The second training cycle of the E-DESIGN project has been concluded. From September until November 2020, 2 courses of 45 hours have been realized in collaboration with Booq: a library and co-working space which moved recently to the city centre of Palermo.
The second cycle of courses focused, as the first one, on the development of technical skills in the field of Arduino coding and website development but also on the development of essential transversal skills such as problem solving, design thinking, teamworking and creative thinking. These ICT courses introduce participants who would otherwise not have access to these kinds of courses, to enter the world of ICT and coding, develop their self-confidence, digital skills and develop the essential competences that are required on the labour market, now and in the future.
For 7 weeks, twice a week, and two groups in parallel, participants from different national and educational backgrounds worked and learned together. In the first 4 sessions, they explored coding and block coding in relation to Arduino, while learning the basics of electronics while building their own circuits such as a traffic light or alarm systems. After that, another 3 sessions focussed on website development through languages such as HTML and CSS. The final 7 sessions were dedicated to the development of personal projects. In this part, the participants had the opportunity to put into practice the first part of the course by transforming their own idea into a concrete project related to everyday needs.
During the course, participants had the opportunity to learn independently. Indeed, trainers encouraged participants to try to solve technical problems by themselves seeking information on the internet. This learning method approach increased participants’ problem solving and creative thinking skills. Participants learned how to read a code for Arduino, learn the basics of making circuits, and created their own codes. Furthermore, they have been encouraged to apply a design thinking process to realize a web page addressed to a specific target, always adding little challenges to get encouraged to learn more. This worked very well and even participants who had difficulties with using a computer at first, managed to build their own simple web pages. During the final part of the course, participants have been actively looking for everyday problems and technical solutions, finally coming up with their own project. Personal projects included varies anti-theft devices and GPS systems connected to a web interface, an Arduino controlled water irrigation system with the possibility to read the measurements online, a cat food distribution system, and a robot that can record video and be controlled from a distance.
Lam: “Working and learning with other participants was stimulating and fun. The peer education and learning by doing was fundamental to acquiring new skills through direct participation. I have always been curious about web development and this course gave me the opportunity to deepen my knowledge on the main programming languages.”
Lam made as a final project a web-page on cosmetic products, using HTML and CSS coding language.
Gloria: “I believe that this course gave me the tools to continue to work independently to realize projects with Arduino platform. What I liked the most was to work in groups to solve technical problems and to imagine together creative projects to work on”.
Gloria made as a final project an automatic plant watering system, with Arduino and a humidity sensor.
To get an idea of the kind of projects that have been made by participants, please check out the videos below:
Final project of Gloria
Final project of Federica
E-DESIGN: EUROPEAN DIGITAL EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION AND GLOBAL NEIGHBOURHOOD is a three-year project co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme, Key Action 3 – Social Inclusion and Common Value. The purpose of the project is to contribute to promoting social inclusion and combating social inequalities among disadvantaged groups, especially migrants and refugees, through strengthening their digital competences in order to enhance their labour market opportunities and social participation according to the objectives of the European Pillar of Social Rights and ET 2020.
Partners
The 6 European institutions involved in the E-DESIGN are as follow:
- Coordinator: ZAUG gGmbH(Germany)
- CodeDoor (Germany)
- CEPROF (Portugal)
- EILD (Greece)
- CIP (Cyprus)
- CSC Danilo Dolci (Italy)
- Kauko (Lithuania)
For further information, please write to Vidjaya Thelen: vidjaya.thelen@danilodolci.org.