Technology and Innovation as a Cross Curricular

Theme in the New National Curriculum for

Estonian SchoolsMart Laanpere :: Centre for Educational Technology, Tallinn University

ECER :: European Conference of Educational Research :: Istanbul, 13. September 2013

The concept of innovation

New way of doing things in economy, e.g. the introduction of new goods, new methods of production, the opening of new markets, the conquest of new sources of supply and the carrying out of a new organization of any industry (Shumpeter, 1939)

An innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization or external relations. (OECD, 1997)

Types of innovation: Product innovation (e.g.iPod) Process innovation (e.g. IKEA furniture) Organisational innovation (e.g. Wikipedia) Market innovation (e.g. social media marketing)

Examples of innovation in Estonia

Innovation in school

Club of Rome, ‘No Limits to Learning’ (1979): innovative learning instead of repetitive learning

Example: it is a fact that printing the Sunday Times on paper “costs” 40 hectares of forest Repetitive learning: remember the fact, there will be test Innovative learning: discuss, what are you going to do about it?

The main features of innovative learning: Anticipatory learning: encouraging solidarity in time Participatory learning: creating solidarity in space

The main objectives: autonomy and integration

Innovation & creativity in curricula

A comparative study on national curricula, carried out by OECD in 33 countries

Technology & innovation in curriculum

T&I: one of the 8 cross-curricular themes in the new national curriculum in Estonia (2011)

Each student in grades 7-9 and 10-12 should: Be able to think and act innovatively while using new

technologies for problem-solving and coping with rapid changes in living, learning and working environments

Participate at least once during three years in a collaborative project, where new technologies are used for innovation that meets the needs of an external client: e.g. a company, local municipality, university

Sample project scenario

Social media marketing campaign to promote own school

Client: school administration

Goal: to increase awareness of recent curriculum change and eventually enrolment of students from other municipalities

Outcomes: a Web page and Facebook group dedicated to new curriculum will be integrated with the school Web site, social media campaign with games & prizes will be planned, conducted and evaluated

Description: a team of 4 students will study techniques and best practices of internet marketing, mentored by the teachers of informatics and economics, as well as an external mentor; participatory design methods will be applied in developing the curriculum Web site and integrating it with school Web site; the other half of the team will work on social media marketing

The other sample scenarios

Search engine optimisation and multilingual Web site for local company producing log houses

Designing and piloting GPS-geocaching game for local ecotourism accommodation provider

The survey on barriers to inclusion in local decision-making, followed by both high- and low-tech inclusion campaign

Producing a Wiki-based robotics textbook for the robotics lab at the technical university

Action research

A 20-hrs teacher training course was developed and piloted with 12 teachers in one of the schools in Tallinn

Hands-on, experiential learning; unleashing the creativity

Teachers created in pairs projects using a simple technology: QR codes

Feedback from teachers helped us to improve the course

35 trainers from all regions were then trained to deliver this course

QR-projects made by teachers

QR herbarium: leaves, flowers and seeds of trees around schoolhouse

QR art exhibition

QR dictionary (English)

QR monument trail

Pilot 2: Project Digital Nature Trails

Funded by NordPlus (Nordic Council of Ministers) 2013-15

Two schools involved: Kolga school in Estonia and Mouhijärvi school in Finland (Norwegian school dropped out)

Students are going to create four trails marked in the nature with QR codes or geotags, each project team has a client with specific expectations (museum, ecotouristic farm, environmental education centre, own school)

Estonian and Finnish student groups visit each other and try out the trails, help to improve them

The next steps

Goal: training 300 teachers (2%) all over Estonia

Web site and awards will be used to collect the best projects form schools, these will be used then in the next teacher training courses as inspiring examples

Innovatoorium: the lab of innovation for top project teams, with mentors/supervisors from the most innovative companies and universities