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This paper considers the direct involvement of students in degree programme curricula design, specifically four computer science teacher students designing new curricula for the Faculty of Information Technology of the University of Jyväskylä. They participated in a project to make recommendations for the 2017-2020 master's and bachelor's programme curricula. We examined how these recommendations were implemented in the new curricula and what hindered student voice. The project led to major changes: making basic studies in mathematics optional, adding three new courses, and defining new learning goal descriptions for two master's programmes. Several factors hindered student voice: insufficient perceived expertise, doubts about project significance, negative attitudes towards student involvement, and lack of personal interest. Hence, despite the project leading to considerable changes, the students themselves expressed rather critical attitudes towards student involvement in curriculum design. Consequently, promoting student voice in higher education curricula design is a more tensioned phenomenon than has been discussed in earlier research.

When employees become accustomed to everyday working habits it can prevent them from generating creative ideas. This familiarity takes the forms of mainly collaborating with familiar colleagues, playing roles that develop over years, and solving encountered problems with proven strategies. This chapter considers how a virtual enterprise simulation game (RealGame) can potentially foster digital creativity and collaborative learning. The game simulates a situation where team members take responsibility for managing a virtual manufacturing company and its supply chain. Theoretically, we consider RealGame a facilitating environment for people to collaborate by offering a safe environment for playful exploration and artificial conflict, which can result in new ideas and learning. To demonstrate this idea, we derive empirical evidence from reflective essays that were written by business school students after experimenting with the game.

Participatory design is a well-known approach that involves stakeholders in designing technologies and other innovations. In education, participatory design is especially advocated for involving students with special needs. However, less attention has been paid to how participatory design can help in collaborations with teachers. This paper presents a

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Abstract:A classroom with a blackboard and some rows of desks is obsolete in special education. Depending on the needs, some students may need more tactile and inspiring surroundings with various pedagogical accessories while others benefit from a simplified environment without unnecessary stimuli. This understanding is applied to a new Finnish special education school building with open and adaptable learning spaces. We have joined the initiative creation process by developing software support for these new spaces in the form of a learning space management system. Participatory design and value-focused thinking were implemented to elicit the actual values of all the stakeholders involved and transform them into software implementation objectives. This paper reports interesting insights about the elicitation process of the objectives.

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