Living Schools Lab

Introduction

The main aim of the Living Schools Lab project is to help Ministries of Education to showcase, upscale and mainstream innovative use of ICT in both primary and secondary schools. To this end, the project will create a sustainable, growing network of primary and secondary schools, based around regional clusters, that showcase and share best practice and ways to successfully embed the use of technology in teaching and learning (T&L) across the whole school.

The network will include different types of schools and the network will grow in various "waves". See the current schools here.

Types of schools

• Advanced School (AS): Technology is embedded in teaching and learning across the whole school
• Advanced Practitioner school (AP): Technology is embedded in ‘pockets’, with maybe only one or two practitioners making innovative use of ICT within the school

Waves

Wave 1 (Oct 2012 - Dec 2013)

• In year one, the LSL network will comprise of Advanced Schools (AS1), forming regional clusters with Advanced Practitioner schools (AP1). Once these cluster or hubs are in place, they will form the foundation to build upon in year two.
• To start, each partner country has selected two Advanced Schools. These will be joined by five Advanced Practitioner Schools to form the first regional hubs in year one.
• Group AS1 (1 secondary + 1 primary at each country) = 24 schools
• Group AP1 (3 secondary + 2 primary at each country) = 60 schools
• Countries involved: France, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, UK, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Finland

Wave 2 (Jan 2014-)

In year 2, the network will be expanded to include a much larger cohort of schools and teachers in an online community who will benefit from the information, guidelines and recommendations produced by the observation and documention activities (WP3). The aim is that some of these new teachers and schools will gain confidence and new competences as a result of the project, so that the network of schools that can actively participate in validations continues to grow and so that much larger pan-European pilots can be sustained over longer periods of time.

Growing the network

The two graphics below show how we expect the LSL network of schools to grow and link together in many different ways, according to common themes or areas of interest that bring the schools together. These themes will build on the selection criteria that schools respond to when first joining the network.

Growth around regional hubs

Connecting both AS and AP schools in each of the regional hubs, so that they can work together on sharing practices, developing themes to help them scale up a pedagogically-led approach to embedding technology to the benefit of teaching and learning across the whole school:

• Schools/teachers work together in their regional hubs;
• Schools/teachers work across hubs within their country, and also pan-European.

Roles

• Schools / teachers will share both virtually and through some face to face meetings, facilitated by the National Coordinator in each country and through LSL observation visits and training workshops.
• Schools / teachers will contribute and provide feedback on project deliverables (ICT Audit, LSL course and training materials, LSL action—research validation methodology, LSL community).

Online community of practice

The online community of practice will enable teachers and schools to share good practices, collaborate together (both at the regional and European level), participate to webinars and online training. The tools will be flexible to adapt to the school and teacher needs. Different communities will be encouraged around the themes selected by the schools.

What's in it for the schools joining the network?

Schools joining Living Schools Lab and becoming part of this new pan-European network will particularly benefit by:

• Sharing ideas and practice with schools and teachers from across Europe on how to successfully embed the use of technology in teaching and learning (T&L) across the whole school. Participating in collaborative continuous profession development (CPD), taking advantage of the opportunities offered through an online Community of Practice, peer exchange within the regional hubs and at national level, facilitated by the National Coordinator, together with professional development workshops in the European Schoolnet Future Classroom Lab in Brussels.
• Having opportunities to get involved in action research pilots that may include testing of new hardware and software from ICT vendors and projects funded by the European Commission. This will help develop a sustainable, economic model to motivate and reward schools that decide to become part of a permanent, Living Schools Lab validation network.
• The opportunity for the first wave of schools is also to be involved right at the beginning of the project, to help shape and build this exciting pan-European network of Living Schools.

How to join the network?

The selection of the schools will be done by the project partners (MoE). The selection can be a closed selection or an open call depending on what the MoE decides. The participation during the year 2 (from Jan 2014) will be open to more schools and we will post all participation opportunities at this website.

If you would like to keep in contact with us and be informed when training and networking opportunities become available within the project, please leave here your information using the online form on the left-hand side.