EducaLab Experimenta

The research developed in the Visual Design Programme of the Fundación Uni-versitaria Compensar explores innovative methodologies to address problems in various communities in Colombia. Through the Educalab project, an experimental multimedia educational laboratory, approaches from Design Thinking, visual anthropolog y, phenom-enology and sociology, IAP (research, action and participation), ethnography, multimodal critical discourse analysis, data analysis and technological appropriation (experimental multimedia) were integrated to adapt methodological tools to specific contexts. The main objective was to experiment and test the effectiveness of these methodologies in solving community challenges.Educalab was implemented in rural and urban territories, working with digital and col-laborative technologies, such as video cards, mail art and radio soap operas, facilitating interaction between students and communities. Some of the most outstanding cases were the intervention in a part of the territory of Boyacá and in environmental conservation projects such as the Jaguar Festival, carried out in San José del Guaviare in Guaviare, and the work with the urban communities of Barrio Moravia in Medellín, Colombia.The key outcome of the project was the creation of a printed toolkit, which includes cards with methodological suggestions for fostering dialogue and collaboration in the commu-nities. This approach allowed strengthening territorial memory, promoting critical analy-sis and developing multimedia co-creation processes. This study underlines the impor-tance of research-creation in design as a tool to generate social impact and strengthen the link between academia and communities.