This project explores the use of maker technologies as activities embedded in a wider educational ecosystem. Innovations are generally described as the exploitation of new ideas; hence novel technologies and processes need to be adopted by the relevant user groups. Taking into account the special situation of educational quasi-markets, where innovation management is different to fully competitive markets, such as the hardware and software industry, we were interested in what promotes or stops the adoption of novel ways to implement experiential learning. See here: https://www.doit-europe.net/toolbox A second aspect of the project, not yet fully docuemnted, is the possibility to use gamification in order to increase the appeal of soft- and hardware, tending to be a male-dominated area.
Working with youth, we used the Arduino IDE and an ESP8266 based microboard WEMOS. Some early analysis can be found in this related publications:
Voigt, C., Schön, S., & Hofer, M. (2018). Innovation management in schools: Barriers and enablers to making as educative practice. In Multikonferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik (MKWI). Lüneburg, GER. Tagungsband