Location, context, time, and duration
The 1st event at Tallinn University took place in the Center for Educational Technology in the School of Digital Technologies. The event was planned at the same time as the weekly seminar of the organization, in which innovative ideas are presented. It had a duration of 2 hours.
Participants
The event was attended by 10 participants, all of whom are educators at the Center of Educational Technology and the School of Digital Technologies. The event had a hybrid format, with some people attending in-person at the Center while others on-line via Google® Meet.
Description of activities
The event started with a presentation of the project by Prof. Jaanus Terasmaa and Triinu Jesmin. Subsequently, participants were exposed to the idea of design thinking and the ICT-INOV digital learning platform. The organizers presented showcases and examples of use of the platform in learning contexts.
The second part of the event was hands-on activity. First, participants performed exercises as students, becoming familiar with the student interface of the ICT-INOV digital learning platform. The activities allowed the audience to develop familiarity on how the platform can support the design thinking process steps of team building, fostering creativity, problem discovery, empathy, problem redefinition, ideation, idea selection, prototyping, and evaluation.
Finally, participants used the platform as teachers, exploring the functionality of the teacher interface. More specifically, the audience developed familiarity with creating a new activity, posting instructions for students for each design thinking step, reviewing the platform analytics, using the gamification elements that promote engagement through rewards, accessing the reference manual, using the calendar of activities, and more. Furthermore, participants were introduced to the resource library available in the platform, which includes suggested exercises for each design thinking step from which educators can select ideas for integrating into the activities they design for their students.
Feedback and web presence
The event was a success. Participants were very pleased with the methodology and platform. They showed interest and further collaboration activities were proposed. The event was promoted internally at Tallinn University via email.
