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Future Classroom Lab Regional Network
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Aug 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

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.
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