WHEN SCIENCE BECOMES INTERACTIVE: A COLLABORATIVE PROJECT IN A TEACHING-LEARNING NETWORK

In the last decade the implementation of the new educational model of higher education has brought with it a commitment to active didactic methodologies, centred on the student who now must acquire knowledge and skills in an autonomous and active learning framework, always having as reference the professional context current.

A key element in order to materialize the aforementioned aspects is the use of the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), mainly those related to Internet technology, within the educational context both with regard to the mentioned processes of teaching-learning (eLearning) and its result (virtualization of teaching contents).

The main pillars of the Teaching Innovation Project "When science becomes interactive. A collaborative project in a teaching-learning network between the University of Salamanca, the University of the Basque Country and the Autonomous University of Lisbon”, which was developed during the academic year 2015-16, were developed under this new pedagogical philosophy. The main objective of this project was the design and creation of “Digital didactic materials in interactive format”, which have been prepared jointly by students and professors of the University of Salamanca, the University of the Basque Country and the Autonomous University of Lisbon under the narrative hypermedia journalistic formats.

The innovation in teaching methodology used to articulate this project lies in the union of synergies between the areas of knowledge involved (science and literature), i.e. under the approach of a common practice students have worked on the different theoretical contents and the practical ones of the respective subjects with the objective of carrying out a joint work related to the contents of the subjects of 'General and Inorganic Chemistry' (University of the Basque Country) and the subjects of the Degree in Audiovisual Communication 'Genres Audiovisuals' (University of Salamanca) and the subject 'Online Journalism Workshop, taught at the Degree in Communication (Autonomous University of Lisbon).

Therefore, the present paper provides an articulated analysis around this project, which focuses its main interest in the great importance that has acquired in the new curricula, the practical work that the students performs within the subjects, both at the level of hours of work and of specific weight in the final grade.

The achievement of this project has allowed:
i). materialize the interdisciplinary and the transversality between areas that at first could seem that they are totally disconnected, but that have found their union under didactic ends and within the search of synergies to carry out innovative teaching practices within the different subjects in such a way that with them the students have been actively and dynamically involved in the processes of teaching to learning;
ii) use the different digital communicative tools in order to give visibility to the practical assignments, materializing the so-called 'virtualization of teaching contents' in this case through the elaboration of a web page as a "Scientific Magazine" where the contents on "descriptive chemistry" have been published, being accessible online.