#SmartCityMaker sharing day: when the whole world exchanges its winning practices!

In the series of research seminars of the Innovation and Digital Laboratory for Education (LINE), a day of sharing took place on the theme of creative pedagogy, territories and digital technology, themes integrated into a transdisciplinary project called #SmartCityMaker.

The project comes under different local names, among others, #Créetaville or #Antibes2317. Several people, from different parts of the world, gathered in Nice to share their practices or research in connection with this techno-creative project.

Fabulis project in Nancy-Metz

The Fab Lab appellation is one that is approved by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Is not called Fab Lab who wants because this name is conditional on the respect of a charter. The Henri-Nominated High School, which brings together 1,500 students, set up a Fab Lab in 2014, which is called FABULIS and is intended mainly for students with disabilities through the ULIS system, for “localized unit for inclusive education”.

Essentially, FABULIS wants to facilitate the implementation of artistic and scientific educational projects linked to technologies. For example, a hackathon was organized earlier this year, the theme of which was "Augmented human and school accessibility". In addition, the students broke new ground by bringing small-scale agriculture to the lab. They have built a hydroponic vegetable garden and another aquaponics in which they cultivate spirulina and other products of the earth.

FABULIS has set up a system of digital badges (open-badges on the Modzilla platform) to recognize student training, which often relates to skills acquired outside of school programs and formal learning.

Finally, next July, they will welcome the world of education in connection with the Fab Labs at the global meeting to be held in France (FAB14, education component).

Brazilian robotics in four steps

Lucas Filipak, professor at the International University Center (UNINTER) of the Rio de Janeiro region reminds us that Seymour Papert, a well-known mathematician and futurist, was already developing programming from an educational perspective in 1964. The Brazilian professor was inspired by the work of the latter to develop a project in four stages of twenty hours each, spread over a school year with students aged 15 to 17.

For the first stage, the students had programming lessons with the C language. Using a reverse approach to pedagogy, the students did various logic exercises to learn the linguistic and logical bases for acquiring the language.

In the second step, the students worked as a team to develop a small prototype vehicle made with recycled materials and 3D printers. They recorded their approach in an online blog and, finally, they entered a friendly competition of speed of the manufactured prototypes.

In the third step, the same teams practiced programming an Arduino board using an online simulator. They then developed an image board representing an Arduino board, identifying the main components. Subsequently, they were able to manipulate and program a real card.

Finally, in the fourth step, the students learned to work with technical drawing. They drew a bionic hand and then made the components with a 3D printer. Subsequently, the notions of programming on Arduino were used to program the articulation of the hand.

#créetaville, a #SmartCityMaker aimed at co-creativity

Anne Chiardola, inspector at theNice Academy and David Cohen, educational advisor at CANOPÉ of Nice, presented the #créetaville project, where the students of Mandelieu, near Nice, had to imagine the city of the future. This project is also a collaboration between LINE of the ESPE in Nice, the CANOPÉ workshop in Nice and the Académie de Nice.

Two teachers jumped at the opportunity to carry out the project with their students. The framework was broad and the choices were left to the discretion of the teachers who worked in the exploratory phase. In short, few constraints to negotiate, not even those related to school time. That said, two #créetaville projects were carried out and resulted in two completely different end products.

Quickly, the educational or evaluative object changed: the important thing is now the citizen approach, seen through various urban planning issues, and not exclusively the final product. And this approach, it is diverse: manufacture of the model, handling phase ranging from drawing to DIY (cutting, plasticine, etc.), including 3D printing and several other means.

In conclusion, the organizers of #créetaville realized that it is not only a question of imagining the city of the future, but also of understanding the city of today in all its challenges. As part of #créetaville, the co-creativity process is evaluated in collaboration with the director of the LINE laboratory, the professor Margarida romero.

LINE work

Although other presentations by practitioners or researchers lined this day of exchanges, the professor Cindy De Smet, head of the “Creative digital uses” axis at the LINE of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, enlightened the participants on the winning conditions for carrying out a pedagogical-digital task. Indeed, the TPACK model reminds us that three types of professional knowledge in the teacher are necessary: mastery of disciplinary content, advanced pedagogical knowledge and mastery of the technological tools used (technological knowledge).

LINE and its researchers are developing assessment tools in connection with various techno-creative activities.

Serge Quilio, responsible for the "Educational innovation" axis at LINE and Jerome Santini engaged the participants in the realization of a mathematical activity with cubes that raise issues for the construction of models as part of the #SmartCityMaker project. Christine faller and Laurent Heiser proposed an augmented reality project aimed at raising awareness in relation to socio-technical resilience in the face of computer bugs. Carole Calistri and Virginie Lapique have introduced a project with a philosophical aim located in the city of the future which leads students to think about communication.

Proof of the interdisciplinarity of LINE, the presentation of Thierry viéville, neuroscientist from INRIA during which the participants experienced a disconnected computer activity to understand the functioning of the Internet, but also those of Dominique Vian and Mélanie Ciussi de Skema around a learning device aimed at supporting apprehension of complexity.

This day of sharing shows the commitment of LINE to go beyond borders in terms of territorial partitions, as well as through institutional and disciplinary collaborations. These collaborations which have made it possible to develop and continue to advance the #SmartCityMaker project as a lever for learning the skills of the 21^e century.

This article is part of a series published by our author and collaborator Marc-André Girard, as part of his participation in the Laboratory of innovation and digital in education (LINE) at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis.

You can read all the articles in this series here.