We continue our “Meet Our Members” section with Roland Tomczak from DIGINEXT

Could tell us a little bit about your organisation’s mission?

DIGINEXT was created in 1996 with the ambition to invent, develop and offer innovative products blending both real and virtual worlds for critical operation Planning, Learning, Training, and Assistance. It is internationally recognized for its capacity to innovate as well as for both the quality and performance of its very high-tech simulation products.

Its business development is supported by intense R&D activities. Since its creation, DIGINEXT has been involved or is still involved, as a co-ordinator or as a partner, in multiple EC funded projects, such as MAGELLAN, CHESS or INSCAPE, that have produced most of the products the company is currently commercially exploiting.

These projects have enabled us to address a large variety of domains: Amongst them, we are directly addressing the Edutainment market through a product that has no equivalent, MAGELLAN. This tool allows an author who does not master any programming language to create a complete and interactive application in mixed reality, overlaying virtual information on a real place, such as the popular “Pokemon Go” mobile game. Using MAGELLAN, anyone can design and publish location-based games, educational applications or virtual tours.

How does CRISS fit it with this mission?

CRISS aims to train and evaluate students in the use of digital tools. This use ranges from using digital collaboration tools to producing complex digital contents to illustrate their works, and even programming stand-alone system.

DIGINEXT is recognized for its expertise in the field of digital education and training based on digital tools. Our tools allow an author to build interactive simulations or experiences, using a simple and intuitive visual language. Therefore, an author can create a functional application in minutes without the necessity of mastering any programming language. These concepts are the very heart of MAGELLAN: The logic of a MAGELLAN application is defined by a very simple assembly of basic building bricks.

Therefore, MAGELLAN will offer the students both the flexibility to build complex applications and the ease of use required for a non-technical audience: So, the students will focus on the concepts and on the building of the logic, and not on a time-consuming task of learning a complex programming language.

For our part, CRISS will offer us the possibility of adjusting and simplifying visual programming concepts to ensure that they are not only understandable, but also effective for a population that is new to programming.

What is your role in the CRISS project? (Main tasks)

DIGINEXT is one of the main technical partners of the project. Our experience with new learning experiences and authoring tools in the educational field is key for the support of the innovation of CRISS.

We will actively participate to the methodological framework discussion, design and architecture of the end to end solution with our technology partners.

However, our main contribution will be a dedicated version of MAGELLAN, which will seamlessly integrate into the CRISS platform. It will provide students with specific samples and building bricks, and teachers with all the materials needed to evaluate their works.

In your opinion, which of the digital competences listed by the EU do you find most important? Why?

It is difficult to isolate a digital competence that would be more important than others. Some of them have a transversal role, impacting the daily life of every student. For example, digital citizenship is a prerequisite, a foundation, which I believe is a must-have in a “living together” perspective. Others will be useful in preparing them for their professional life.
Obviously, I don’t think that every student has to become a technical expert. However, they need to be aware of the possibilities of digital tools, and of some common underlying principles (sometimes not so clearly stated) that rule almost all the tools at their disposal. This will enable them to identify the best solutions to their problems and adapt to an ever-changing digital environment.

How can we can make students more engaged with ITC education?

Young people are particularly attracted to ITC. But to educate the students, technologies shouldn’t be approached in a techno-centric manner, that would be rejected, but in a fun and attractive way: a practical approach, based on experiencing, resonating with the significant creativity of youngsters, seems relevant to me.

What is the most exciting aspect of taking part in CRISS for you and your organisation?

Personally, I have always been passionate about the art of making a software understandable, despite its complexity and concepts. Adapting a tool to usages, understanding its users, their needs and tasks is far less obvious than it may seem at first sight. CRISS offers us the unique opportunity to address a large population differing drastically from our usual users: students and their teachers. If we can make MAGELLAN concepts simple and understandable enough for this audience, then all our users will naturally benefit from CRISS.