Reasoning Strategies in the Context of Engineering Design with Everyday Materials

‘‘Making’’ represents an increasingly popular label for describing a form of engineering design. While making is growing in popularity, there are still open questions about the strategies that students are using in these activities. Assessing and improving learning in making/ engineering design contexts require that we have a better understanding of where students’ ideas are coming from and a better way to characterize student progress in open-ended learning environments. In this article, we use a qualitative analysis of students’ responses (N = 13) in order to identify the origins of their ideas. Four strategies emerged from this analysis: unexplained reasoning; materials-based reasoning; example-based reasoning; and principle-based reasoning. We examine key characteristics of each strategy and how each strategy relates to learning and expertise through in-depth case studies. Furthermore, we identify how these four strategies are a complement to prior work on analogical problem solving and creativity, and offer a number of unique contributions that are particularly relevant for engineering education. Finally, we include two coding schemes that can be used to classify students’ responses. Studying reasoning strategies in this way is a fruitful means for characterizing student learning in complex learning environments. Moreover, understanding reasoning strategies impacts the nature of student–teacher discussions and informs how to help students progress most effectively

Exploring Problem-Based Learning for Middle School Design and Engineering Education in Digital Fabrication Laboratories

This is a research study of design and engineering classes that use a problem-based learning (PBL) approach in digital fabrication makerspaces in two middle schools. In these studies, teachers employ a PBL approach and provide an ill-structured problem scenario to facilitate design and engineering lessons in the FabLab (fabrication laboratory). Students in each school tackled different challenges that they defined for themselves in groups. This study provides examples of student-student interactions separated into key themes—defining specifications with teammates, personal exploration, and communication about discoveries. This study also provides examples of teacher-student interactions, and themes include demonstrations with tangible objects, discussing prototype failure, and managing behavioral issues. The purpose of this study is to provide insights about PBL in a nontraditional, technology-rich FabLab environment

Travels in Troy with Freire:technology as an agent of emancipation

The rapid dissemination of new technologies in schools is an opportunity for the popularization of the educational philosophies of two important theorists of education: Seymour Papert and Paulo Freire. Digital technologies enable diverse and innovative ways of working, expressing, and building. This chameleonesque adaptivity of computational media enables the acknowledgement and embracing of epistemological diversity (TURKLE; PAPERT, 1991), engendering an environment in which students, finding their own voice, can concretize their ideas and projects with motivation and engagement. This article describes an implementation conducted in a Brazilian public school and proposes a series of principles for the design of Papertian/Freirean learning environments, by analyzing the intellectual and emotional commitments of students, their learning paths, and the complexity of their designs, which ranged from robots and computer programs to fiction movies. The article discusses an implementation model with four components. First, we identify a community-relevant generative theme. Second, we depart from the community’s technological culture and expertise as a basis for introducing new technologies. Third, we deliberately use a mixed-media approach, in which high- and low-tech, on- and off-screen, and high- and low-cost expressive tools coexist for students’ production of artifacts. Lastly, we question (or “displace”) taken-for-granted school practices and mindsets, even those that are apparently irrelevant to teaching and learning. We conclude that such use of expressive technologies can be a powerful agent of emancipation à la Paulo Freire, especially in economically disadvantaged communities.A rápida penetração de novas tecnologias na escola constitui uma oportunidade para a disseminação da filosofia de dois importantes teóricos da educação: Seymour Papert e Paulo Freire. As tecnologias digitais possibilitam formas diversas e inovadoras de trabalhar, expressar e construir. Essa adaptabilidade camaleônica da mídia computacional promove diversidade epistemológica (TURKLE; PAPERT, 1991), criando um ambiente no qual os alunos, na sua própria voz, podem concretizar suas ideias e projetos com motivação e empenho. Este artigo descreve uma implementação conduzida em uma escola pública brasileira e gera uma série de princípios de design de ambientes Papert/Freireanos, analisando o empenho intelectual e emocional dos estudantes, suas trajetória de aprendizado e a complexidade de seus projetos, que variaram de robôs controlados por computador a filmes de ficção científica. O artigo discute um modelo de implementação com quatro componentes: primeiro, identificar um tema gerador relevante para a comunidade; segundo, partir da cultura e da experiência tecnológica da comunidade como base para a introdução de novas tecnologias; terceiro, deliberadamente usar uma abordagem de mídia mista, em que alta e baixa tecnologia coexistem; por fim, deslocar certos protocolos sociais e comportamentais considerados normais nas escolas, mesmo aqueles aparentemente irrelevantes para o ensino e a aprendizagem. Conclui-se que tal utilização de tecnologias expressivas pode ser um poderoso agente de emancipação à Paulo Freire e, em especial, em comunidades economicamente carentes

The Trojan horse as a Trojan horse

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-140).This thesis proposes a framework to model intervention in education systems using technology: the Learning Atmosphere. The motivation is to show that innovative learning with expressive technologies can happen even in economically disadvantaged regions, such as public education systems in Brazil, where our case studies took place. The contribution of the thesis is to explore ways in which mutual enrichment can be achieved through collective displacements of habits and mindsets taken for granted. The case studies demonstrate the importance and possibility of a powerful learning experience that builds up from the local culture and expertise, elements often disregarded in schools. Technology plays a central role, enabling diverse and innovative ways of working, expressing and building. In addition, it makes possible epistemological diversity, empowering of students and fulfillment to teachers, reinforcing the community's own livelihood. The core elements within the Learning Atmosphere are: -- Enhance the concept of generative themes using technology. -- Mix and match expressive media, especially low-cost technologies. -- Invest on relationship building and challenge established power relations. The legend of the Trojan Horse has the important role of warning us against the easy way into schools, the trivialization of ideas and the superficial experiences that do not change the praxis and mindsets in schools.Paulo Blikstein.S.M

Taking Constructionism Outside: Combining outdoor education, maker pedagogy, and constructionist learning

When education resumes after the COVID-19 emergency, what will schools look like? This paper discusses possibilities in two areas that can help us reimagine what learning might look like in the post-pandemic world: outdoor education and constructionist/maker education. These two areas of educational research have been widely studied and now could become important components of the reimagining of our educational systems. There is a great deal of scientific literature on outdoor education demonstrating its effectiveness, even in pre-pandemic conditions. Now, outdoor education becomes even more important, given the need to provide students with social distancing, and a learning environment with minimized risk of contagion. Now, as indoor makerspaces and other spaces for invention might not be able to accommodate students due to health concerns, we might consider implementing maker education in contexts outside of the school. This paper lays the foundations for future designs of educational units that combine the principles of outdoor education and Constructionist/maker pedagogy

An Assessment Instrument of Technological Literacies in Makerspaces and FabLabs

Background As the maker movement is increasingly adopted into K‐12 schools, students are developing new competences in exploration and fabrication technologies. This study assesses learning with these technologies in K‐12 makerspaces and FabLabs. Purpose Our study describes the iterative process of developing an assessment instrument for this new technological literacy, the Exploration and Fabrication Technologies Instrument, and presents findings from implementations at five schools in three countries. Our index is generalizable and psychometrically sound, and permits comparison between student confidence and performance. Design/Method Our evaluation of distinct technology skills separates general computing, information and communication technology (ICT), and exploration and fabrication technologies (EFTs) into nonoverlapping areas of technological expertise required to perform their respective sets of tasks. The instrument also tracks student confidence in EFT skills and assesses how that confidence relates to actual task performance. Results Exploration and fabrication technologies constitute a new and distinct set of technology literacies arising from fabrication settings. The EFT instrument compares students\u27 self‐reported confidence with their performance on complex design tasks and demonstrates that, for students, exposure to general computing and ICT tools differs from exposure to EFT tools. Conclusion The EFT instrument captures a new and distinct set of technology literacies that arise within fabrication settings and are independent of both general computing and digital content production skills

Digital Technology and design processes: Report on a FabLab@School survey among Danish youth

This report contains findings from a survey on Danish adolescents aged 11-15 years conducted in the fall of 2014 among 1236 students. It is a part of the [email protected] research program, which investigates the use of digital fabrication technologies in Danish schools