Implementation of ‘The Digital Evolution, From Our Artisans to Today’s Digital Information’ (SOI-MK-151)

Background

This learning scenario created by Elisabete Pires was implemented with 13 years old students in the primary school “Krste Misirkov”, Skopje, North Macedonia. The learning scenario was adopted according to the local curriculum concerning ICT subjects, so the elements of digital evolution were kept and developed. The focus was put on the evolution of the computers, and how it is connected with the development of our digital era. The aim was to present the Europeana collections to students and to discuss in the Creative Commons licences.

The curriculum integrates the following topics: understanding the evolution of information and communication technologies and their role in the contemporary world; searching for information on the Internet in digital encyclopedias, repositories, etc., in a systematic and consistent manner, according to specific objectives; respecting copyright and intellectual property rights; analyzing and evaluation of the gathered information and creating multimedia presentations.

Implementation

The learning scenario was implemented in two sessions, the first one lasted 80 minutes and the second one 40 minutes (although initially it was planned to be implemented in 100 minutes total).

At the beginning, students were introduced to the Europeana collection platform and the benefits of using it. The teacher presented the platform and students had the possibility to access it individually on their computers. Different ideas about the possible use of these materials in different subjects were pointed out by students. After that, the discussion concerning the use of the material that is found online and Creative Commons licensing structure was carried out. Students admitted that they haven’t pay attention to this before and were very interested in learning more on this topic.

The educational network Edmodo was used as a virtual classroom, where all materials provided by the teacher were attached and the students were introduced to the task. They were divided into groups and each member of the group was assigned a different task, concerning finding information about some technology tools and the person who invented them. Padlet was used as a place where students could share their materials and ideas.

Europeana collections, Wikipedia and some other platforms, recommended by the teacher, were used to find necessary information. Resources used from Europeana were the same as in learning scenario, with the attribution CC BY. At the end, students jointly have created presentations about their findings and put it in the classroom on Edmodo. They had the possibility to do some additional research before the presentation session and to improve the quality of their final products.

Final results and engaging debate

In the second session, groups presented their work, underlining the chronological time, the importance of the invention in that time and for the evolution of technology. Students were encouraged to ask questions and to discuss about the importance of particular technological improvement and the impact it had on the society. At the end, the discussion about the future of technology was carried out.

Students were receiving constructive feedback continuously, especially concerning CC licenses. Rubrics from the learning scenario were used for the assessment of students work concerning research and oral presentation. Discussion with the students at the end of the implementation showed that they were very satisfied with this way of learning, they wanted to explore Europeana platform more and they learnt a lot of new things, especially about the creative commons licenses. They had really interesting ideas on how can digital cultural heritage and the Europeana resources be used in education.
Additionally, students have developed their research skills, have collaborated in groups, created a presentation, discussed their findings and were encouraged to imagine future developments, communicate and debate among them. In this way, students developed their collaboration, communication and critical thinking skills, and improved their media and digital literacy skills.

Did you find this story of implementation interesting? Why don’t you read about the related learning scenario:

The digital Evolution, From Our Artisans to Today’s Digital Information (LS-PT-238)

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Implementation of ‘The digital Evolution, From Our Artisans to Today’s Digital Information’ (SOI-TR)

CC BY 4.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana Collections and provided by the Swedish Open Cultural Heritage.