Teaching children digital literacy through design-based learning with digital toolkits in schools

The paper presents our work on how to teach digital literacy and design thinking to children at primary and secondary schools, with a particular focus on exploring the tools that may support children’s learning in these domains. We have conducted design explorations with input from diverse stakeholders, such as teachers, children, publishers and educational scientists to examine how to develop an integrated design-based learning approach for the school context. Based on the design explorations insights are described about requirements for digital toolkits and the design-based learning process. Based on this work a Reflective Design-based Learning (RDBL) framework is presented that describes the challenges of developing an integrated process that is doable at school, matching teachers abilities, appealing for children and fitting to the knowledge presented in the publisher’s materials, that support teaching learning goals as requested by the government.