Abstract:

The recent reform of the Estonian national curriculum for computing in primary and secondary schools introduced an elective subject called 'Information Society Technologies' in Grade 7. It addresses the role of various transformative technologies in public e-services, such as Virtual and Augmented Reality, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. Students also learn about the impact of digital technology on the environment, health, managing their digital identity and dealing with cyber threats. This course is designed as a preparation for an interdisciplinary digital prototyping projects in Grade 8, where pupils use these new technologies to develop a prototype of a digital service that tries to solve someone’s problem in real life. The recommended projects include simple computer games, smartphone applications, IoT and robotics solutions, as well as digital multimedia content creation with animations, VR/AR services, web sites etc. In addition to digital skills, the students are expected to master their time management, collaboration, problem-solving, and communication skills. The methodology of the digital prototyping project is combining design thinking with computational thinking. Learners are first engaged in empathizing and analyzing the needs of the users, then defining the scope for a project, implementing collaborative production in several iterations, and finally, project pitching and self-evaluation.

Our study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of digital prototyping as an innovative teaching method along with chosen online platform, teaching methods, and learning resources. The paper reports on a pilot study conducted in six schools that implemented digital online educational and instructional materials and interdisciplinary digital prototyping projects in practice. An open-source software platform Taiga was used for project management and communication within teams. Taiga is a simple suite of online tools (Kanban board, wiki, backlog), designed for agile software development teams.

The following research questions guided our study:
1. What is the teacher and learner readiness to implement digital prototyping projects in line with the new computing curriculum for Estonian lower-secondary schools?
2. What are the teachers' and learners' satisfaction and feedback regarding the platform and learning resources designed for scaffolding the digital prototyping projects?
3. How can the digital prototyping project process and resources be improved?

The research design of this study was based on the Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach. The purposive sample included carefully selected 29 students and 6 teachers who participated in the pilot projects that were carried out in six schools over the period of 4 months. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through an online survey, interviews, project logs and design artifacts created by the students in the Taiga platform. The Kanban board logs provided insights into task creation, assignment, progress, development of pupils' communication and collaboration skills. The PAR process involved four phases: planning, action, reflection, and evaluation. The findings of this study provided valuable feedback and recommendations for re-designing the platform and content for digital prototyping projects.

Keywords:

Technology, computing curriculum, digital prototyping, interdisciplinary projects, problem based learning.