Smart City Design as a 21 st Century Skill

The smart city concept is becoming even more popular, but it can still be unclear for several people. As it does not represent a vague possibility, but a concrete truth that (future) citizens face in their daily lives, it is crucial to provide learners with all the skills and the awareness to properly face and deal with challenges that smart cities and their components, such as smart things, will pose to them. In this article, we report on two different approaches followed to introduce to young citizens the concept of smart cities and smart things. On one hand, the Roobopoli workshops mainly involved participants in the programming of smart cities. On the other hand, the SNaP workshops encompassed an entire design process of novel smart things. By using them as reference, we aim to provide researchers and educators with reflections on how different workshops can enable (future) citizens to develop digital skills and improve their understanding of the smart city concept.