Abstract:

After many decades of trials and error, many technology enthusiasts are reconsidering their positions; there is a lot of accumulated evidence that up-to-date technologies don’t deliver the benefits marketing gurus promise. The Edutech novelties act as disruptive innovations and usually increase the teaching-learning process difficulty to instead of enriching them. How we could speak about the use of Edutech technology without taking into consideration the main player? The student is still missing in the education formula; if we insist in considering him, as a passive element, our performance results will never improve. Edutech improvements are visual and technical updates of a system that doesn’t work in our knowledge economy. What could happen if we focus on the experience and forget the immediate effect? We learnt for previous research that students involved in the design of their techspace make interesting reflexions on what they consider relevant for their learning. In this alternative framework all the actors participate actively, the teacher can help his students to focus correctly, technology becomes a facilitator helping students establish creative connections, students focus on their effective achievement and they can experiment positive outcome of their learning.

We consider learning a process of linking information and connecting facts in a given subject; it has nothing to do with remembering facts for long periods of time. Linkin framework is neither an up-to-date Edutech shopping list nor a new standard to build a refurbished ICT space. It’s a strategy to build a new ecosystem, a technology aided hub that helps user establish physical and emotional connections; it’s a safe place where people can work and collaborate together with the support of technology: individually, in pares, and in groups.

The research main aim is to develop a collaborative framework and a transformation agent capable of providing its users with a clear vision of the contribution of Information & Communication Technology to learning experience in the third Millennium educational institutions. We are seaking answers to critical questions such as: Is it an Edutech lab or an all purpose creativity space? What could be its characteristics? How we can adapt it to different cultural contexts? What media and technologies are useful and what aren’t? What are the strategies we should follow during the selection process? What are the components that could increase the space responsiveness to learning activities? How to avoid using innovations that could drain our budgets and blow up our expectations? How we could involve all the actors in the formula: the student (main user), the teacher (advisor), the ICT manager (facilities) and the general manager (finance)? Edutech components and kits are always expensive and their obsolescence is faster than expected; how we could avoid excessive spending.

The final outcome of our work is building a third millennium activity-oriented learning space that enables the student develop a learning experience based on exploring creatively any knowledge area and effectively accomplish his commitment.

Keywords:

Learning environments, learning experience design, student lead research.