Students as Learning Designers in Innovation Education

This paper concerns examines criteria for developing technology enhanced innovation education and discusses how teacher and student relations changes in these learning spaces. To educate populations for Innovation, flexibility and creativity on all levels have become major focus points for most western countries (Drucker, 1993). The primary task of educators has thus been defined as preparing learners to participate creatively in the knowledge economies of Western countries (OECD, 2000). It has however been debated how innovative processes are integrated in school education and what elements are central for supporting learning of innovation competences in various subjects (Sawyer, 2006; Magnussen, 2011).
The current paper reports from a case study of a school in Denmark where teachers and students aged 6 – 14 was involved in developing and testing new forms of teaching technology enhanced innovation as part of the establishment of a so-called EduTechLab on the school. The EduTechLab was established in new facilities on the school and contained learning technologies such as NAO robots, sensor kits and 3D visualization and printing facilities. The goal of the EduTech project was to establish a creative learning environment for students and teachers that would support innovative practice with new forms of learning technology. Part of this was to involve students in innovative design processes for students to experiment with their own design solutions to case problems.
The project was organized as an interaction between workshops where teachers was introduced to learning technologies and innovation process tools, and interventions where goals and learning designs were tested in classes. The first phase of the project that was followed by the authors of this paper lasted half year and involved 15 teachers (Foreign languages, mathematics, physics, chemistry and mother tongue language) and 40, children. Video observations were conducted of workshops and interventions in classes and qualitative interviews were conducted with teachers and students.
The results presented in the paper shows that integrating learning technology into innovation education changes teacher roles and enhance student’s roles as co-designers of the learning environment and activities. We observed how the planned process and activities initially defined and controlled by teachers gradually was changed during the process due to collaboration between students and teachers. The student design processes thus gradually changed from teacher directed to an open experimenting for where students co-defined processes, technologies and design goals. These processes were partly caused by teachers changed experiences of student’s ability to handle complex design processes involving new technology. It was also observed how less technical savvy teachers changed roles from an instructor role to co-developer due to the collaboration with students on solving technical difficulties with the learning technology. In the paper it is discussed how these changed roles is an integrated part of working with knowledge production processes in school in and ever changing landscape of new technologies and how co-designer roles can be integrated in innovation education.