Future Classroom Lab Regional Network Erasmus Project

Project Title

Future Classroom Lab Regional Network

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The Future Classroom Lab Regional Network (FCL Regio) was a three year project co-ordinated by the Autonomous Province of Trento (PAT) with the support of European Schoolnet (EUN), and involving two more regions that are at the forefront of innovating with ICT in schools – the Department of Education of Catalonia (CAT) and the Gothenburg Region Association of local authorities (GR).
Within EUN, national education ministries have developed a sustainable infrastructure where they benefit from knowledge building and exchange and from involving their schools in pan-European projects. No such platform though yet existed in Europe for decision makers developing K-12 ICT strategies in regional education authorities. FCL Regio, therefore, aimed to provide decision makers in regional authorities with a pan-European platform for exchange and collaboration, in line with the objectives that Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships sustains to enable, “new and increased inter-regional and cross-border cooperation of public authorities in the fields of education, training and youth” supporting capacity building and networking.
FCL Regio has developed a network for decision makers in regions that facilitates both inter-regional collaboration and provides better communication and opportunities for joint working between regions and national ministries. As many regional education authorities are at the forefront of innovating with ICT in schools and the project has provided new opportunities for national ministries to learn from these regions.
The project focused on two overarching themes: 1) pedagogical use and impact of mobile devices in teaching and learning; 2) development of learning cloud computing strategies. Along these two main strands of work, the project consortium identified priorities for each year of activity, to tailor the outputs to elements relevant to the school innovation process.
During its first year, FCL Regio has particularly looked at several key questions. What is mobile learning? What are cloud services for schools? How can they support a ‘beyond the textbook’ strategy? What are the potential benefits of introducing these technologies in the classroom? These led the discussions at the first Strategic Seminar, informed an online questionnaire dedicated to local policy makers, as well as inspired face-to-face consultations with national and regional decision makers. The same approach was used during the second and the third year when the chosen topics were respectively: initial teacher education and continuing professional development of teachers, and how regions can better encourage and support the uptake of innovation in all schools.
FCL Regio partners have ultimately produced recommendations and guidelines related to these priority issues to support the development of ‘joined’ up and coherent regional and national ICT strategies for schools.
Versions of these recommendations have been also adapted for school leaders, teachers and ICT advisers and have been widely disseminated during the project through existing large-scale teacher networks at both regional and pan-European level.
During the project, a focus group of teachers from each of the regions has come together to collaborate on producing future classroom scenarios and pedagogical videos to inspire teachers and headmasters to adopt innovative pedagogical approaches. This strand of activity resulted in the creation of 12 pedagogical videos, 5 podcast and 4 Innovation Pills, short professional development modules developed based on the innovative activities designed by the project, with the goal to inspire and to support educators in spreading the seeds of innovation in schools.
FCL Regio, therefore, has provided activities and outputs that supported both top down and bottom up mainstreaming of ICT in schools. It has promoted project outputs and grew the number of regions in the network by organising five multiplier events in the second two years of the project, four in Brussels and the last one in Trento, resulting in the adhesion to the network of the Council of Castilla y Leon region and the Autonomous Centre of Training and Innovation – CAFI Galicia, in Spain, the Intercommunal Community of the Region of Coimbra, in Portugal, the Dodecanese’s Directorate of Primary Education and Department of Primary Education University of the Aegean, in Greece. Expressions of interest to joining the network have been also received from the Central Denmark Region and the Antalya Provincial Directorate of National Education in Turkey.
The FCL Regio network is also conceived from the outset as an integral part of the EUN Future Classroom Lab. This independently funded initiative, supported by EUN member ministries of education and 30 industry partners, ensures that FCL Regio outputs remain available after the end of project funding and offers an umbrella under which a permanent network for regional decision makers involved with ICT in schools can be sustained long

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 253206,14 Eur

Project Coordinator

PROVINCIA AUTONOMA DI TRENTO & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Generalitat de Catalunya
• GOTEBORGSREGIONENS KOMMUNALFORBUND
• EUN PARTNERSHIP AISBL