Karen Selbach Borges is a professor at Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS), Porto Alegre city, Brasil. She has a PhD in Education and Technology and a Master in Computer Science. She investigates learning makerspaces primarily at POALab, the IFRS’ FabLab. At IFRS she also runs the LECC Lab, which focuses on cognitive development through the use of digital technologies, based on Jean Piaget’s theory. She also has an extensive experience working with agile methodologies applied in educational projects. Her CV is available at http://lattes.cnpq.br/2980825075538538
Research Project
Cognitive Development Through Digital Fabrication at Educacional Makerspaces
To innovate is necessary people with the skills to create, but especially with the appropriate cognitive schemes. According to Jean Piaget’s theory of stages of intellectual development, a person will be able to invent only after reaching the formal stage, which happens by the adolescence. However It is known that many adults don’t reach this stage of development. So, how can we expect them to be inventors and innovators? From this, we have investigated if it would be possible to develop the use of formal thinking through digital manufacturing projects in educational makerspaces. To do so, we developed experiments at POALab Fab Lab, using the Creativity Workshops for its purpose. These workshops were conducted according to the Educational Architecture for Learning in Educational Makerspaces, developed as part of this doctoral thesis. All the participants were previously tested, using François Longeot’s Collective Operations Tests, and located within his Logical Thinking Scale. Data was collected from observations during workshops, video and audio recordings, records from individual project portfolios and dialogues with the subjects, which were conducted according to the Clinical Method. The data analysis was done in a qualitative way, in the light of Jean Piaget's theory, based on evidences of abstraction, hypothetical-deductive reasoning, and operations on propositions, combinatorial, and proportions.
ScrumEdu
Using agile methodology Scrum to help students to manage learning projects. Project website: http://borgeskaren.wixsite.com/scrumedu.
TOP Publications
BORGES,K. S.; MENEZES, C.S;FAGUNDES, L.C The Use of Computational Thinking in Digital Fabrication Projects: a case study from the cognitive perspective. Frontiers In Education 2017. Indianápolis, USA, nov/2017.
BORGES,K. S.; MENEZES, C.S;FAGUNDES, L.C Arquitetura Pedagógica para Aprendizagem em Makerspaces Educacionais. Revista RENOTE, v.15 (2). 2017
BORGES, K. S.; FAGUNDES, L. C. . A Teoria de Jean Piaget Como Princípio Para As Inovações. Revista Educação. PUCRS. 2016.