The ByLinedu Association is a Valencian organization that works to help reduce the digital divide  with STE(A)M activities and projects for digital literacy and educational innovation. We explain some of their projects.

Learning and having fun using technology is the main motto of ByLinedu, which has been working for eight years on educational NGO projects that use technology as a tool for social transformation.

One of such projects is the CodeDojo Valencia, an international initiative that promotes the learning of programming for children and young people between 7 and 17 years old. With the motto “Be cool!“, this network is made up of more than 1,000 CodeDojos in 65 countries. It is an open and free initiative, where they seek to promote the training of minors (whom they call ninjas) with the participation of adults, whether they are parents or volunteer mentors.

In this dojo, the ninjas learn how to program, develop websites, mobile applications or video games using applications adapted to different ages: Scratch, AppInventor, Arduino, HTML, Javascript, etc, as well as different electronic elements. They also have a CoderDojo Girls group for the participation of STE(A)M girls. The children work through observation, quizzes, various worksheets and interest groups with different sessions where challenges arise. The participants are advised by the different mentors, who collaborate by transmitting their knowledge and experience.

Another of its projects is the European Erasmus+ Make In Class project, which aims to help STE(A)M teachers and educators to promote activities in the classroom based on maker culture to prevent school dropouts.

Related to this project, there is also an Erasmus+ STEAM-H, a programme improving STE(A)M learning in primary schools to support teachers and educators to improve student learning.

And since technology has to be fun, they have created the game Oca STEM, a game of the goose board in which men and women experts in different fields of STE(A)M knowledge are represented. The game aims to be inclusive so that people with functional disabilities can participate fully, integrating audio-video phrases, textured dice and / or Braille, as well as texts and multimedia elements.

In 2018 they finished the Parcheesi board for the Escornarbot robot,and this year it has received the 1st Spiral Award Trends in Perspective.

By Colectic

Colectic, the Spanish partner of the STEAMonEdu project, has participated in two events to present the project, the collaboration platform, the Competence Framework for STE(A)M Educators to educators and trainers and to request their opinion and collaboration.

The events were aimed at two different profiles of educators: the  Encuentro de Centros Innovadores – DIM-Espiral (Meeting of Innovative Centers – DIM-Espiral) – for teachers and professors; and the Jornada de la Internet Social 2020 (Social Internet Annual Conference) – for e-facilitators and trainers).

The  Encuentro de Centros Innovadores – DIM-Espiral (Meeting of Innovative Centers – DIM-Espiral) on 25 November brought together (online) teachers from all over the Spanish territory and offered a great variety of elements in its programme. Esther Subias, project manager at Colectic, organized a workshop focused on the draft of the competency framework and how it should – or not – be adapted so that STE(A)M education can take place despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the workshop, which was attended by 14 people, both the framework and the survey were presented; both elements had been designed and translated into several languages (including Spanish and Catalan) so that educators and policy makers can offer their opinion. The results of the meeting can be found on the website, where the framework can also be accessed.

The Jornada de la Internet Social 2020 (Social Internet Annual Conference), under the slogan “JdIS 2020: innovation, technology, and Punt TIC in pandemic situation” hosted on 15 December a conference by Colectic, which was attended by educators and trainers from telecentres and other non-formal education entities.

The presentation highlighted the European STEAMonEdu platform, which brings together STE(A)M educators and policy makers, as well as the Competence Framework and the survey to evaluate it that will be open to the contributions until 17 January. The conference was streamed on YouTube, and 53 people attended live.

Colectic seeks, in this way and in collaboration with its European partners, to encourage the participation of educators and trainers in the STEAMonEdu project and especially in this phase of the project, which puts on the table the key elements that will serve to lay the foundations of future training actions, planned for 2021.

Any interested person can reach Colectic’s team by sending an email to steamonedu@colectic.coop or by visiting the website colectic.coop.

By Colectic

The CEB (Barcelona Education Consortium) is an instrument of co-management and decentralization, within a framework of institutional collaboration, which represents the will of the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Barcelona City Council to work together to improve services in school education and citizenship through a single educational network. Our project partners from Colectic spoke with Susana Navarro Jiménez, a leader of educational innovation programmes in the STE(A)M and sustainability areas of the CEB, and Rosanna Fernandez, director of the innovation, programmes and training area on the strategic lines and STEAM initiatives that are promoted in the city of Barcelona.

• How do you work in STEAMCat projects on technologies for learning and knowledge?

The STEAMcat pedagogical innovation programme is an educational programme promoted by the Department of Education, which lasts for three years. This programme is deployed throughout the Catalan territory and, from the Barcelona Education Consortium, 8 centres participate, finishing this course after having participated for three years.

Also, in the city of Barcelona, there are other educational programmes and proposals framed in the STE(A)M field. These are of different duration and intensity, aimed at different educational stages and promoted by different entities. The supply has increased considerably during the last three years, as well as the demand from educational centers.

• Does the STE(A)M approach have to be transversal or have a specific specialization?

From the CEB, we consider that the ideal situation is to work in a transversal and global way, taking advantage of contextualized and real situations to work on Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics.

Competency learning aims for the student to be able to apply their knowledge to solve problems and challenges in different contexts of their life. Situations are never closed to a single field of knowledge, but the solutions to them are the result of different fields of knowledge. Helping our students to use their knowledge in a holistic way, under the benefit that it is global and multi-factorial, is one of the objectives of competency learning.

Along these lines, one of the main advantages of working on STE(A)M in a transversal way is that students can experience how they work in real life to respond to the challenges posed by science and technology: all projects of this nature They are developed from the work of a multidisciplinary team members that complement each other. The basis of their work is cooperation and knowledge sharing with the aim of achieving the same goal.

• What are the successes of the STE(A)M community in Barcelona? Can you comment on some indicators and challenges?

A few years ago subjects in schools were worked on separately, and it was not proposed to work collaboratively between the different disciplines. Many institutions, entities, administrations and universities began to offer new ways of learning through STE(A)M, but these arrived in a disorderly way and without coherence. From the CEB we saw the need to channel the offer, to analyze the needs, to take advantage of resources and to share language and meanings with the different institutions and administrations involved. For this reason, monthly meetings were organized with the different agents, to build a map of the city and create a global STEAM action plan.

The demand for educational centres has increased exponentially, and that is why our goal is to offer proposals based on real needs, such as working on scientific vocations in earlier stages, which is when vocations are defined.

• Are there training actions aimed at teachers who want to work on STE(A)M?

Yes. From the Department of Education there is a STE(A)M training line that began more than 10 years ago. To highlight the CTM training (Sciences, Technology and Mathematics) that was born with the aim of working the STE(A)M in a transversal way and by projects. The teachers of the Barcelona Education Consortium, as part of the Education Department, also had the option of taking this 3-year training. It could be said that the CTM training was the starting point for the design and implementation of many other training courses in this field of knowledge.

At the CEB there are two lines of STE(A)M training offer that stand out: one has to do with the fact that most of the educational programmes of the Consortium’s unified call for programmes offer training to the teachers responsible for implementing them in the classrooms. One of the areas of the unified call for programmes is the STE(A)M area, which today has an offer of 10 educational programmes for primary, middle and secondary schools. At the same time, the resource centres of the city of Barcelona offer training centres included in the STE(A)M field and tailored according to the needs and PEC of the educational center.

• How do Pedagogical Resource Centres work, and how do STE(A)M skills such as robotics, digital manufacturing, social networks or technological sovereignty work?

The main objective of the pedagogical resource centers is to accompany the educational centers in their improvement process towards the educational transformation of the centers. For years, digital culture seminars have been carried out in which robotics, collaborative work and the use of mobile devices have been worked on.

Also from the CRPs, programs such as the Science Congresss, aimed at primary school and where the focus is placed on scientific methodology and on the student body as the protagonist, have been energized. The key to this programme is the accompaniment of the teaching staff by the CRP technicians, as well as the link with the scientific community.

• What is the pedagogical programme of the Manufacturing Athenaeums aimed at students and teachers?

The objective of the Educational Program of Manufacturing Athenaeums is to bring digital manufacturing closer to students and teachers through the use of it to solve real needs in their environment, focusing on the learning, design and manufacturing process rather than on the product.

Projects are developed that put into practice creativity, research, experimentation and meaningful learning for both students and teachers. It is committed to being interdisciplinary, offering students the opportunity to go from idea to object applying curricular content from different areas and personal and learning competencies that promote school success, educational innovation, technological competence and professional guidance.

• How do you imagine STE(A)M to be worked on in educational centres in the future?

We imagine that the centres work in a holistic and real way, therefore we would probably no longer talk about STE(A)M. The trend is work by skills, and not by subjects.

by Colectic

The event, in hybrid format, is within the 2021 social internet day #Jdis21, where Esther Subias from Colectic, Claudia Matera from ALL DIGITAL, Achilles Kameas from Hellenic Open University, Cornelia Popescu from Fundatia EOS Romania, Katrin Schuberth from Helliwood media & education and Paolo Russo from Stati Generali dell’Innovazione will present the European framework and approaches to STE(A)M education in the session “STEAMonEdu for digital inclusion: project results”.

The Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia (Spain), through the Xarxa Punt TIC and the Secretariat of Digital Policies, are pleased to invite you to be an active part of the conference.

During the conference, will be presented the most relevant results of the project and how STEAMonEdu works to strengthen a network of people interested in the field and offers the opportunity to share their experiences.

Time for interactive workshops will take place from 12:15 pm to 13:45 pm.

Additionally, the workshop “Free software tools and resources: the Punt TIC experience” will be focused on free software and tools helpful to work and share results, with open standards to facilitate cooperation. These opportunities can allow wider control over the computer, data and privacy.

From the Punt TIC experience, we’ll explore how it can be implemented in telecenters.

A second workshop on “SteamOnEdu and the telecenters: exploring the intersections” will be focused on how the professional profile of digital trainers and facilitators influences and matters. And to which extent sharing ideas, experiences, activities, resources, networks and dialogue is an element that makes a difference.

The STEAMonEdu project has explored all these avenues as ICT Point Network. Now is time to share, analyze the results, see how we can improve our impact on the citizens we interact with and answer some questions such as: Is the STEAM profile essential in a telecentre?

Registration for the final event session at #JdIS21.

For any questions, feel free to contact steamonedu@colectic.coop.

By Colectic