Although important figures in Pedagogy (i.e., Dewey, Montessori, Illich, etc.) proposed new ways of understanding education more than one century ago, the majority of EU educational systems are based on methodologies strongly focused on curriculum contents. In recent years, taking advantage of the popularization of educational technology in schools, many teachers are opting for other ways to teach and learn.The educational debate revolves around two ends: 1) those who emphasize the importance of declarative content as scaffolding to solidly support new learning ("If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants") and 2) those who stress the role of procedural learning ("learning by doing") preparing students to face new and unknown scenarios. The main objective of STEAM Decks is to build a bridge between these two opposing visions and get the best of both. On the one hand, a good base of declarative knowledge is essential to avoid having to re-discover so many things that Humanity has already discovered, as long as this declarative knowledge is learned in a contextualized and meaningful way. On the other hand, ICT can go beyond static learning contents and take advantage from video game dynamics (Gamification) to encourage the acquisition of knowledge and skills development actively.To achieve this goal, STEAM Decks provides a free access online platform where primary and secondary school students will be able to develop declarative knowledge in a contextualized and meaningful way through a multiplayer and online card game. To accomplish it, several objectives have to be addressed:1) Analyze the attitudes and skills around STEM of teachers and students from primary and secondary schools.2) Develop an open, free, open source and expandable platform where primary and secondary school students will be able to develop declarative knowledge in a contextualized and meaningful way through a multiplayer and online card game.3) Create initial content and activities for the platform to facilitate its use with different levels of involvement.4) Assess the quality and impact of the project after its implementation, both in terms of attitudes and skills about STEAM schools, and the quality of the methodology, platform, and initial materials developed.Teachers and students of primary and secondary schools are the main target groups of the project’s activities. With the development of STEAM Decks they will have a flexible, attractive and innovative educational tool to develop STEAM-related competencies. Students will have resources ready to be used and learn with them, but the platform enables them to modify, adapt, remix and even create new learning materials from scratch. Rather than being mere recipients of learning contents developed by publishers, they can be creators of open educational resources, encouraging an active participation in their learning and promoting their creativity. Students, with available learning resources, will become protagonists of their learning, and will manage the resources at their disposal.The project consortium is integrated by five partners from four countries (Spain, German, France and Romania). One university with wide experience in coordinating EU projects, UDEUSTO; DUCHESS, an association that works to promote women in technology and STEM education; and three schools of primary and secondary education: FATIMA, BvS and FERDI.Having a transnational consortium is important to create a rich variety of ready-to-use card decks. Educators and students from each country will be able to design card decks focused on flora and fauna from their own regions, national artists and other local contents that might be interesting for users from other countries. Moreover, multilingual card decks can be used to develop multiculturalism and language skills at the same time.STEAM Decks will have positive and long-lasting effects on participants, organizations, and people involved in the actions andtarget groups. New ways of collaboration beyond the local or regional sphere open to project members. Beyond the consortium the project will have a high impact from the local to the international level, educational modernization and improvement of resources and tools to develop key competencies, will lead to more creative, innovative and competent students.
Although important figures in Pedagogy (i.e., Dewey, Montessori, Illich, etc.) proposed new ways of understanding education more than one century ago, the majority of EU educational systems are based on methodologies strongly focused on curriculum contents. In recent years, taking advantage of the popularization of educational technology in schools, many teachers are opting for other ways to teach and learn. The educational debate revolves around two ends: 1) those who emphasize the importance of declarative content as scaffolding to solidly support new learning ("If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants") and 2) those who stress the role of procedural learning ("learning by doing") preparing students to face new and unknown scenarios. The main objective of STEAM Decks is to build a bridge between these two opposing visions and get the best of both. On the one hand, a good base of declarative knowledge is essential to avoid having to re-discover so many things that Humanity has already discovered, as long as this declarative knowledge is learned in a contextualized and meaningful way. On the other hand, ICT can go beyond static learning contents and take advantage from video game dynamics (gamification) to encourage the acquisition of knowledge and skills development actively. To achieve this goal, STEAM Decks provides a free access online platform (https://steamdecks.deusto.es) and App for Android (available at Google Play) where primary and secondary school students are able to develop declarative knowledge in a contextualized and meaningful way through a multiplayer and online card game. The platform allows you to register and configure the user profile (avatar, optional personal data, preferred language), search for decks of cards and mark them as favorites, search for other users and mark them as friends (this facilitates the creation of new games with friends later), play a deck of cards individually, against a friend or against any user available at that time on the platform, print a deck of cards to play offline, remix a deck of cards to create a new modified version of it or create a deck of cards from scratch. All images used in the platform are extracted from Wikipedia to avoid copyright problems and to avoid the use of inappropriate images. We have developed more than 300 cards of different STEAM topics translated into six languages (English, French, Spanish, Romanian, German and Basque) so that the initial users of the platform can take advantage of it from the beginning and understand what kind of skills can be developed using it. Teachers and students of primary and secondary schools are the main target groups of the project’s activities. With the development of STEAM Decks they have a flexible, attractive and innovative educational tool to develop STEAM-related competencies. Students have resources ready to be used and learn with them, but the platform enables them to modify, adapt, remix and even create new learning materials from scratch. Rather than being mere recipients of learning contents developed by publishers, they can be creators of open educational resources, encouraging an active participation in their learning and promoting their creativity. Students, with available learning resources, become protagonists of their learning, and will manage the resources at their disposal. The project consortium is integrated by five partners from four countries (Spain, German, France and Romania). One university three schools of primary and secondary education and an association of women in technolgy. Having a transnational consortium is important to create a rich variety of ready-to-use card decks. Moreover, multilingual card decks can be used to develop multiculturalism and language skills at the same time.