of DIYLab project. There, they explored on their own interests in order to invent a new app for the smartphone of the future. Once they had defined the interests individually, they created groups of work based on similar interests they called “groups of experts”. Each group of experts worked in designing the app. Firstly, they made a search of those interests in order to learn more about them and could imagine a useful and interesting app. After that, they defined its structure, possibilities and uses while they designed the interface and appearance. At the end of the work, they presented the app in classroom, opening a debate and collaborative assessment. This implementation phase was thoroughly documented by students themselves, teachers and researchers who collected a set of diversified data (photos, videos, observation notes, questionnaires…). The analysis of these data is helping us to analyse the different dimensions of creativity, digital competence, collaborative and peer to peer learning, self regulated learning, authorship and students’ engagement in their own learning fostered by the project. It is also allowing as to highlight entailed tensions, fears and doubts from both teachers and students.

Expected Outcomes

The implementation generated different tensions and reflections: -It supposed a really big effort and will of change for both teachers and students, as they were going to implement a new methodology which entailed other pedagogical relationships and other predispositions. -Teachers did not know how much time of adaptation would need the students. That supposed a tension in the sense that the timings in school are already fixed in the school curriculum. - For teachers, the implementation of DIYLab was very difficult in a group of 29 students. The attention that they could give to students was less than they would want to. However, it fostered a more collaborative learning, where students could regulate their learning processes. That meant also a rethinking of roles and notions of teachers and students. -Teachers feared let autonomy to students, loosing the total control on them. But when the implementation was developed, they noticed a higher engagement from students. Students appreciated the opportunity and trust that teachers put in them, both in making the teams themselves and in working from their own interests. In this way, they became more responsible of their own learning as well as they took their work more seriously. This autonomy allowed students to appropriate and use school spaces differently. As they self-regulated their own learning, they went in and out the classroom using the digital material whenever they needed, during the ABP subject. - The introduction of digital competence was a hard pathway. Nevertheless, at the end of course, teachers recognized that a big step was done, although the acquisition of this skill was developed irregularly among students. Finally, this implementation made arise questions related to the structure and organization of school system, as well as to notions of childhood, learning and digital competence in education.

References

Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond technology: Children’s learning in the age of digital culture. Cambridge: Polity. Guzzetti, B. J., Elliott, K. & Welsch, D. (2010). DIY Media in the Classroom: New Literacies Across Content Areas. New York: Teachers’ College Press. Kafai, Y. & Peppler, K. (2011). Youth, Technology, and DIY: Developing Participatory Competencies in Creative Media Production. Review of Research in Education, 35, 89–119. Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2010). New literacies: Everyday practices and social learning. Madrid: Morata. Halfacree, K. (2004). ‘It could only do wrong’: Academic Research and DIY Culture. In D. Fuller & R. Kitchin (Eds.), Radical Theory/Critical Praxis: Making a Difference Beyond the Academy? (68–78). Victoria, British Columbia: Praxis Press. Sancho, J. M. & Alonso, C. (Coord,). (2012). La fugacidad de las políticas, la inercia de las prácticas La educación y las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación. Barcelona: Octaedro. Sancho, J.M. y Padilla, P. (in press). Promoting digital competence in secondary education: are schools there? Insights from a case study. New Approaches in Educational Research, 5(1), January 2016. Spencer, A. (2005). DIY: The rise of lo-fi culture. London, England: Marion Boyars.

Author Information

Judit Onsès-Segarra (presenting / submitting)

University of Barcelona, Spain

Juana María Sancho-Gil (presenting)

University of Barcelona, Spain

Maria Domingo-Coscollola

Esbrina Research Group UB - UIC

SABADELL (Barcelona)

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