PowerPointPrsentation

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International Summerconference of
Technology Education
Evo, Finland, 04.06.2008
Mart
Soobik funded by
Chairman of the
Estonian Association
of Technology Education

www.tehnoloogia.ee

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The project
- Update stands for Understanding and Providing a
Developmental Approach to Technology Education -
aim of the programme is to improve science and
technology teaching in Europe in order to appeal
young people to technology, especially girls -
new learning material and methods for three-age
groups early, Childhood, elementary school and
general education shall result from the project
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Advancements to the State of the Art
Professional Education EXPERTISE
Gymnasium, ages 16-18DEEPER UNDERSTANDING,
KNOW-HOW
Comprehensive School, Higher Grads, 7-9 BASIC
UNDERSTANDING
Comprehensive School, Lower Grads, 1-6 INTEREST,
BASIC SKILLS (encouragement, problem solving)
Early Childhood Education CURIOSITY
(introducing, experimenting with materials)
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Innovative Aspects

• strong focus on early childhood and primary
  education
• most attitudes are shaped at these ages
• focus on girls, disseminate best practice
  examples

GirlsDay Future Prospects for Girls
Technology professions and crafts are presented
to girls from ten years and upward
GirlsDay at a car centre in Soest
GirlsDay at a car centre in Soest, Germany
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Fragmentation of technology education
Professional Education
Gymnasium
Comprehensive School, Higher Grades 7-9
Comprehensive School, Lower Grades 1-6
Preschool education, kindergardens
Boys
Girls
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Aims of the project
- to examine why girls drop out from technology
education at different stages of their
education - to create new ways and educational
methods to make the image of technology and
technological careers more attractive for both
boys and girls - to promote, encourage and
mobilise especially girls and young women for
engineering and technology both as a career and
as active users of modern technology
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Early Childhood Education (ECE)

• - experiences for younger children focus on play,
  discovery and exploration
• - older children enjoy a focus on more formal and
  complex experiences (science experiments,
  construction, design projects planning, problem
  solving, applications of learned principles)

Tiny Tots Science Corner
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Early Childhood Education (ECE)

• - it is important
• - to encourage children to observe and experience
  their environment
• - to stimulate childrens curiosity, creativity
  and playfulness
• - to enhance the development of self-confidence
  of children in their ability to think up and
  carry out experiments and projects

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Gender and Technology Education

• - existing role models and attitudes of people
  around (toy marketing, childrens books and films
  etc. media, family members, neighborhood,
  teachers, peers)
• - connections with the wider community (working
  places)
• - self-image and identity
• - barriers (glass-ceilings)
• - visible and invisible
• - segregation by gender in
• learning situations / teaching

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UPDATE Website

• a web-based collaborative environment
• collaborative working space for the online
  editing and compilation of questionnaires and
  texts
• a blog for supporting partner communication and
  dissemination activities, also participations of
  schools and children
• work package spaces
• mailing list
• Update portfolio for workpackages 2-4
• public part for diverse audiences
• http//update.jyu.fi/index.php/

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UPDATE Project Partners
14.
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UPDATE Project

• practical case study
• - author Leena Turja, Department of Early
  Childhood Education, University of Jyväskylä,
  Finland
• ROBOT PROJECT FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN (at 5 6
  years old)

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Practical case studyThe situation in which
the observation was made Science education
demonstration class in preschool teacher
education program. University of Jyväskylä Spring
term 2007'

• ROBOT PROJECT FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN (at 5
  6 years old) - Description
• Twelve second year teacher students planned,
  organized and implemented a Robot project for 20
  preschool children of a neighbourhood
  kindergarten visiting with their teachers the
  science education demonstration classes held in
  the university campus area. The activity with
  children took about 2,5 hours and was supervised
  by the lecturer of science education in early
  years. This project aimed to encourage both the
  children and the teacher students to involve in a
  playful technology activity. The majority of the
  children as well as the students
• were female.

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Practical case study

• In the beginning the children were introduced
  and engaged with the idea of planning and
  building robots by a humorous act representing a
  scientist needing visitors help in her robot
  laboratory.

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Practical case study

• The planning and the construction of an
  imaginary robot took place in triads of one
  student and two children. Some of the students
  were mainly documenting and assessing the
  activity. The students wrote afterwards short
  reports with photos of each triads work. The
  photos taken were shared with the class, the
  kindergarten and the
• families.

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Practical case study

• In the beginning children discussed with the
  adults
• guidance about the idea of their robot for what
• purposes it will be developed, what are the
  functions
• of the robot, how does it work, with what kind of
• energy does it run etc. The adult put down
• childrens sayings. At this phase the children
  were
• also allowed to look around and get materials
• available for their constructions. The assumption
• was that children at this age still need this
  kind of
• concrete help for getting ideas and continuing
  their
• planning process. Most of the material was
  recycle
• one - especially we were pleased to get exiting
• material from the computer support staff of our
• university (parts of old computers etc.). Some
  led
• lights, bulbs, batteries, bulb battery holders
  and
• switches were bought beforehand. Every robot got
• some kind of electricity. Adults helped
  especially
• with clueing (hot clue) and electricity. The
  children were asked to make also drawings of
  their plans but
• most of them wanted to start to
  build their robot along the planning. Many of the
  descriptions of the

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Practical case study

• In the end the whole group gathered back into
  a circle to introduce the robots to each others
  and to give feedback of their experiences. The
  robots were taken with into the kindergarten and
  the teachers were prompt to continue the project
  with the children.

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Practical case study

• Examples of the reports (childrens sayings)
  
• Superdog Robo Its duty is to take care of
  domestic work, cleaning and playing with
  children. This robot speaks the dog-language. The
  robot has a bag for the garbage. These lights
  turn on when its working by night. The robot
  moves with four legs like a dog does. You can
  start it
• with this key.

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Practical case study

• Lady Cleaning-Dishwashing Robot This robot
  has a snout (trunk) that sucks all the dishes
  inside itself. The middle part of the robot makes
  the dishwashing and the clean dishes come out
  trough the tube in the backside. This robot has
  four legs that it uses to suck little trash on
  the floor. The wings on the both sides wipe dust.
  On the back it has a switch to turn it on. You
  know it is on when the lights on its back are
  blinking. There you can also turn it off. The
  robot notices trash and dishes with its eyes.

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Practical case study

• The Power Protector Robot of Jyväskylä This
  robot defends against the enemy. It can also make
  damage it can make snowing, melt the snow and
  even make the ground muddy. This golden plate
  reflects sun beams and attacks of enemy backwards
  like a trampoline. The robot uses both gasoline
  (open and fill the blue bottle) and batteries
  (for the light).

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Practical case study

• Robot Ruttunen This is a huge cleaning
  robot that can be turned on with a key. The key
  is stored in a key box. The light in its eyes
  turns on by bushing the swift behind its head.
  There is a secret box inside its head to hide the
  wires.

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Practical case study

• Robot " This name is just Robot. It can do a
  lot of things. It is a security guard. It has
  magnetic ears. The start key can hang on the ear.
  The computer is inside."

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Multinational Project Consortium

• - 16 partners from 11 different countries
  participate
• - the research project is funded by the European
  Comission for the next three years
• UPDATE will be part of the Sixth Framework
  Programme of the EC
• with 922,300 for the three years

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UPDATE Project Partners and Contact Persons

• 1. University of Jyväskylä, Finland,
  http//www.jyu.fi/
• Dr. Aki Rasinen, Dr. Marja Kankaanranta, Dr.
  Leena Turja, Päivi Fadjukoff
• 2. University of GlasgowUniversity of Glasgow,
  United Kingdom, http//www.glasgow.ac.uk/ John R.
  Dakers and Wendy Dow
• 3. IUFM University Institute for Teacher Training
  of Aix-Marseille, France, http//www.aix-mrs.iufm.
  fr/ Prof. Jacques Ginestié
• 4. "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi,
  Romania, http//www.uaic.ro/ Prof. Dr. Doina
  Balahur
• 5. Ovidius University Constanta, Romania,
  http//www.univ-ovidius.ro/imim/ Prof. Ph.D.
  Valentina Pomazan

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UPDATE Project Partners
6. University of Tallinn University of Tallinn,
Estonia, http//www.tlu.ee/ http//www.tehnoloog
ia.ee/ Mart Soobik, Ene Lind 7. Dortmund
University of Applied Sciences,
Ada-Lovelace-Mentoring-Association, Germany,
http//www.fh-dortmund.de/ Prof. Dr. Sylvia
Neuhäuser-Metternich 8. University of Koblenz,
Ada-Lovelace-Project, Germany, http//www.uni-kobl
enz-landau.de/ Dr. Martina Endepohls-Ulpe, Judith
Ebach, Prof. Dr. Wolf-Andreas Liebert 9. FCRI
Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation,
Spain, http//www.fcri.es/ Dr. Jordi Mas
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UPDATE Project Partners

• 10. Competence Center Technology-Diversity-Equal
  Chances, Germany, http//www.kompetenzz.de/
  Sabine Mellies, Carmen Ruffer
• 11. Institute of Philosophy at the Bratislava
  Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia,
  http//www.klemens.sav.sk/fiusav/index_en.php
  Prof. Tatiana Sedová
• 12. University of Education, Vienna, Austria,
  http//www.phwien.ac.at Prof. Dr. Josef Seiter
• 13. Regional Institute for Educational Research
  Marche, Italy, http//www.irre.marche.it Prof.
  Cristina Pavisic

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UPDATE Project Partners
14. Aristotle University, Dept. Of Mechanical
Engineering, Greece, http//isag.meng.auth.gr/home
.html Prof. Dr.Eng. Kostas Karatzas 15.
University Complutense de Madrid, Spain,
http//www.ucm.es/ Dr. Jesus Pintor, Prof. Maria
Asuncion Peral Cerda 16. IDEC S.A, Greece,
http//www.idec.gr/ Xenia Chronopoulou
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UPDATE Project workshop

• the last workshop was in France in the Teacher
  Training University of Aix- Marseille (UIFM),
  centre in Aix-en- Provence, May 22-24, 2008
• workshop on curriculum content analysis results
  of Technology Education
• overview of the work produced during the first
  year by each partner and an overview of the each
  of the work- packages by the WP leaders
• curriculum analyses carried out in each country
• analysis of Technology Education in Estonian
  General Education Schools, presented by Mart
  Soobik
• define weak points or aspects of the existent
  curricula and educational approach

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UPDATE Project workshop

• - synthesis and discussions based on the
  findings, definition of weaknesses and strengths
  of various curricula also in the light from the
  findings from WP5
• - discussion about the project's next phases
  according WP6 goal Restructuring a holistic
  curriculum

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UPDATE Project

• Thank you!