The Future of Education

Between the years 2011 and 2013, we have implemented the project, CLOHE http://www.clohe-movingtoys.eu/ with the support granted by Lifelong Learning Program of the European Commission, Comenius Multilateral Projects action. The project is a partnership of seven organizations coming from six countries in Europe. CLOHE stems from the idea that Automata Toys have much to offer in classroom setting for a wide range of subjects. The challenge experienced in the project has been to evaluate how this art and game based activity could support teachers in their pedagogical paths to enhance children’s learning to learn capabilities and scaffolding their acquisition of key transversal competences and basic skills.  These key competencies as stated in the Key Competences for Lifelong Learning by EACEA are: communication in the mother tongue; communication in foreign languages; mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology; digital competence; learning to learn; social and civic competences; sense of initiative and entrepreneurship; cultural awareness and expression. The aim of the CLOHE project was to develop and test a learning pathway for 7 to 11 year olds students to build automata, which are hand-driven, moving toys. The learning pathway asks children to create, co-create or read a story and then make the characters and scenes come to life through a moving automata.  The children are guided to design and build their own automata with a working mechanism. The steps to build their automata involve the pedagogical concepts of constructivism and more generally experiential learning.  In order to create automata children have to accomplish a series of concrete activities that include the development of metacognitive skills:
1.     read/narrate a story (a text)
2.     identifying the key points of the story/text as a brief sequence that will summarise the whole
3.     identify the images and/or the symbols that will define the cyclic sequence to be used technically
4.     define and design the characters, the materials, colours, size
5.     design the automata understanding the mechanical structure of its motion
6.     assemble the mechanical structure, the components and the artistic upper parts
        (the characters)
7.     test the movement of the automata and use feedback to refine the construction
8.     test the characters of the automata in relation to the story it tells, taking into account the feedback to provide modifications andn integrations
The project includes an introduction to mechanics, math’s, a blueprint plan, handwork, creativity and the arts. The results have demonstrated that CLOHE corresponds highly to the strategies and the challenges faced in education and training by fully addressing the competences. We have learned many lessons from the project implementations in various educational institutions in Europe. We believe the contribution of using automata toys for learning in a number of disciplines triggers further momentum in educational institutions. In this presentation, we aim to report our project and its results.