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The project is led by Associate Professor Pirjo Sanaksenaho, Head of the Department of Architecture at Aalto University in collaboration with Dr. Tiina Mäkelä, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research the University of Jyväskylä, and Dr. Paula Cardellino, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture at Universidad ORT (Uruguay).

The project points out that, given the current global challenges in education and digital transformation, there is a need to create high-quality physical and psychosocial learning environments enhanced by technology (LE), as these critically impact on the skills of teachers and students.

In this sense, it is essential that experts in education, architecture and technology work together to represent the multifaceted aspects that make up a LE, improving both the quality of the teaching-learning processes and well-being. In particular, there is international interest in Finnish LE (LED) design, renowned for its innovative and transformative approach to education, and Finnish LE experts wish to broaden their understanding of LED practices in different contexts. However, existing international university networks and cooperation to share multidisciplinary experience in the field of LED are scarce. Specifically, financing opportunities for joint projects between countries in northern Europe and Latin America are practically non-existent in this area.

Therefore, the project aims to facilitate a multidisciplinary and international perspective on LE design through staff mobility and joint teaching activities involving the development of hybrid seminars and open online course materials.

The collaboration between the three higher education institutions, Aalto University, University of Jyväskylä and Universidad ORT Uruguay, also includes documenting good practices in LE design in the participating countries. In this way, the project brings together the competencies in education, architecture, and technology of the three universities to create a high-quality teaching and learning environment.

Ultimately, the project aims to manage new forms of cooperation between universities and provide opportunities for staff from distant universities to work together in imagining the future of LE design considering the cultural, economic and social particularities of the two countries.

The project started in September 2023 and will end in December 2025. Project activities include short teaching visits, development of course materials, hybrid seminar series, and documentation of good practice in LE design in participant countries. The course materials and documents developed will be used in the courses of each of the universities with the intention of sharing them with a wider international audience. This will be complemented by outreach events in the two participating countries.

The Team Finland Knowledge programme
 

The purpose of the Team Finland Knowledge programme funded by Finnish National Agency for Education is to create and strengthen cooperation between Finnish higher education institutions and the target regions and countries selected to the TFK network – on this occasion, Latin America -, and to design new operating models for academic cooperation.

In this regard, the program finances collaboration between educational institutions through cooperation and mobility projects. The participating projects covered a wide range of forms of collaboration, such as study units, joint ventures, development of digital teaching, curricular cooperation, double degree and mobility of faculty, staff, students, and interns.