EPALE Serbia interview: The Digital Citizen Project (Part 2)
The Institute for Youth Development and Innovativity (Institut za razvoj i inovativnost mladih - IRIM) is a non-profit association based in Croatia that has developed and implemented the largest STEM programme in Europe, reaching more than 200 thousand children and adults in Croatia alone.
Even though IRIM has its roots in Croatia and it primarily operates there, its activities can now be found in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. These projects are implemented in cooperation with local partners, and they allow tens of thousands of children and adults to participate as well. Their aim is to improve digital and scientific literacy, technological and similar competencies within STEM domain that would allow young people to become equal citizens of the 21st century.
This blog post is the continuation of the interview with Dario Vlahović, an IRIM assistant, about the Digital Citizen Project and other IRIM regional activities.
You can also read the PART 1 OF THE INTERVIEW.
What would you say – how do regional education systems compare to those on a global scale? How do you envision future development and what are the first steps that need to be taken in that direction?
If we analyse how well regional countries (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina…) did on the last PISA test, it will be clear we do not rank very high. There is a lot of room for future growth, and digital skills are certainly a good step in that direction. That is why IRIM started its activities with Croatian Makers Robotics League in 2016 – we saw robotics as a tool to develop skills and competencies that would allow students to be more equal to their peers from other European countries once they graduate.
Using these new technologies isn’t the general aim of our projects. Knowledge and competencies resulting from it are more important – group work cooperation, communication, learning skills, creativity, curiosity, perseverance, and leadership skills. Unfortunately, the true-false model is still prevalent here. This model suggests that when we make a mistake, we are to be punished or we should expect a bad grade. Instead, a trial-and-error modification should be encouraged, a model that helps us understand that errors are an inherent part of learning process and skill development.
In addition to the Digital Citizen Project, are there any other regional educational activities you would like to highlight?
We are active in the field of digital literacy using micro:bit technology, and in the field of robotics using mBot robots. We also have numerous other projects and technologies, but I would like to talk about these two in more detail.
Croatian Makers Robotics League was the first IRIM project. It allowed us to develop IRIM’s mode of conduct in which we donate equipment, organise free training sessions for mentors that will continue using this equipment with children, and organise activities that would motivate project participants to use that equipment as well. Our robotics project involved over 12 thousand children from more than 600 schools, associations, libraries and non-profit organisations in Croatia. Our robotics competition spread to neighbouring countries (with initial monetary donation and know-how implementation), so robotics competitions are now held in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, in addition to Croatia. This project involves more than 500 schools in Serbia, and it is mostly financed by the Serbian Government, making it the largest STEM project in Serbian schools.
”STEM Revolution” was our first digital literacy project. In 2017, we conducted our most successful crowdfunding campaign in Croatia that allowed us to donate more than 25 thousand micro:bit devices to a thousand educational facilities in Croatia (primary schools and high schools, universities, libraries, associations, children’s homes, etc.) and organise training sessions on how to use this equipment for in all involved facilities. The Croatian Ministry of Science and Education joined us afterwards, so we had the chance to donate more than 45 thousand micro:bit devices to all sixth-graders in Croatian schools during the following school year. This practically meant that coding became a part of the primary school system. Schools joined voluntarily, and 85% of them chose to become a part of the project. Organising training sessions for teachers was the most important part of the project, so we held 500 workshops in 3 phases within our “ProMikro” project. Most of those teachers have never or rarely ever programmed before. IRIM developed and published over 60 teaching lessons.
Has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced your activities and plans for future IRIM development?
In March 2020, when we realised that we could no longer work or organise activities like we used to, we decided to share our knowledge and possibilities to help healthcare workers. We connected with other partners and associates, organised and ensured the production of protective visors, as there weren’t enough of them in Croatian hospitals during the first wave of the pandemic. Our 3D printers made visor holders, we connected plastic foil distributors with companies that cut that kind of plastic, and then we assembled protective visors from those pieces. As a result, over 6500 protective visors was donated in less than two weeks since the beginning of lockdown.
We have also considered other ways to reach those that use our technology and other interested citizens. As communication was transposed online, we decided to further improve and develop our Izradi! educational web portal. This free educational web portal about technology used in our project was first designed in 2016, simultaneously with the Forum that all mentors, students and other interested parties used to communicate, share their experiences or simply connect with each other. The web portal was excellent, but this was an opportunity for us to make it even better. This web portal now has numerous updated and new courses, a course system that allows users to receive certificates (with learning outcomes) and awards, i.e. badges that we send to their home address. The web portal is, of course, still completely free.
STEM education has definitely seen a great expansion, in accordance with labour market needs. Do you think that future technological development (artificial intelligence, etc.) could make this domain of education more or less appealing for generations to come?
Our young generations are digital natives, as most of them have been surrounded with digital technology their whole life (computers, smart phones, stable internet connection and information availability), so they are certainly developing and learning differently than previous generations. Therefore, we believe it is important to gain insight and general knowledge about STEM related domains, so they could create content, instead of just being passive consumers. We want people to gain this knowledge, so they won’t be afraid of future trends, but be able to navigate them and control these trends (and not let trends control them).
Nowadays, there is no profession or area of expertise where STEM knowledge isn’t used to a certain extent, thus those that are more knowledgeable in this domain are already one step ahead.
This was Part 2 of an interview with Dario Vlahović, an assistant at the Institute for Youth Development and Innovativity (IRIM). You can also read the PART 1 OF THE INTERVIEW.
More information about IRIM and their activities can be found on their official website: https://croatianmakers.hr/hr/naslovnica/.
