MECHATRONICS EDUCATION THROUGH CURRICULUM INTEGRATION
Fecha
2016-01-01
Autores
Velasquez Lopez, Alejandro
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Editor
IATED-INT ASSOC TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION A& DEVELOPMENT
Resumen
Undergraduate and postgraduate programs usually have courses given in a same semester with an opportunity to gain synergy through the realization of an integrating project. This would bring advantages such as (i) to focus the efforts of one or more students into a single project, (ii) to bring the knowledge from different teachers into the same project, (iii) to experiment from the academy the integrality of the acquired knowledge, (iv) to reduce the economic requirements for the student's family and (v) to optimize the use of the physical infrastructure with a reduced amount of projects. Nevertheless it requires big challenges such as (i) appropriate project selection that fulfills the expectations from different courses and teachers, (ii) to plan accordingly each academic period when will the presentations be given, (iii) to select appropriately the members of each team and (iv) to consider contingency plans in case of any course delay. But in a global context where virtual education is gaining place, real education requires to transcend the information and search for strategies that offer unique experiences not only toward the knowledge, but being and making. This paper is an attempt to bring into practice the academic model of XVI century throughout the (i) curriculum design of a postgraduate program where each course reflects each component of a technical system, (ii) infrastructure design for technology integration, (iii) selection of multidisciplinary projects, (iv) academic period planning among the teachers, (v) project assessment and (vi) students assessment. All this in order to optimize human and economic resources required within academic activities, and to validate what an academic program preaches and the correspondence among its courses. The results of the last two semesters are shown. Four projects were developed in 2015-2 whereas three projects in 2016-1, with more reliable and functional prototypes, and the entire academic processes synthesized into academic papers with a feasible potential to be published. The clue is not to work more, but better. In this sense the experience has been worth it, and will be replicated within the courses of the second semester of the program.