Location, context, time, and duration
The 4th instructor training event took place at Tallinn University October 14, 2022 as part of the Euneos teacher training course, which constitutes in-service training for teachers. The event is being organized on a yearly basis since 2006 and has many partners around Europe. The event took place in a computer lab designed as a collaborative learning space. This room is equipped with computers for every participant and additional screens for presentations. The event had a duration of 3 hours with a 15-minute break in the middle. The course was held in English.
Participants
The course was attended by 10 STEM educators from Finland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Italy and Turkey. Participants were the attendants of the Euneos teacher training course. Participants were cooperative and attentive.
Description of activities
The event started with a presentation on design thinking, a demonstration of the ICT-INOV digital learning platform, and recommendations for the deployment of design thinking and the platform in STEAM education. The presentation included showcases and examples. The audience was asked to share their experiences and discuss the content of the presentations.
The 2nd part of the event was hands-on activity. Participants engaged in exercises as students and had the opportunity to experience how the platform can support design thinking process steps of team building, fostering creativity, problem discovery, empathy, problem redefinition, ideation, idea selection, prototyping, and evaluation. Participants created student accounts to the ICT-INOV platform and were divide in teams to simulate the actual use of the platform in learning settings. Participants engaged in activities related to sustainability and electricity.
Finally, the participants logged into the ICT-INOV digital learning platform as educators and experienced how to create learning activities that guide students to collaborate through systematic thinking to address difficult problems. They explored the platform teamwork features and became familiar with the functions of researching and adding notes to the digital workspace in the context of collaboration, further developing an understanding of student and educator experience. Participants were provided with tips and good practice suggestions on how to use the platform for design thinking or broader learning activities. The teachers were also asked to fill an online feedback questionnaire regarding the platform.
Feedback and web presence
The event was a success. The participants were very interested in the proposed ICT-INOV design thinking methodology. They perceived the platform to be interesting and were curious to explore and deploy it. Some teachers stayed after the training to ask additional questions and requested to have the presenters’ slides to be sent to them along information on using the platform.
