ERIC Number: EJ1142062
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Jun
Pages: 34
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0957 7572
EISSN: N/A
From the Islands of Knowledge to a Shared Understanding: Interdisciplinarity and Technology Literacy for Innovation in Smart Electronic Product Design
Blanco, Teresa; Casas, Roberto; Manchado-Pérez, Eduardo; Asensio, Ángel; López-Pérez, Jose M.
International Journal of Technology and Design Education, v27 n2 p329-362 Jun 2017
In the context of the evolving Internet, a balance between technological advances and meaning change is crucial to develop innovative and breakthrough "connected electronics" that enable the Internet of Things. Designers and technologists are key enablers of this process respectively, ensuring adequate users' needs and technology development, inside the evolving context of social environment and human relations. Smart electronic product design must be a truly interdisciplinary process, in which technologists are aware of how much their decisions impact the user-product relationship and designers understand the full potential and associated limitations of technology involved. Shared knowledge and communication are essential in this scenario, but, due to their technological limitations, designers are often excluded from high-level decision processes. In this paper, we address the design of constructivist tools and associated strategy to enhance the technological literacy of designers, as a strong foundation for knowledge-based dialogue between these realms. We demonstrate its effectiveness in a long-term multidisciplinary Project-Based Learning application with Design and Electronics students. We present the cases from 2 years' experimentation (with the first year as control group) that demonstrate improvement in the quality of teamwork; in learning results; improved performance of the students reflected in the quality of the projects developed; and positive teachers' and students' evaluations. We conclude that the use of the proposed tool not only provides the designer an active voice in the process of designing smart electronics, but also promotes an effective common language between these two worlds.
Descriptors: Interdisciplinary Approach, Technological Literacy, Innovation, Electronics, Design, Cooperative Learning, Teamwork, Constructivism (Learning), Active Learning, Student Projects, Control Groups, Experimental Groups, Electronic Equipment
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A