FCLregio (Future Classroom Lab Regional Network) is a three year Strategic Partnership project co-ordinated by Trento (PAT) and European Schoolnet (EUN), a pan-European network of 30 national Ministries of Education, and involving two more regions that are at the forefront of innovating with ICT in schools – Catalonia (GENCAT-ENS) and Gothenburg (GR). Over the last 16 years 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 and networking. No such platform though yet exists in Europe for decision makers developing K-12 ICT strategies in regional education authorities. FCLregio, therefore, aims to establish a pan-European network for decision makers in regional authorities, in line with the objectives that Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships should enable, “new and increased inter-regional and cross-border cooperation of public authorities in the fields of education, training and youth” and should “support capacity building and networking activities”. FCLregio will leverage the existing infrastructure to develop 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. It is widely recognised that many regional education authorities are at the forefront of innovating with ICT in schools and the project will provide new opportunities for national ministries to learn from these regions. The rationale for the project, therefore, is that FCLregio will provide a new ‘bridge’ that connects decision makers at both regional and national levels and which fosters new approaches to transnational collaboration. The project focuses on two issues that will be key to decision makers working at all levels across Europe over the coming years: 1) pedagogical use and impact of mobile devices in teaching and learning; 2) development of learning cloud computing strategies. During the project, FCLregio partners will analyse research and studies related to both issues. Drawing on this work, it will then carry out annual surveys with decisions makers in regions and national ministries and with ICT suppliers in order to identify specific challenges related to deployment and implementation of mobile learning and cloud services. Finally, recommendations and guidelines related to these priority issues will be produced to support the development of ‘joined’ up and coherent regional and national ICT strategies for schools. Versions of these recommendations and guidelines will also be produced for school leaders and ICT advisers and will be widely disseminated during the project through existing large-scale teacher networks at both regional and pan-European level. Collectively the three regions are working with 6.500 schools. EUN provides the Central Support Service for the European Commission's eTwinning initiative (302.953 teachers, 40.272 projects and 138.861 schools) and many thousands of schools are involved in EUN projects and initiatives. During the project, a small focus group of teachers / ICT Advisers will come together to collaborate on producing future classroom scenarios and pedagogical videos that inspire teachers in these and other regional, national and European networks to adopt innovative pedagogical approaches involving mobile learning and cloud computing. FCLregio, therefore, will provide activities and outputs that support both top down and bottom up mainstreaming of ICT in schools. It will promote project outputs and grow the number of regions in the network by organising three multiplier events in the second two years of the project, one in each region. In the final event, participants will be presented with a project sustainability plan including a proposal for how the FCLregio network and activities can be maintained. The prospects for sustaining the network are not left to chance or to the final stages of the project. Since 1998, EUN has clearly demonstrated that it can sustain a pan-European network of national Ministries of Education. This experience will underpin the formation of the new regional network. The FCLregio network is also conceived from the outset as an integral part of the EUN Future Classroom Lab. This independently funded initiative, supported by EUN and 30 industry partners, will ensure that FCLregio outputs remain available after the end of project funding. It also potentially offers an umbrella under which a permanent network for regional decision makers involved with ICT in schools can be sustained long term.
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