Business Model-I, Passionate IT Professional. Methodology of conducting classes using the Design Thinking, Visual Thinking, and Storytelling methods

The aim of this handbook is to provide guidance to those teachers who are willing to run the “Business Model – I, Passionate IT Professional” course in their University. Why? This is both a human-centered and interaction-based course. The human-centered course means that IT students, the course’s recipientes, are considered and understood in a more holistic way. In fact, the course relies on “design methods” that employ both divergent and convergent thinking concerned with how the students themselves attribute and reflect on meanings, values, and beliefs. Interaction-based means that the main aim of the facilitators is not about providing content (even though this role is not revoked from them! Facilitators are still expert professionals whose individual perspective is precious for students), it is instead about creating an the environment in which students can create a dialogue around the different topics that, every time, are brought in class. It is through the establishment of various sorts of interactions and approaches that contents are learned: peer-to-peer interaction, individual reflections and, last but not least, hands-on experience. Facilitating the conversation instead of helding one: It may sound like an easy task, but it is not. Encouraging the conversation between students, building a learning environment to reflect upon the future is not an easy task. This is the reason why this handbook is here for you, the facilitator, in order to share with you the experience gained through the different meetups of the “BE Aware Student - BEAST” project (funded by Erasmus+ Programme, Key Action 2: Strategic Partnerships for higher education) such as the “International Academy of Innovative Educational Methods and Techniques”, held in Modena in March 2019, and in three Summer Schools organized by the three partners of the ‘BEAST’ project, the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow (PL), Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (PT), and University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (IT), along with contribution from other experts. During this course, you’ll be asked to set up an environment that enables your students to engage in group presentation, collective discussion, individual reflection, 1 to 1 interaction, individual and group work. Every time you can rely on this guide, and benefit from the guidelines, the tips and the attention points collected from the previously gained experience by the BEAST community. The methodology will show how the methods of Design Thinking, Visual Thinking and Storytelling can be used during classes: in fact, all those methods can work with IT subjects, and they can increase the effectiveness of teaching in the context of promoting student’s creativity, entrepreneurial thinking and the ability to use innovative ideas in practice. Along with the general course structure, this handbook covers in detail each step of the course including objectives and methods, comments to the teaching materials (material characteristics, technical and organizational requirements, didactic potential, application options, problem questions for students, inspiration to work with course participants, etc.) as well as instruction on the use of these methods.