Academic year 2020-2021
Projects’ goals and partners
Project 1: Mein freund: micro:bit
The project was implemented in cooperation with city libraries (Marin Držić Children's Library and Savica Library) as recognizable information and cultural centers, which needed to promote the new library materials available for young users (micro: bit and micro: Maqueen robots). This project proved to elementary school students (5th and 6th grade), i.e. members of the Savica Library and the Children's Library Marin Držić, that a foreign language can be learned in an interesting and interactive way and it intrigued them to further learn a foreign language and robotics.
Due to the pandemic, the entire project took place through the Google Meets platform as an e-service learning project. Croatia was also hit by an earthquake, which is why everything took place under difficult circumstances. The workshops were created with the aim of encouraging the development of skills of logical thinking and reasoning, problem solving and communication in school children.
The topic of the workshop was learning the German language such as greetings, counting and self-presentation, and the learning itself took place through the basics of programming with micro: bit. One of the biggest problems is that robotics itself is not incorporated into the regular school curriculum and not all children have an insight into the basics of robotics, which cannot even arouse their interest in programming and robotics. Therefore, the workshop itself had to be as creative and interesting as possible in order to attract as many participants as possible. The primary benefit for the target group (children aged 11 and 12) was that they learned the basics of the German language, as well as basics of programming using micro: bit. With such innovative use of the micro: bit, the goal was to stimulate the interest of the target group towards robotics itself.
Link to Google site: https://sites.google.com/view/mein-freund-microbit/o-projektu
Link to ePortfolio: https://prezi.com/view/W7oLXSqvn9IMkhNcPlHh/
Project 2: Learning through fun: micro: bit workshops
The goals of this project were to offer primary school children in grades 5th to 8th (11 to 14 years old) an innovative educational content during the school winter holidays. In order to be considered as service learning, the project was implemented through collaboration with city libraries (Marin Držić Children's Library; Savica Library) as recognizable information and cultural centers which have a need to motivate more users to borrow new library material (i.e. micro: bit and micro: Maqueen robots).
The students of information sciences offered to library users - schoolchildren, education about micro: bit computer and micro: Maqueen robots. Through the implementation of the project, the participants (children) developed their logical skills and made their first steps in the world of programming.
The project was conceived as a series of four interactive workshops for upper elementary school pupils culminating in a Hackathon. The workshops offered pupils work with micro: bit computers, starting from the lowest possible level of knowledge, i.e. no knowledge about micro: bit, all the way to including a micro: bit computer in work with a micro: Maqueen robot. Through the project, school children have mastered the basic logical concepts in the world of programming, and implemented them with student supervision through various tasks. In cooperation with partner libraries, a maximum number of six participants has been agreed on, so that participants can work in a quality and individual way, taking into account that the workshops were held online (e-service learning) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The students of information, in turn, gained an invaluable experience of teaching schoolchildren in emerging technology use.
Link to Google site: https://sites.google.com/view/ucenjekrozzabavu/po%C4%8Detna?fbclid=IwAR2yOtwmNrFsWEPRnCdOTt7YN5Xh0posCyPhpkm3CaN_rQoxfUEPHKlHhk4
Link to ePortfolio: https://prezi.com/view/MKzNoaGXGcS2mRndJu2l/?fbclid=IwAR1yIe8QoKoK45DbH7hwDdncVx-vFAoAtDLDveILtesMecrLgivgbWSfe44
Project 3: Acquisition of knowledge about cultural heritage through Minecraft Education Edition
The project was established as a perfect opportunity to demonstrate transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary skills and knowledge acquired by students during two-major studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. The idea of this project was to combine a topic that is already familiar and fun for children - video games - with the topic of learning and merging these two topics into an alternative technique of learning that is not present in regular schooling. Thus, the school children were provided with a new learning experience, as well as the use of student potential to agree on an appropriate plan for the implementation of workshops in which skills from information and communication technology and cultural heritage to pedagogy and methodology intersect.
When carrying out the project, the key was to choose a partner from the community with whom the students wanted to collaborate and carry out the project. It was an NGO for gifted "DAR" in Zagreb, whose role is to support gifted pupils in the Republic of Croatia and beyond.
The experience of learning through the video game "Minecraft Education Edition" allowed school pupils to step out of the common learning framework and experience alternative methods of learning about cultural heritage. In addition to the material covered through video games, pupils had the opportunity to learn about non-European cultural heritage through math assignments and board games that are specific to the Asian and African cultures. This was an attempt to subvert the present material in Croatian education, which is primarily West-centric and Eurocentric in nature (except for a small part of the material that is covered in subjects such as geography and history), as well as expanding students' awareness of different cultures.
Link to ePortfolio: https://prezi.com/view/pS1g8iRphGTr8x7aVjgh/
Link to Google site: https://sites.google.com/view/dku-projekt
Project 4: Minecraft and Glagolitic script
The plan of this project was to encourage primary school pupils (3rd and 6th grade) to learn about the history of the Croatian language, more precisely about the Glagolitic script and the heritage that rests in this Old Slavonic language. The project was implemented in the form of workshops on the Minecraft Education Edition platform under the supervision of students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and librarians from the Marin Držić Children's Library and the Savica Library via the Google Meet application. Glagolitic script has deep roots in Croatian literature and history and is considered the oldest Croatian script. That is why the goal of this project was to present and introduce students to the Glagolitic script in order to recognize its importance for Croatian heritage. So the students learned what the Glagolitic scripts is, how it was created and why, the alphabet in the Glagolitic script and what all its symbols represent. Also, one of the goals was to make learning as fun as possible, and the students decided to achieve this through the Minecraft Education Edition platform. In today's world where the younger generation does not attach any special importance to the heritage of their country, this project was an ideal opportunity to raise pupils’ interest through introduction to the Glagolitic script and Glagolitic heritage because it is the main source for understanding Croatian literary, cultural and national identity and that is why this letter is especially important for education. Pupils were given the opportunity to learn about their Croatian language and culture in Croatia and to become "promoters" and "guardians" of its heritage. These workshops benefited school pupils so that they will now be able to recognize Glagolitic heritage, transmit knowledge about Glagolitic script, recognize the most important monuments, books and manuscripts in Glagolitic script in Croatia and other interesting things, and there is a new skill they adopted - writing and reading in Glagolitic script. In addition to this, pupils also learned how to navigate the Minecraft Education Edition platform, which contributed to the improvement of their IT skills.
Link to ePortfolio: https://prezi.com/view/Am9VxthlbVdcs6qm7d7F/
Link to Google site: https://sites.google.com/view/minecraft-glagoljica/naslovna?authuser=1