Implementation of ‘From Disability to Creativity’ (SOI-GR-244)

Context of implementation

This Story of Implementation is based on the learning scenario “From disability to creativity” created by Croatian teacher Anita Matić. The students involved were 10-11 years old (5th grade). The learning scenario was implemented during Computer Science classes, the duration of which was 4 lessons (45 minutes each). The original LS was in English whereas the implementation addressed mother-tongue users. Therefore we made some changes in order to address the students’ needs.

Implementing the learning scenario

Lesson 1: Europeana collection as a starting motivation to get an insight into the Braille system.

As an introduction, the students were divided into groups and solved the puzzles of words: assistance, dog, white, cane. Afterwards, the students answered what the word ‘blind’ means and what obstacles blind people face. They explored the Europeana collection and Louis Braille and finally, they created posters of 5 things they didn’t know about Braille’s life using the software Canva, which were presented in class.

Lesson 2: Students were introduced to the Braille alphabet.

Divided into groups, students received a 6- point form paper where they wrote the Braille Alphabet, their name and various words of their choice in the Greek language. Afterwards, the groups exchanged a list of words in Braille and they went on a hunt for things in the classroom.

Lesson 3: Active learning

During this activity, the students were divided into groups and went through scenarios of a blind child’s everyday life in school, shops, playroom and other areas where moving around is required. Afterwards, they created a word cloud of how they felt during the scenarios.

Lesson 4: Discussion and reflection. Finding solutions to the everyday problems of blind people.

Students watched the video about the Design Thinking Method and afterwards they were divided into groups and created devices and inventions via comics for the following scenarios: playroom, shop, school, movement and eating using the Storyboardthat software. Finally, all the groups presented their inventions and explained how they worked.

Outcomes- Evaluation

This learning scenario gave our students an insight into the everyday situations of blind and visual impaired people. Initially, students were encouraged to use the Europeana Collections to investigate Louis Braille’s life story and other famous artists and scientists who in spite of their disabilities, created wonderful things. It was a great opportunity for them to become more sensitive towards others and to augment their searching skills and creativity. All in all, the students learned to collaborate and showed great empathy and motivation to participate in all the activities. They enhanced their communication and collaboration skills working in teams. Finally, they created beautiful and interesting projects following the Design Thinking Method presented in class.

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

From Disability to Creativity by Anita Matic

Did you find this story of implementation interesting? You might also like:

• Smile from the Darkness – Story of Braille Alphabet (LS-EU-266)
• We are all different yet we are all same (EN-CUR-618)
• Sharing is caring: Let your migration story be heard (EN-CUR-616)

Do you want to discover more stories of implementation? Click here.

Public Domain Mark 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Mauritshuis.