LeDS: The project combining the arts, performance, and digital skills
STEAM education brings together Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, but have you ever noticed that many STEAM projects focus mainly on the S, T, E and/or M fields and add only a little sprinkle of the Arts? What if the A was the basis for all the other parts of a STEAM project? How would such project look like and how cool would it be to see the students’ faces brighten up with excitement with the results? The LeDS project might have an answer.
Learning Digital Skills through the arts?
LeDS – Learning Digital Skills through Arts and Performance is a small-scale Erasmus+ project that gathers expertise in the in the fields of Education, Digital Skills, and Performance, emphasizing the Arts as a beginning, middle and end of a STEAM project.
The main goal is to lead students in the development of important digital skills like programming, electronics, multimedia, etc., while learning curricula content, through the creation of an artistic performance. In other words, while immersing themselves in the creative adventure of creating an artistic performance (theatre, dance, circus, etc.) they also find the opportunity to go a step further and add exciting digital effects using lights, projections and sounds to complement their creations.
Working with the students
The pilot phase of the project involved students from the Perfolie Art circus academy, in Portugal, in an exciting aerial acrobatics performance using wearables (programable LEDs integrated into a suit, reacting to movement and/or to a pre-programed sequence) and videomapping effects.
The first adventure was the building of a resistant and very fun suit for the performance. The LED lights had to be integrated into the fabric through a conductive wire and as a result of a lot of resilience from the “workers” behind it, who persisted through several trial-and-error attempts, success was achieved. The suits finally came to life!
After this, the effects of the LeDS were programmed in coordination with the pre-chosen music and a very simple videomapping effect was implemented as well. Everything was prepared and the students made a brilliant work in their performances.
The best part? The excitement of the young performers while using their suits and “shining” on stage!
This was the first step of the project, where the whole team worked together to come up with an initial prototype and the best possible solution to spread to the other schools. The next step will be to “play” around with all the possible programable effects and allow students to learn, explore and make their most inspired creations for their own performances. LeDS will bring its STEAM approach to several schools in Portugal, Spain and Greece, and promote a performance (dance or other) where all the concepts are integrated.
Are digital skills really the focus?
We seem to be focusing many of our initiatives in the pursuit of an increase in the digital skills of students, teachers, and the overall community, and while that is a very important goal, LeDS goes way beyond it. Our aim is for students to learn such skills while experiencing a holistic approach where they find themselves discovering their artistic talents and develop key social and emotional skills along the way. Adding to that, when students are learning how to program their suits, videomapping and the special effects that will operate during their performances, they actually learn many other concepts without even realizing. They will have to learn mathematics, physics, computational thinking and several others along the way. This is why we call this a holistic approach.
It has been a belief that it is through fun and play that children actually learn and being able to provide them an effective learning opportunity where they feel like they are having fun while learning, makes the whole difference!
Developing a cocktail of important competences
In a world where developing competences is the key for human well-being and sustainability, it is important to offer students all the possible opportunities to develop themselves in a creative, holistic, and meaningful way. By involving students in a collaborative, creative and fun approach, LeDS not only promotes an innovative environment for students’ academic development, but it also promotes several other fundamental skills such as creativity, collaboration, self-esteem, self-confidence, tolerance, etc.
Is there more?
Yes! LeDS has an additional layer to it. While we live in a world that is evolving in a very fast and digitally oriented direction, it is important that we do not loose touch with nature and with ourselves. This way, the performances that students will create will focus on two very important and interconnected themes: Biodiversity and Human Diversity.
While Biodiversity has been a commonly accepted necessity for the survival of all species (including ours) and that action to preserve it must be taken, we seem to somehow have undervalued the importance of our own human diversity. The truth is that only by embracing and promoting human diversity, will we be able to combine our different skills, talents and ideas to find the necessary solutions for a sustainable future.
This way, while proudly exhibiting their performances and all the digital effects created by themselves, students will also be learning and sharing awareness for the importance of all kinds of diversity in this world.
LeDS is coordinated in Portugal by InovLabs in partnership with NUCLIO and Perfolie Arte from Portugal, the University of Deusto from Spain and Ellinogermaniki Agogi from Greece.