School 4.0 meets the growing demand for curricular frameworks for continuous professional development of teachers in the digital age. The project responds to the challenges of sustainable investment in education and training, aligning education and training activities on different levels with necessary technical implementation processes. Bridging the gap between teaching competences and school infrastructure, it will also design and publish pedagogically informed implementation models that will significantly contribute to sustainable investment, performance and efficiency in school infrastructure across Europe. The main objective of School 4.0 is to enhance and to improve teacher education curricula in all stages of professional development. The project focuses on teacher training curricula that aim at (a) developing the competences of teachers in teaching digital literacy / media pedagogy and at (b) developing digital competences of teachers for effective use of ICT in teaching. The second priority of School 4.0 is to provide stakeholders in school infrastructure across Europe with a solid basis of decision-making when investing in technology and implementing ICT solutions in schools. Innovation in learning can succeed only when professional teachers can use functioning and functional ICT infrastructure in schools. At the same time, rapid changes in technology challenge decision-makers to understand the success factors for effective and sustainable investments. Governing bodies throughout the EU have issued strategies for the enhancement of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure in schools and prepared large-volume investment packages. Several studies have been conducted on different implementation models of ICT in schools. School 4.0 links up the two interrelated dimensions of teacher education and school infrastructure in a transnational strategic partnership of European partners. Establishing a transnational cooperation of decision-makers in teacher education and school infrastructure for the exchange of good practices for sustainable development of ICT competences in school education across Europe, School 4.0 brings together complementary partners from Germany, UK and Austria: (1) two institutions of higher education involved in initial teacher education, (2) two local authorities responsible for school infrastructure and for continuous professional development of teachers, (3) two alliances for the promotion of ICT in education, as well as (4) three schools. Participants in learning and training activities are key players in teacher education and training in the field of ICT based learning. Participants from universities or teacher education colleges are key players in the development of curricula for initial teacher education study programs as well as vocational education training for teachers. The participating school authorities play a key role in the operational implementation of project results. School 4.0 develops an integrated curricular concept for implementation of digital competences in continuous teacher education. Drawing upon the maxim "pedagogy first", the project also develops models for sustainable and effective implementation of ICT school infrastructure in different educational contexts, translating existing strategic frameworks onto the operational level. It results in the establishment of a transnational think tank of decision-makers in teacher education and in school infrastructure that will continue to impact on education policies across Europe. Long-term objectives of the cooperation are (1) contributing to continual development of teachers’ digital competences and (2) contributing to sustainable investment, performance and efficiency of customized ICT solutions in schools across Europe.
Context/background of the project: The digital ere enters all socielal sectors and private activities. Some spheres are hesitant or exempt, like seniors, universities or schools. The focus of the project is on the school sector. The slow uptake of digital innovation can be explained at least as follows: at one hand, pedagogy adaptaion is too slow. The teacher in service and further training does not mirror at many places the societal and technical reality. Teachers often do not know, how to apply technical options in their subjct teaching, they handel available tools inappropriately and they are not aware of the digial life of their students. On the other hand, decisions about provision of technical resources are often not embedded in a wider strategy, including connectivity, technical up-to-dateness, maintenance, teacher competences... Therefor, the project was related to different aspects of IT in school: technology, teacher training, initial teacher education, students' and pupils’ competences, and best practices. The project partners had all relevant competences and networks to contribute to the different subjects and they entered in a fruitful exchange from the beginning of the project. Objectives: The objectives remained the same as stated in the proposal. They have been based on the above background which was a common denimonator of the project partners during project life time Number and type/profile of participants: The profile of the participants was corresponding to the proposal: people concerned with implementation of technology at school, teacher curricula developers from universities, teachers, headmasters, teacher students. Moreover, stakeholders like interested companies and school administrations were reached. At least 600 participants have been directly informed about the project activities, these numbers being the participants of the desseminantion events Bildung Online conference in Salzburg and teacher information day in Glasgow, both directly related to School4.0 Training Weeks. Relevant numbers have moreover reached during network meetings (BfB), school visits and lectures for teacher students, all also related to the Training Weeks. Description of undertaken activities: Central and decentral project administration, finance; Project management and quality assurance; Project communication; Preparation of four training weeks by all partners, organisation of the training week by the hosting partners (program definition with the program committee, preparatory meetings, careful selection and invitation of speakers, in accordance with the planned topics, inclusion of stakeholders (municipalities, school administrations, headmasters...), networking, organisation of visits and excursions, organisation of social events, handling of security issues, planning of locations and transports, catering, provision of supporting personnel, elaboration of presentations, proof reading, participation in meetings, post-processing of training weeks (collection and storage of presentations, debriefing, evaluation)); Technical and graphical development of the web site, project logo, clarification of copyright issues, setting up of secure shared space (ownCloud), structured according to the project activities, updating, setting up and maintenance of a central mailing list, upload of training week documentation; Project dissemination (web site, embedding in third party web sites, twitter, dissemination events), participation in dissemination events; İnclusion of third party actors (municipalities, headmasters, teachers, university chairs, companies) in relation to the project activities; Desk research by all partners: investigation for relevant sources, documentations, reports, summing up; Translation and localisation of questionnaire, distribution. Reporting Results and impact attained; if relevant, longer-term benefits: Due to the great interest and relevance of the project topics and the high quality of the inputs, presentations and discussions, many new ideas could be taken away by the participants which is of concrete value, since project partners are involved in decision making of municipalities and school administrations, and this is a period of very important decision making in many European cities, about large budgets for school technology and teacher training. The presented strategies and good practices found broad interest and influence the ongoing decision making. Inspired by the project exchanges and information, even information exchange visits took place independently of the Project to get deeper into concrete experiences and exchanges of know-how. These exchanges are still going on.