Technological Tools in Teaching the EU: A Design Thinking Proposal

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the main challenges of teaching and learning European Union (EU) issues, bearing in mind that the future of the EU is far from being granted, the shock of Brexit, and the new technological innovations. The purpose is to design a methodology for teaching EU using knowledge management and design thinking procedures. Knowledge management refers to information selection, acquisition, integration, analysis and sharing knowledge that takes place in an environment dominated by social networks in which technological links play a major role. The design thinking procedures, as a collaborative methodology, create groups of students in the classroom. Each group should represent an EU member state. Once groups are created, the teacher must give them a task that may include a problem that the EU has had to solve during its history. Then, individual groups must be asked to design a solution. A consensus among all participating groups on the proposed solution should be reached. To design a solution, based on a mind map, groups should be working inside and outside the classroom using technological tools and interacting through social media. At the end of this process, students must play a Kahoot to fix and clarify the key concepts of each lesson. This process must be repeated for all the chapters of the EU syllabus. The syllabus is made up of key issues of the EU. Students should be taken to discover how EU affects their lives and to wonder how they would be without the EU.

Citation

González, E.J. and Mella, J.M. (2021), "Technological Tools in Teaching the EU: A Design Thinking Proposal", Visvizi, A., Field, M. and Pachocka, M. (Ed.) Teaching the EU: Fostering Knowledge and Understanding in the Brexit Age (Emerald Studies in Higher Education, Innovation and Technology), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 85-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-274-120211006