How are students in Spain to innovate?

in Addition to computing and robotics, ICT should be used to develop new skills, the ‘soft skills’

experts argue that we are not going behind the back of Europe and the pedagogical approach to innovate is widespread

Education and technology as a motor of evolution

Much has been said about how us has been life-changing technology: the way we buy and consume our entertainment, how we communicate and relate with other people… The education does not escape this revolution. But this is not only to teach new technologies and through them-that is to say, how to use a tablet or to replace the chalk by a blackboard electronic-, but of changing the methodologies and prepare for that new world that technology has transformed.

But, have you changed the classrooms really in Spain? What is bet for policies to be in technology and innovation? Are we going to the same speed as other countries of our environment? According to data of the Social Barometer Observed, the result of collaboration between THE WORLD, EXPANDING and Sigma Two, a 45.2% of spaniards believe that the training of young people in innovation is not good to enter the labour market. A scenario is not very optimistic.

Focusing on the University, “slightly more than half of the population (55.1 per cent) considered that, in regard to university education, Spain is in an intermediate position. Only 5.1% believe that Spain is at the head of Europe and a 31.7% puts us at the tail with respect to our community partners,” said Miguel Angel Simon, director of Operations of Sigma Two. And adds that “it is relevant that the percentage of those who consider that we are at the tail of Europe gets the highest result among those who have university degrees of higher grade (35.3%) and especially among the unemployed (47,5%)”.

The training in innovation, however, starts in the schools. And in that sense, there is a long way in the implementation of programs. In the year 1985 was started from the Ministry’s Project Athena, a plan for the national introduction of information technology in the school, and that would be the first of this type, explains Rosabel Roig Vila, director of the research group EDUTIC-ADEI, director of the Master in Education and ICT of the University of Alicante and director of the ICE (Institute of Sciences of Education) of this institution.

“Subsequently, there have been numerous plans and programs, both from the Ministry -as the program School 2.0, which was developed in 2009-2012 – as of the respective Ministries of Education of the AUTONOMOUS communities. Currently, the plans that develop from the Ministry vehiculizan through the Intef (National Institute of Educational Technologies and Teacher Training), as a Commons (the Network of Educational Resources in Open),” continues Roig Vila, who also draws attention to the initiatives that are developed at universities, for example, of Alicante.

“last year we launched for the first time Pensem-Online, the acronym for the Plan of Teaching Semipresenciales-Online. It is to explore and propose developments that do rethink the processes of teaching and learning college students with a realistic, rational, and innovative from the education, digital and innovation in education”.

The Spanish are good at recalling data and bad problem-solving

There seems to be a policy alternative after School Program 2.0, which emerged in the context of the model 1-to-1, that is to say, a computer per child, to boost ICT in the Spanish school system -their results were not as expected: the introduction of ICT is not yielded better results in mathematics and reading in PISA; in addition, the crisis meant that he had a short temporary existence-; but yes it enhances the incorporation of the call digital competence in all courses and trainings. So, this week the Government has announced the addition of cybersecurity, robotics, Big Data and virtual reality in Vocational Training.

just a few weeks Ago, the Ministry put in place for this course 2018-2019 School of Computational Thinking, aimed at primary, ESO, Bachillerato and FP. Coordinated by the Intef in collaboration with the AUTONOMOUS communities, the initiative seeks to provide open resources, training and technology solutions that help teachers to incorporate these skills in the classroom. The School of Computational Thinking proposes to incorporate in the primary language Scratch 3.0; classes for Creative Technologies in the secondary school and the programming of robots in Bachillerato and FP.

The Ministry is supported in the research that suggests that incorporating experience of programming and robotics in early years education has a positive effect on the motivation of the girls, with the subjects known as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, for its acronym in English) and in the studies that indicate that students in environments less favoured social you are, the more benefit to integrating elementary programming and robotics.

robotics, key for the CAM

The idea of introducing the latter into the curriculum is key for the Community of Madrid. “We included the subject of Programming, Technology and Robotics as a compulsory subjects in 1st, 2nd, 3rd ESO, 4th have it as an option. In fact, it goes to the end of the first promotion who has studied the subject during the whole of IT,” said Ismael Sanz, director general for Innovation, Scholarships and Grants for the Education of the ministry in madrid. “Now other countries are starting also, but the CAM was a pioneer in Europe by introducing this subject in their curriculum. We have 30 public schools from elementary who also have robotics in 5th and 6th year of primary school,” he adds.

Sanz talks about Augmented Reality in subjects such as History, with the use of QR codes; digital reading with projects such as Read or BiblioMAD; project-based learning; the methodologies that they use Singapore or Canada (both in the first positions of the ránkings international) in mathematics,… “It’s about giving less resume, but better. THE OECD says that it is not only assess what you know, but what you do with what you know. Thus, they are important knowledge, the lecture of a lifetime, and also the competencies, skills, cross-cutting,” concluded Sanz.

According to the results of the PISA report, the Spanish students are the best to remember dates, content… But they have difficulties to resolve problems. In Spain still have a lot of weight with the strategies of learning based on memorization. Andn a world in which young people who end up today, their studies will have to be recycled between 10 and 14 times over their working lives, it appears that the memory that is the importance that they have acquired skills such as creativity or flexibility.

In that sense, Roig Vila emphasizes that technology per se is not the element that is going to set up the innovation, and that ICTS should help to develop certain skills in students, like critical thinking, collaboration, or creativity, examples of which can be seen in the proposal of the Partnership for 21st century skills (P21) on the skills for the TWENTY-first century or the skills of deep learning, or deep learning, more known as ‘6C’ (citizenship, creativity, communication, collaboration, character, and critical thinking), the Global Network of Learning. Also look in the standard AIR (American Institutes for Research), and NCREL (The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory): Skills K12.

“The calls soft skills, not the least important, are those that ensure the performance, professional future in the present society, characterized by Zygmunt Bauman as liquid, changing, unstable, and unpredictable. There is concern by introducing in the educational systems life-long learning, learning to learn in flexible environments. The student is no longer a simple container of data,” argues Roig Vila.

The education systems have to teach to learn in flexible environments

In that context, the expert notes that there are initiatives that are most striking, “but that some children do not work computer does not mean that they are not developing the skills mentioned before.” Does not consider Spain to go behind what is done in other countries of our environment. Thus, Estonia introduced the programming in the school from seven years (Program ProgeTiiger) in 2012 and the United Kingdom included the programming in the national curriculum in 2014.

“it Is important the space and the resources of each, but the pedagogical approach, the method of working is innovative, yes it is widespread in Spain”, says the expert, something that matches Ismael Sanz. “In CAM we have centers very different, traditional and new approaches, because they have autonomy and they choose what is better suited to their circumstances. To do this, we have six training centres for teachers in that we propose to all the methodologies that we know of.

For Sanz is important, in any case, “that the centres make their own projects, the innovation does not go from top to bottom. We have great professionals who must develop ideas that have long-term impact and the Authorities must provide them with the things”.

Observed question also to the spaniards by the role of enterprises in innovation. What should the weight fall mostly on the public Administrations or in the private sector? “Only 13% understand that the public sector contributes more than the private. That also explains 34.7% consider that the public Administration should carry a greater weight on innovation, and that five out of every 10 feel that both must have the same weight”, reviews of new Miguel Angel Simon.

In that aspect, Sanz indicates that there may be activities carried out by the public sector; others by the private, and others, in collaboration. And speaking of projects that the CAM has with companies such as BQ, or IBM, or a few days with Google aimed at teachers. “HP, among others, has funded the Classroom Maker in two schools of the region and with Samsung we have courses of Arduino”, mentioned.

The digital education is key

From the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, we consider key to the digital education such as the development of the digital competence of the students. This should address the appropriate management of information, communication, the generation of content -including computational thinking-resolution of problems and the work in the network in a secure manner. Technologies change sharply and, according to some estimates, 35% of existing jobs will disappear. In the face of these challenges, we must provide students with tools to understand and manage the use of technology. That’s why, through the National Institute of Educational Technologies and Teacher Training (Intef), in collaboration with autonomous communities and cities, we have initiated projects to improve the acquisition of these skills. Few have a clear impact on the digital competence of the teacher, as the training offer which reaches out to thousands of educators annually. Other projects are aimed at the students, as the Schools Connected, School of Computational Thinking, Classroom of the Future or eTwinning.

*CARLOS MEDINA
Director of the Intef

it Is necessary to update the educational system

The traditional education model has not undergone drastic changes in decades. The skills introductory core academic classes taught that help us to enter and participate in the society, have been mathematics, reading, and writing. However, the technology is changing all the sectors that we know, a process that many have dubbed the 4th industrial revolution and that has generated a lot of debate because of its impact on employment. It is undeniable that the labor market needs of professional profiles non-existent just a few years ago (many of them related to the STEM disciplines). For this reason, our educational systems should think about integrating skills that demand this digital revolution, such as the programming and data analysis, among others. In addition to this necessary update of the educational systems, people must adopt an attitude of lifelong learning during whole the life, beyond the years of traditional education. This means that we must not stop us form to keep us competitive in the work environment and the technology who make this increasingly easy.

*LLIBERT ARGERICH
Vice president of Marketing of Udemy

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