ICAP IS A RESUBMISSION, IT RECEIVED A SCORE OF 80 AND A VERY POSITIVE EVALUATION, INCLUDING, FOR EXAMPLE: “THE APPLICANTS ARE TO BE COMMENDED - NOT ONLY FOR THEIR INNOVATIVE IDEAS BUT ALSO FOR THE THOROUGHNESS OF THE APPLICATION. THE PLANS ARE AMBITIOUS BUT ACHIEVABLE - THE QUALITY OF THE WORK PLANS AND PHASED CAPACITY BUILDING MAKE FOR AN ASSURED AND HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL PROPOSAL. THE PARTNERS ARE COMPLEMENTARY AND THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE WWEU TEAM PROVIDES A COMPLETE QA GUARANTEE. THE INVOLVEMENT OF STUDENTS IN CO-DESIGNING THE PROJECT IS EXCELLENT AND SIMILARLY, THE IDEA OF DISSEMINATING THROUGH THEIR GAMING AND SOCIAL NETWORKS IS ALSO APPEALING..." THIS APPLICATION INCLUDES IMPROVEMENTS BASED ON THE FEEDBACK RECEIVED. The Commission calls upon EU initiatives to carry out experimentation in the field of fostering innovation interest, engagement and capacity among students in early schooling and to encourage schools to create such learning experience that helps build up new generations of young EU innovators. iCAP is one of the first practice-oriented projects in the EU responding to the Commission’s invitation to establish experimentation with the creation of innovation interest, skills and capacity in primary and secondary school, and it also contributes to a new generation of Erasmus responding to the increasing EU interest in entrepreneurship and innovation based schooling. Despite its ambitious mission, it is based on the realistic assumption that schools do not change fast enough to meet changing learning needs. Even if such changes at systemic level are not likely, it is indeed possible for schools to offer their students relevant and powerful innovation and entrepreneurial experiences, from which they can develop innovation skills and capacity. iCAP is missioned to design, deliver and share experimentation with learning activities and formats that create innovation interest and capacity among students, based on transnational virtual collaboration and on addressing societal challenges presented by local entrepreneurs, innovators and pioneers in the participating communities. It will provide open spaces integrated into the learning activities for student teams to engage in missions, from research to small local NGO initiatives, in which they can follow, contribute and co-create innovative solutions to societal problems. This represents a powerful open schooling approach establishing local partnerships with the community and offering real-life/time challenges to the students as encouraged by the Commission. The innovation interest and capacity will be trained in the transnational and virtual spaces in which future collaborative innovation and co-creation will take place. This will happen through the collaboration between the schools. The students’ co-creation and co-driving will not only be practiced in connection with the content and activities, but also and innovatively in connection with the implementation. The project will create and openly share guidelines, documentation and knowledge produced through the intensive experimentation, and with a special focus on the substantial co-driving and co-creation from the students. The results will be produced taking the student teams (12 to 15 year old) through the phases of innovation engagement, from an opening trying out phase to more complex engagement: Phase 1 – LOCAL (Community driven) Phase 2 – SHARING (Youth-driven) Phase 3 – COLLABORATIVE (Community-driven+) Phase 4 – MAX CO-CREATIVE (Project-driven) Each phase will build on the project’s innovation mechanics, taking the students through the full circle of innovation engagement from simple curiosity to co-creation. All activities will work through real-life local societal challenges and in close collaboration with small eco-systems of community resources. The activities and processes will be worked, shared and discussed involving the students as they will be the centre, the co-drivers and co-creators of planning, activities and results. Key outcomes: -iCAP resource centre -iCAP learning: building innovation interest and capacity in secondary schools -I am an innovator – what R U? – video -Supporting EU young innovators – in practice! (Policy paper) -Special outcome - iCAP research recommendations for the Empowering EU Young Innovators Agenda Results will be available on www.icap.net The consortium includes 2 knowledge partners with expertise in innovative didactics, including entrepreneurial and innovation oriented learning, 5 practice partners (secondary schools) from different countries and a quality and exploitation partner. Practice partners are dedicated to engage fully in the experimentation, formally endorsed by the school management and by letter of collaboration. Among its activities, the mobility holds a special position, bringing together all the students. It is expected to be very dynamic and productive. It will be co-designed and co-driven by the students.
iCAP is one of the first practice-oriented projects in the EU responding to the Commission’s invitation to establish experimentation with the creation of innovation interest, skills and capacity in primary and secondary school, and it also contributes to a new generation of Erasmus responding to the increasing EU interest in entrepreneurship and innovation based schooling. The consortium was made up of 2 knowledge partners with expertise in innovative didactics, including entrepreneurial and innovation oriented learning, 5 practice partners (secondary schools) from different countries and a quality and exploitation partner. iCAP was missioned to design, deliver and share experimentation with learning activities and formats that create innovation interest and capacity among students, based on transnational virtual collaboration and on addressing societal challenges presented by local entrepreneurs, innovators and pioneers in the participating communities. The project provided students the opportunity to engage in missions, from research to small local NGO initiatives both internally at their schools and within their own communities, to contribute and co-create innovative solutions to societal problems. This represented a powerful open schooling approach, establishing local partnerships with the community and offering real-life/time challenges to the students as encouraged by the Commission. The project was facilitated rather than led by the coordinating partner. There was a high degree of distributed leadership particularly in light of the project ethos, which was to empower students as far as possible. Indeed the project was unusual in the way that the implementation of actual change-focused work on the ground was led entirely by the students themselves. Each transnational meeting featured reporting back by student teams and exercises in listening to the students and teachers in order to work out the rules of what had been done rather than imposing a rigid template on project activity. The nature of the project also challenged teachers in their traditional roles as leaders of student learning. All of the activities worked through real-life local societal challenges and worked in close collaboration with small eco-systems of community resources. The activities and processes were worked, shared and discussed with the students as they were the centre, the co-drivers and co-creators of the planning, activities and results of the project. Key outcomes: Output 1: Virtual Resource Centre This takes the form of an open website: http://icap-action.com that was built up over the duration of the project. This is where the experiences of the participating schools are shared and where the other outputs can be accessed. The Resource Centre is designed to help visitors understand what we did, how we did it and, most importantly, to inspire them to have a go at running innovation projects in their own settings. Output 2: Guidelines document for implementing innovation capacity projects This was developed in the second part of the project. It was organised by our Greek Knowledge partner, University of Thessaly, with contributions from all other partners. The document provides an account of the project experience, a ‘how to’ guide, a discussion of the impact of the project on the students and a bank of useful resources linked to the theme of innovation and capacity building. A summary of the document in all five project languages is available on the Resource Centre. Output 3: Video documenting student experience There are in fact six videos available via the Resource Centre. Firstly, the 20-minute project video offers a full account of the project approach; a second ‘motivational video’ provides a summary version of this and there are four versions of interviews with students each with different subtitles reflecting the project languages. Output 4: Policy Paper This was compiled by our quality assurance partner, Working with Europe, based on inputs from participants throughout the project and chiefly at the final Mobility event. Again, the whole document and a summary of this is available on the Resource Centre. Output 5: Research and experimentation The whole iCAP project has been a vast practical experiment. The impact of carrying out these projects on young people and on teachers is explored in the project research conducted by the knowledge partner, University of Gloucestershire with the active participation of all the students and teachers involved in the project. The research report is available via the Resource Centre and is being written up and submitted to a peer reviewed journal for publication.