Potential of makerspace and digital educational tools for empowering digital competence among students in Croatian primary schools

Abstract:  The fourth industrial revolution brought a change in the scope of skills sets required for today's job market. To be part of today's digital society there is a widely recognized need for developing digital competence which requires new and relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes. The labor market demands a high level of technical professionals who have skillsneeded for the jobs of the digital age. However, many scholars discussed that the problem with shortage of professionals lies deeper in educational structure. The European Commission issued the European Digital Competence Framework where they proposed empowering digital competences among students in schools. Since Croatia did not explicitly introduce empowering digital competence into their curriculum from the year 2018/2019, there was an association that offers workshops to K12 students in order to empower digital competence in primary schools and it is offered as extracurricular activities.      Master thesis aims to investigate the potential of makerspace and digital educational tools for empowering digital competence among students in Croatian primary schools, and whether they fit requirements that are suggested in the European Digital Competence Framework.     Based on a focused ethnographic approach, participants of Croatian Makers workshop were interviewed and observed. Empirical data was analyzed according to Thematic analyses and four themes were emerged and discussed together with suggestions of literature review.     Results of this master’s thesis showed that digital educational tools and maker approach have potential in empowering digital competences through following skills: learning by using maker tools, curiosity and maker mind, problem solving skills, collaboration and communication. However, based on empirical findings, the environment of a maker workshop can be far from reality or practice. Furthermore, digital skills empowered through maker workshops fits the requirements proposed in European Digital Competence Framework except one which fits partially and it is related to protection of personal data and privacy.     Suggestion for future work is to investigate how a maker workshop could empower digital competence but at the same time be the environment as similar as possible to external and market conditions. Second topic is related to protection of personal data and privacy, since it is a very important competence that deals with the digital age. Suggestion is to investigate how maker workshops empower digital competence and at the same time include this important factor as well.