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DELIVERABLE 6.6
EC POLICY BRIEFINGS
NUMBER 1
PRELIMINARY VERSION
1
DOIT Deliverable 6.6 “EC Policy Briefings - Number 1 (Preliminary version)”
“DOIT – Entrepreneurial skills for young social innovators in an open digital world” A HORIZON 2020 INNOVATION ACTION
Consortium: Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H. (AT, co-ordinator), Stichting Waag Society (NL), Lappeenranta University of Technology (FI), Zentrum für Soziale Innovation (AT), mediale pfade.org - Verein für Medienbildung e.V. (DE), eduCentrum (BE), ZAVOD Kersnikova (SI), Polyhedra d.o.o. (RS), Capital of Children A/S (DK), University of Zagreb (HR), Institut d'Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya (FabLab Barcelona, ES), European Social Entrepreneurship and Innovative Studies Institute (LT), and YouthProAktiv (BE)
Webpage: http://DOIT-Europe.net Duration: 10/2017-09/2020 Grant: H2020-770063 (Call H2020-SC6-CO-CREATION-2017)
Contact (co-ordinator):
Dr. Sandra Schön Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H. e-mail: [email protected]
Disclaimer: This document’s contents are not intended to replace consultation of any applicable legal sources or the necessary advice of a legal expert, where appropriate. All information in this document is provided "as is" and no guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The user, therefore, uses the information at its sole risk and liability. For the avoidance of all doubts, the European Commission has no liability in respect of this document, which is merely representing the authors' view.
DOIT Deliverable 6.6 “EC Policy Briefings - Number 1 (Preliminary version)”
Description of the Deliverable
Overview Details
Authors Guntram Geser, Salzburg Research, Austria
Reviewers Radovana Jagrikova, YouthProAktiv, Belgium Sandra Schön, Salzburg Research, Austria
Number of Deliverable 6.6
Title of Deliverable EC policy briefings - Number 1 “European Policy Brief: Education of young people for social innovation and entrepreneurial practices in makerspaces” (Preliminary version)
License CC BY 4.0, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Attribution CC BY 4.0 DOIT, http://DOIT-Europe.net, H2020-770063, Guntram Geser / Salzburg Research
Dissemination Level Public
Contractual delivery date 2018-09-30
Actual delivery date 2018-10-16
To be cited as Geser, Guntram (2018, draft). European Policy Brief: Education of young people for social innovation and entrepreneurial practices in makerspaces (Preliminary version), deliverable 6.6 of the Horizon 2020 project DOIT, EC grant agreement no 770063, Salzburg, Austria: Salzburg Research.
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The quest for entrepreneurial youth in Europe Europe needs more people with an entrepreneurial mind-set and skills able to turn creative ideas into successful economic and social innovations. Nourishing entrepreneurial young people has been on the agenda of educational policy-makers and institutions in the European Union for many years. Among the four EU objectives of the common Education and Training 2020 framework adopted in 2009 was “enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training”. In the context of the economic crisis, high youth unemployment and rapid technological change, this is all the more important. For some years now the subject of Entrepreneurship Education (EE) has been present in schools. There is a growing awareness that entrepreneurial attitudes, knowledge and skills can be learned, and that their active use benefits the economy and society as a whole. But the addition of EE to traditional curricula and forms of teaching and learning has not generated tremendous results. As evidenced by a comprehensive Eurydice report on EE in Europe (2016), so far the goals communicated by the European Commission (2012, 2013) to “rethink” and “open up” education in order to equip students with the skills needed by innovative citizens, businesses and employees have not been achieved. Among the reasons are that schools and teachers often fail to adopt open educational practices, collaborate with centres of creativity and innovation, and seize the opportunities provided by digital technologies.
EDUCATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE FOR SOCIAL
INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURIAL PRACTICES
IN MAKERSPACES
The first policy brief of the EU-funded project DOIT explains how Europe can step up and make early stage entrepreneurship education for young people more practice-based and effective. The suggested approach is empowering primary- and secondary-school pupils (6–16 years old), together with facilitators, to co-create solutions for social and environmental issues. Maker-spaces, open innovation methods and creative digital tools play a key role in the “learning by doing” approach. Broad take-up could nourish in more young people attitudes and skills needed by innovative citizens, businesses, and employees.
Guntram Geser, Salzburg Research, Austria 16 October 2018
INTRODUCTION
EUROPEAN
POLICYBRIEF
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The DOIT project, a Horizon 2020 Innovation Action, trials a new practice-based approach for developing digital, social and entrepreneurial competences of young people (6–16 years old) in makerspaces. The project recognises that fostering entrepreneurial mind-sets, attitudes and skills of young people for innovative ventures should begin early on in creative and collaborative settings. Makerspaces provide such settings to promote creativity, self-confidence, team-work and other competences of entrepreneurial people. Maker-spaces are not a theoretical concept, but a rapidly growing number of creative centres where people get together and work on projects, using various digital and other productive tools.
Entrepreneurship is when you act upon opportunities and ideas and transform them
into value for others. The value that is created can be financial, cultural, or social.
Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship
The DOIT project suggests mobilising makerspaces, within schools as well as for extracurricular activities, to empower primary- and secondary-school pupils, together with teachers and other facilitators, to develop innovative solutions for social and environmental issues. Such issues, perceived in the local context, can engage young people in maker activities, aimed to acquire and apply creative and entrepreneurial competences.
Aligning entrepreneurial education with European policies With regard to high-level policies, the proposed focus on societal issues ties in with the Europe 2020 Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (2010) and relates to European measures promoting social innovation and businesses. These measures started with the Social Business Initiative (2011) and can be found within several current programmes such as the Employment and Social Innovation Programme (2014–2020). Social innovation and entrepreneurial competences, including a special focus on digital skills, are likely to play an increasing role in future programmes. The updated Education and Training 2020 (ET 2020) framework of the EU member states (November 2015) emphasises relevant learning outcomes which require innovative open and digital educational methods. As highlighted in the European Commission’s Communication on Opening Up Education (2013), ICT-enabled open educational practices and resources allow to make teaching and learning more innovative, flexible and effective. Innovative open practices are a core element of the DOIT approach, including easy access to and usage of open educational resources (OER) for learners, both pupils and teachers/facilitators. Key policy messages of the ET2020 Working Group on Digital Skills and Competences (2017) emphasise that educational institutions should help remove the digital skills gap in Europe by working together with partners, including businesses, civil society organisations and local communities. Local organisations which provide makerspaces with a focus on software tools, digital design and fabrication appear as excellent partners to tackle the digital skills gap. However, such a gap exists also within schools. A survey of the European Schoolnet (2013) found that across the EU and other European countries, on average only 20–25% of school children were taught by teachers who are confident using technology in the classroom. While many teachers have good or sufficient ICT skills, the problem is the classroom, which does not allow practice-based teaching and learning in a “real-world” setting. DOIT proposes employing makerspaces for projects in which pupils together with teachers (as facilitators) can develop useful digital and other skills.
Digital competence involves the
confident, critical and responsible use of, and engagement with, digital
technologies for learning, at work, and for participation in society.
Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. Council of the European Union, 2018
In January 2018 the European Commission issued the Digital Education Action Plan, in which Priority 1 is “Making better use of digital technology for teaching and learning” (European Commission 2018a). Beside still required efforts to ensure equity and quality of digital access and infrastructure across Europe, the priority emphasises the huge, largely untapped potential of digital technologies for improving education. Makerspaces are not mentioned in the plan, but the Com-
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mission staff working document accompanying the Communication (European Commission 2018b) under Priority 1 recognises that maker concepts “are increasingly finding their ways in different sectors of education as an innovative way to engage with digital technology from a design and inventor perspective. These practices are based on both technological developments and pedagogical innovation. At the same time, they provide a hint on how the infrastructure for educational purposes can be rich, varied and differentiated”.
The EU state of affairs in entrepreneurship education in schools The European Commission’s Communication on Rethinking Education (2012) called for a fundamental shift in education to develop the skills, especially ICT and entrepreneurial skills, required for increasing levels of employability, new business creation, and active citizenship. A report of the European Eurydice network, published in the context of the Communication, showed that schools were paying insufficient attention to the development of such transversal skills. The report highlighted that their integration in curricula requires schools to change the way they teach and target and assess learning outcomes (Eurydice 2012). With regard to Entrepreneurship Education (EE) in Europe, the situation is still mostly “business as usual”. The Eurydice report (2016) on the situation shows that out of 38 national and regional educational systems only 11 had a specific EE strategy for schools, 18 a general one, and 9 no strategy at all. Concerning requirements for actual entrepreneurial education and practice, the survey found that:
x EE was most common in upper secondary education, however mainly as a not cross-curricular economics & business topic,
x More than three quarters of the systems did not have any regulations on EE in initial teacher education and education,
x Over half of the systems had very few or no guidelines on particular teaching methods, x In only few systems were practical entrepreneurship experiences a compulsory part of the
curriculum. While the Eurydice report notes exemplary EE implementation in some systems and progress in others, actual entrepreneurial experiences are often optional or not supported by guidelines to good practice. It appears that exposure to “real-world” situations outside the classroom is missing widely. Evidence for the limited effectiveness of current EE programmes is addressed in a later section. Eurydice urges that appropriate and stable funding streams for EE are necessary. More funding is especially needed for EE support through collaboration with external partners. Such support is already common in 28 countries or regions for continuing professional development, where courses and teaching materials for at least some subject teachers are provided by external organisations. Support for EE should be expanded to initial teacher education and regular training, and involve currently “unusual” enablers of practical experiences of teachers and students. DOIT suggests adding makerspaces together with social and “green” businesses (with a focus on the environment) and ICT and innovation centres to the list of enablers. Bringing together different actors to improve EE allows for change to take place and widespread. In this context, it is preferable to speak of entrepreneurial education rather than EE (Lackéus 2015). EE is more related to the notion of business development, whereas being entrepreneurial concerns innovative ways of thinking and doing, independent of having a business plan at hand. It does not convey the expectation that young people will necessarily start a business in the future, but that they will be creative, resourceful and flexible to adapt to a rapidly shifting technological and business environment.
EVIDENCE AND ANALYSIS
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Makerspaces as practice-based co-creative learning environments The DOIT project suggests using makerspaces, within schools and external, to promote practice-based, co-creative development of digital, social and entrepreneurial competences of pupils as well as educators. Makerspaces can allow them to connect to “real-world” issues and seize opportunities provided by new digital technologies. For about 10 years the number of makerspaces has been growing steadily. The core drivers have been more easily available digital design and fabrication tools (e.g. 3D printing), mostly based on open-source software and hard-ware, and the “maker movement” which promotes Do-It-Yourself (DIY) making and sharing of tools and knowledge. Maker media, online sharing platforms and a wave of large maker fairs and weeks (e.g. European Maker Week) and local maker days have spread the spirit and practice of “making” worldwide.
Figure 1: DOIT - Makerspaces figures and estimates (Sept.2018) based on inventories (fablabs.io, hackerspaces.org), surveys and studies (Rosa et al. 2017; OD&M 2017, Ramella & Manzo 2018). Estimate for “other” only for
makerspaces with relative intensive use of digital tools.
Makerspaces can take different forms in terms of organisation, where they are established, available tools, and what is being produced. However, according to the literature they share some aspects, which include that a makerspace typically is:
o run by or on behalf of a local community or public institution, o publicly-accessible, freely or based on a moderate membership fee, o equipped with a variety of tools for creative work by like-minded people, o promotes collaboration on projects and knowledge sharing, and o includes educational activities with a focus on hands-on “learning by doing”.
“Makerspaces” is the general term for all creative environments that are based on maker principles. These include Fab Labs, Hackerspaces and various other makerspaces. Fab Labs: Are laboratories with a focus on digital design and fabrication using computer-controlled 3D printing, laser cutting and other tools. Such labs are often established by or are closely related to universities as spaces for education, research and innovation. Cities leading the development of Fab Labs such as Barcelona use them as creative centres with a focus on engaging and upskilling unemployed youth. Most Fab Labs are members of a network coordinated by the Fab Foundation. These agree to provide a minimum core set of tools, be accessible and share knowledge. The member registry currently gives the figure of 1321 Fab Labs existing worldwide, up from 128 established and 28 planned labs on the first online list of the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms in 2012. Some 550 may exist now in the EU. Hackerspaces: Are mainly community-based and have a focus on programming and sharing of open-source software, but for some years have been expanding their activities to include open hardware, circuits, electronic components, and sensors. The hackerspaces wiki provides a community-maintained list of such spaces worldwide; on this list 1421 hackerspaces are currently marked as active and 355 as planned. Their number in the EU could be around 400, with recent growth promoted by funding of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Makerspaces: Are various creative environments set up by local communities, schools or after-school clubs, libraries, museums and other public or civil society organisations. These provide mixed sets of tools (including some mentioned above), but all promote creative forms of cultural and social engagement. Their number worldwide is unknown, but based on different sources we estimate that in the EU there could be around 300 with a relative intensive use of digital tools.
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The DOIT pilots in ten European countries are being organised by makerspaces of all three categories and in addition temporary makerspace environments set up in primary and lower secondary schools which do not have one yet. Highly active local makerspaces use and contribute to websites of the maker community, including sites for sharing digital tools, designs and models, and experiences from using them (Locoro et al. 2017). DOIT is developing a platform for sharing open educational resources (OER) which combine making, social innovation and entrepreneurial education, including experiences from the DOIT pilots.
Awareness and piloting of makerspaces in the educational sector Pioneering educational practitioners in Europe already present their makerspace activities at conferences and in online articles, but an overview of the current situation of educational makerspaces across Europe is not available. Results of an online survey conducted by the EU-funded project MakEY – Makerspaces in the Early Years (2017, 633 questionnaires) indicate that awareness of makerspaces among early years education practitioners is low. MakEY has a focus on digital literacy and creative skills of children in the age range of 3–8 years in pre-school, primary school and non-formal settings (e.g. libraries and museums). In their survey only 25% of the 400 educational respondents had heard about makerspaces, 18% participated in and 16% organised makerspace activities. The results are not representative for the situation across Europe though because most survey participants were from Iceland (254), Romania (164), UK (80) and Denmark (55). The European Schoolnet’s Open Book of Educational Innovation, a mapping of innovation initiatives in Europe published in November 2017, includes makerspaces under the category “Innovating pedagogical options and holistic changes”. The authors see a “significant uptake” of the maker approach in schools. One of the two examples given is the large pilot Maker@Scuola in Italy, which involves almost 100 nursery and primary schools and focuses on the use of 3D printers. Makerskola (Makerspace in School) in Sweden can be mentioned as another large project. It involves several local education authorities and schools and explores how traditional craft workshops in schools could be developed into makerspaces. Here the focus is more on programming and the Internet of Things (IoT). Since the beginning of 2018 the Interactive Classroom Working Group of the European Schoolnet has had makerspaces as its core topic. The group investigates questions related to curriculum development, STEM education, and general skills development. The intention seems not to be an EU-wide stock-taking but case studies, videos and practical guidelines on how to set up makerspaces. Based on our searches we assume that the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) are in a lead position regarding take-up of making as an educational practice; at least reported experiences often refer to examples from there. But pilot activities are very likely also in preparation in other countries or already ongoing, like Maker@Scuola in Italy. In countries with a strong tradition of arts, crafts and vocational education in schools, workshops exist that can be redesigned to include digital maker activities. Where this is the case, such as in Scandinavia, schools will find it easier to integrate making in the curriculum. Another observation is that pilots appear to focus more on primary than secondary schools, which may be explained by a higher flexibility of the primary school curriculum for educational experiments. Furthermore, we found only weak links to innovation and entrepreneurial education, rather there appears to be an emphasis on basic skills in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). The weak links to entrepreneurial education are not surprising given the current situation of EE in many countries described by Eurydice, but also a predominant STEM focus of maker education would be a point of concern.
Issue of a probably misguided narrow focus on STEM education Learning in makerspaces is often being proposed as a vehicle to promote knowledge and skills in STEM. This may be reinforced by results of EU pupils in the PISA 2015 tests of 15-year-old pupils regarding basic proficiency in reading, science and mathematics. The average share of EU “low achievers”, those who failed the basic level 2, was 20.6 % in science, up from 16.6 % in 2012. In
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mathematics the figure was 22.2 % (2012: 22.1 %). The EU target for 2020 for both is below 15 % (ET2020 Framework). This background may motivate tying funding for maker education narrowly to STEM demonstration projects, which do not allow open and meaningful learning settings and practices. This would undermine the rationale of making as practice-based learning and the values youth can draw from it. DOIT suggests avoiding a narrow focus of maker education on STEM learning and instead engage young people through addressing social and environmental issues. When they work on such issues, STEM can follow, because young people, especially also girls, will naturally take an interest in technologies relevant for their project. For example, what do the social statistics say about the problem or how does this environmental sensor really work?
What evidence is there for the effectiveness of EE? The objective of early Entrepreneurship Education (EE) is to nourish the attitudes and skills as well as the intention of young people for entrepreneurial activities. Attitudes and skills considered as favourable for such activities include, but are not limited to:
x Attitudes: self-confidence, openness, ambition, perseverance, tolerance to failure; x Non-cognitive skills: communication and persuasion, team work and leadership;
imagination and creativity are also usually included here; x Cognitive skills: include analytical and critical thinking, especially capability to synthesise
information from disparate sources to develop reasoned actions; also application of more subject-based technical or managerial knowledge is included here.
The EntreComp – European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework provides a comprehensive reference framework that can be used as a basis for the development of curricula and learning activities fostering entrepreneurship as a competence; the EntreComp guide features DOIT as one of the case studies (McCallum et al. 2018: 74-75).
At tertiary education institutions such as business and engineering schools, EE programmes have been introduced for a relatively long time, intended as a potential engine for generating business start-ups. Such programmes typically have a focus on business idea development, project-based exercises and managerial knowledge supporting a potential venture. In recent years, course contents and teaching methods have become more varied (Sirelkhatim & Gangi 2015). Numerous studies have reported outcomes of tertiary-level EE programmes. A systematic review of 159 published articles from 2004 to 2016 (Nabi et al. 2017), in line with previous analysis, found a predominant focus on short-term and subjective outcome measures, lack of detailed description of the actual pedagogies being tested, and many contradictory findings. Regarding primary and secondary schools there are not as many studies available, only some larger surveys and a number of case studies. The evidence for the effectiveness of the usual forms of EE at all educational levels is mixed: some studies found that EE can foster relevant attitudes and skills, whereas others identified only weak or no effects. Most attention has been devoted to potential increases of entrepreneurial intentions, with the same, and also negative results, for example in a “mini-company” programme for college students in the Netherlands (Oosterbeek et al. 2010). Also the most extensive randomised field experiment in Dutch primary schools with the BizWorld five-day training course reported negative effects in this regard (Rosendahl-Huber et al. 2012). But this can be a good outcome because the students may have developed a more realistic view of entrepreneurship than they had before the programme. One clear insight with regard to entrepreneurial intention is a strong positive effect of role models in the surrounding of EE participants. A large survey of students aged 15–18 at general and vocational secondary schools in Austria confirms this assumption; the survey also found a significant influence of a general orientation towards innovativeness (Frank et al. 2005). Other major factors are the skills acquisition methods and the interaction between participants in the EE activity and beyond. Project-based and problem-solving activities in general appear to yield better skills development results than lectures, case studies or visits to local businesses. Also a positive dynamic among the participants in teamwork, peer groups and networks will drive achievement.
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Failing forward on the long and winding road to entrepreneurial outcomes Entrepreneurial facets of maker education are being investigated in an ongoing DOIT stock-taking of what is known about effects of makerspace-based learning of young people. The results will be presented together with the outcomes of the DOIT pilots in the next Policy Brief (September 2019). What must be considered is that for pupils in early entrepreneurship learning programmes now, it will take many years until they enter professional life and may at some point consider starting a business. Therefore the focus of early trials to promote innovative and entrepreneurial activity must be on essential attitudes and skills, which pupils can carry forward into next stages of education, training and practical experiences. Given this situation, we do not highlight any of the specific attitudes and skills deemed important for success, but that an encouraging environment is necessary. Especially we emphasise two aspects which should play a key role at an early stage: valuing the innovative ideas of pupils and students, and reducing fear of failure. With regard to valuing innovative ideas, results of the international Reflex and Hegesco surveys on graduates who work in different industries make clear that the perceived top 5 skills of innovative people are (in this order): come up with new ideas and solutions, willingness to question ideas, present ideas to an audience, alertness to opportunities, and analytical thinking (Avvisati et al. 2013). Concerning fear of failure and, hence, avoidance of risk-taking, the 2017 The Missing Entrepreneurs report of the OECD and European Commission alerts that in the 2012–16 period on average nearly half (46%) of surveyed young people (18–30 years) in the EU viewed fear of failure as a barrier to entrepreneurship (across all OECD countries slightly below 40%). Therefore it is important to encourage young people to actively explore their innovative ideas in creative environments, which allow them to “fail forward” by learning what might work better, and that such learning is very positive.
Policy Implications
The Horizon 2020 Innovation Action DOIT suggests applying practice-based learning in makerspaces to foster digital, social and entrepreneurial skills of young people (6–16 years old). Specifically, the project proposes co-creative maker activities addressing societal issues. The DOIT approach aligns with high-level policies, including the Europe 2020 Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, initiatives promoting social innovation and businesses, and crucial educational goals communicated by the European Commission (Rethinking Education, 2012; Opening up Education, 2013) as well as set in the updated Education and Training 2020 framework of the EU member states (2015). Key points of the research presented above are:
x So far the goals to “rethink” and “open up” education in order to equip students with the skills needed by innovative and entrepreneurial citizens, businesses and employees have not been achieved fully.
x Among the reasons are that schools and teachers often fail to adopt open educational practices, collaborate with centres of creativity and innovation, and seize the opportunities provided by digital technologies.
x Practice-based learning in makerspaces could allow young people to acquire and apply useful digital and social skills in creative and entrepreneurial projects.
x For about 10 years the number of makerspaces, which usually have an educational component, has grown steadily.
x In the educational sector the awareness of “making” as an option for practice-based education is still low, though piloting in schools has already started in some countries.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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x Early education for innovative and entrepreneurial activities is a long-term investment but could pay off if pupils carry forward relevant attitudes, experiences and skills.
x The importance of valuing and supporting children’s innovative ideas and helping them “fail forward” has been noted.
Recommendations
Raise awareness of makerspaces as environments for practice-based development of digital, social and entrepreneurial skills of young people Although there exist already makerspaces in some schools, and educators are enthusiastic about children’s achievements, many schools and teachers are currently not aware of such learning environments, despite their great potential for effective project-based and problem-solving learning. In order to raise awareness, the topic should have a prominent place on the agenda of educational institutions.
Expand the number of pilot makerspaces in schools, and of educational programmes in makerspaces Policy makers and agencies should promote setting up more makerspaces in schools to explore and evaluate educational benefits. Regarding the many existing external makerspaces, they often already have an educational component which could be expanded and turned into regular programmes.
Promote maker education with a focus on social and entrepreneurial mind-sets and skills A narrow focus on skills in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) will hardly allow young people engaging and meaningful learning experiences. Addressing social and environmental issues, which young people encounter in their local environment and want to act upon, will strengthen learning outcomes. These may include STEM, because the young people, especially also girls, will more likely take an interest in the technologies relevant for their project.
Support collaboration on teacher training and local community projects Teachers unfamiliar with maker education will need some training on how to facilitate making by pupils and students. Existing community makerspaces could provide a basis for collaboration on training courses and local projects involving teachers and students. Otherwise, setting up a community makerspace including, among other functions, “learning by doing” of teachers and students, could be the project.
DOIT objectives and approach The overall aim of the H2020 Innovation Action DOIT is to allow more young people to develop innovative and entrepreneurial mind-sets, attitudes, skills, and actual practices. DOIT promotes a practice-based approach, using makerspaces for early stage innovation and entrepreneurial education of primary and secondary school pupils in the age range of 6–16 years. The project consortium comprises 13 organisations experienced in entrepreneurial education, open innovation methods, and/or digital communication, creation and fabrication technologies. Many educators are currently not aware of makerspaces as environments for practice-based learning. Therefore DOIT in the first place wants to raise awareness of makerspaces as settings for such learning and skills development. The project aims to promote making as an educational method in schools and to expand educational programmes in the growing number of other makerspaces. For scaling up, providing training and practical material for educators is also on the DOIT agenda.
RESEARCH PARAMETERS
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The project fosters maker activities addressing societal issues. Focusing on issues which young people encounter in their local environment and want to act upon will strengthen learning outcomes. Among the effects in the medium to long term could be a stronger engagement in civil society activities and interest in social business opportunities.
Dimensions of the DOIT learning approach The DOIT learning approach spans and integrates aspects of five dimensions as shown in Figure 2. We highlight the collabora-tive dimension because Do-It-Together is essential for the project as a whole. Many project activities are being co-designed by the formal partners together with local organisations as well as coordinators of national and European dissemination net-works. Activities in the local DOIT pilots are generally co-created with the pupils and makerspace facilitators. The core activities in the pilots are designing, prototyping, reflecting and presenting solutions for social or envi-ronmental issues which the pupils select to work on.
Figure 2: Five Dimensions of the DOIT Learning Approach
DOIT innovation action programme The project has an ambitious innovation action programme, creating and offering to innovators a wide range of activities to make a difference (see Figure 3): DOIT will develop, validate and spread a new approach for young people to develop entre-preneurial mind-sets and skills for turning creative ideas into future social innovations, business and employment opportunities. The DOIT approach aims to empower primary- and secondary-school pupils (6–16 years old), together with educators and other facilitators, to use open innovation methods, digital maker and collaboration tools to tackle societal problems. Regional makerspace pilots, open educational resources (OER), a platform for sharing ideas and success stories, and other activities will allow the young people developing entrepreneurial know-how and experiencing being a digital social innovator. Moreover, the project will run roll-out activ-ities to disseminate the DOIT approach and mobilise stakeholder engagement to adopt and scale its application in the participating countries and across Europe. The target in the medium to long term (10-year horizon) is learning outcomes which enable digital social innovation, businesses and employment of young people. Implementation of the DOIT innovation action programme The DOIT innovation action programme will be implemented in three phases. In the first phase the project focused on preparing the regional pilots, which started in September 2018. In parallel, the online platform and open educational resources (OER) have been designed, ready to be fully implemented, used and extended in the current phase, until November 2019. The OER will support many practitioners beyond the regional pilots in organising and carrying out maker activities with a focus on social innovation and entrepreneurial education. In the final roll-out phase, a massive open online course (MOOC) for DOIT facilitators, online competitions for innovative young makers,
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and other activities engaging users and contributors will take place. The roll-out actions until September 2020 will culminate in a European Conference and the signing of a Memorandum on Entrepreneurial Maker Education by an expected large number of promoters of innovative and entrepreneurial youth.
Trialling the DOIT learning approach In line with the current project develop-ment we highlight the pilots in 10 European countries which trial the DOIT learning approach with children and educators. The pilots are being organised by makerspaces of all three categories described above: these are Fab Labs of the DOIT partners in Barcelona, Belgrade and Zagreb, the Kersnikova Institute (Ljubljana) with a focus on “hacking” and arts & culture, while the Stichting Waag Society (Amsterdam) will bring making into public libraries. Further, DOIT involves makerspaces run or mobilised by edu-cational centres, eduCentrum/Fyxxi (Ghent), Mediale Pfade (Berlin), and Capital of Children (Billund/Denmark), who collaborate with the LEGO Foundation. Moreover, Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland and Salzburg Research and Zentrum für Soziale Innovation in Austria will set up temporary makerspaces for pilots with primary and lower secondary schools which do not have one yet.
Figure 3: The DOIT Innovation Action Programme
Themes of the DOIT pilots include Living Together, Participation & Rights, Health & Well-being, Environment & Nature, Arts & Youth Culture. Special attention is devoted to questions of social inclusion, sustainable use of resources, and participation of girls and children with special needs in the pilots. The learning journey of the participants spans the whole cycle from identifying a local issue to presenting a co-created potential solution in public.
Research and evaluation The focus of the research on the pilots is allowing participants to reflect, share and analyse the experiences and outcomes of the co-creative activities, especially if the young makers develop skills, attitudes and ideas for innovative and entrepreneurial practices in the local context. Supporting research methods include a drawing-based creativity test and a questionnaire on self-confidence in creative making before and after the pilot workshops, regular feedback on activities, interviews with students, facilitators and supporters such as social entrepreneurs. The learning outcomes will be presented in the next Policy Brief, scheduled for publication in autumn 2019.
Main author of Policy Brief 1: Guntram Geser (Salzburg Research, Austria). With contributions by Radovana Jagrikova (YouthProAktiv, Belgium) and
Sandra Schön (Salzburg Research, Austria). CC BY 4.0 DOIT, http://DOIT-Europe.Net, H2020-770063
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PROJECT NAME Entrepreneurial Skills for Young Social Innovators in an Open Digital World (DOIT)
COORDINATOR Dr. Sandra Schön, Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H., Salzburg,
Austria; [email protected]
CONSORTIUM Capital of Children, Billund, Denmark
eduCentrum, Ghent, Belgium European Social Entrepreneurship and Innovative Studies Institute, Kaunas, Lithuania Institut d’Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain Kersnikova Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland Mediale Pfade - Verein für Medienbildung, Berlin, Germany Polyhedra – Designed to Create, Belgrade, Serbia Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft, Salzburg, Austria Stichting Waag Society, Amsterdam, the Netherlands University of Zagreb, Faculty of Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia YouthProAktiv, Brussels, Belgium Zentrum für Soziale Innovation, Vienna, Austria
FUNDING SCHEME Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European
Union – Societal Challenge 6: Europe in a changing world – inclusive, innovative and reflective societies: Co-creation for growth and inclusion – Innovation Action
DURATION October 2017 – September 2020 (36 months)
BUDGET EU contribution: 2 479 422 €
WEBSITE www.doit-europe.net
FOR MORE
INFORMATION Contact: Dr. Sandra Schön, [email protected]
FURTHER READING Hornung-Prähauser V., Schön S., Teplov R. & Podmetina Daria (2018). Social
innovation training in makerspaces with the new DOIT approach. In: Proceedings of the ISPIM Innovation Conference, Stockholm, 17-20 June 2018. Manchester: International Society for Professional Innovation Management.
Schön S., Jagrikova R. & Voigt C. (2018). Social innovations within makerspace settings for early entrepreneurial education - The DOIT project, pp. 1716-1725, in: Proceedings of EdMedia - World Conference on Educational Media and Technology, Amsterdam: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Schön S., Rosenova M., Ebner M. & Grandl M. (2018). How to support girls’ participation at projects in makerspace settings. Overview on current recom-mendations [poster]. EduRobotics 2018 Conference, Rome, 11 October 2018.
PROJECT IDENTITY
- EUROPEANPOLICYBRIEF - P a g e | 12
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