On 23 April, World Book and Copyright Day, the Faculty of Education of Vilnius College paid special attention to the value of books and the importance of copyright in today’s society. Students from the PU24 group – future primary school teachers – took part in a seminar where they explored the cultural, spiritual and educational significance of the book, recalled the first Lithuanian book – Martynas Mažvydas’ “Katekizmas” – and discussed how the perception of the book is changing from paper to digital. The seminar was moderated by Associate Professor Renata Kondratavičienė.
The sessions focused on how books can be presented in a different way – not only on paper. The students created their own book stories, drew them, wrote them, and then digitised them with the help of Blue-Bot robots. They used plans, steps, ideas on how to digitise images or texts. It wasn’t just about technique – it was about teamwork, dividing up the work, and then presenting what they had created. In this way, one of the aims of the workshop – to combine the classic book with modern education – was achieved.
According to the lecturer, “students’ digital competence includes the ability to create digital content, to deal with intellectual property issues, to understand the meaning of copyright and to apply it responsibly in the digital space”. These ideas were not only discussed theoretically during the workshop, but the students themselves also faced questions such as what it means to use someone else’s image on the internet, whether it is possible to incorporate other people’s ideas, and how to ethically share one’s own creations.
During the workshop, the students not only strengthened their digital skills, but also learned to be creative. All four strands of creativity were discussed: research (when it came to gathering information on how the robots work and how to present the idea for the book), generation (when ideas were proposed on what the story would be), creation (when those ideas were turned into a real work, with all the failures, corrections and tests), and reflection (when the groups talked about what worked, what didn’t, what they would do differently next time). The students said that through this experience they not only saw the book in a different light, but also understood how creativity can be put into practice in the education of students.
Photo gallery.