FAQ

About iTEC 

What the iTEC project is about?

This flagship, four-year project involving 27 partners, including 14 Ministries of Education, is focused on the design of the future classroom in Europe. With funding of 9.5 million euros from the European Commission’s FP7 programme, iTEC is investigating how established and emerging technologies can be used effectively in classrooms in the in next 5-10 years and particularly how scenarios for the future classroom can move beyond small scale pilots and be really taken to scale. Read more here

How is iTEC different from other “ICT in school” projects?

iTEC will be piloting learning and teaching scenarios using integrated technology solutions in over 1,000 classrooms in 15 countries, making it by some margin the largest pan-European validation of ICT in schools yet undertaken.

While iTEC will develop ambitious scenarios for the future classroom, it will also recognise the realities and pace of the educational reform process. iTEC will explore a vision of the future where schools will remain the key location for learning and assessment as part of a wider network of physical and virtual learning locations. In doing so, the project recognises that the learning process will increasingly engage with other stakeholders including parents and cultural and business sector members and draw in adult and informal learning. The project will not only examine how innovative technologies can be deployed but also the underlying change processes that are required in order for innovative teaching and learning practices to be mainstreamed and taken to scale.

What is the expected impact?

iTEC aims to develop more meaningful visions and scenarios for the future classroom by putting in place a user-centred design process and rigorous testing methodology. All learning activities and proposed designs for the future classroom will be co-developed with teachers and will be validated in large-scale pilots in order to determine whether they can have the potential to be widely adopted by schools in Europe. The direct involvement of 15 Ministries of Education in scenario development, school piloting and dissemination activities will also ensure that iTEC results can be adopted by policy makers in different countries and in schools that have reached different levels of ICT implementation and use.

iTEC scenarios and cycles

What are the iTEC scenarios?

iTEC scenarios are short narrative descriptions of preferable learning contexts which are set within a model learning environment. The intention is to both inspire teachers and provide them with the tools and training to carry out new practices which facilitate more engaging classrooms. The scenarios take account of the different elements within the learning environment such as the resources, tools and services they use, the interactions they have, the tasks they encounter and the aims of their activities. Read more here

What are the iTEC cycles?

The iTEC school pilots will be delivered in five overlapping 18-month cycles. Each cycle includes the following steps:

• Scenario development including:
  • Desk research and stakeholder surveys
  • Scenario workshop with partners resulting in selection of 20 mini-scenarios
  • Online ranking of mini-scenarios resulting in 8-10 detailed scenarios
• Participatory design (PD) sessions with a focus group of advanced teachers. The sessions work on the detailed scenarios identified in the previous phase turning them into six prototypes.
• Pre-pilots with a focus group of regular teachers to test the prototypes. After the pre-piloting, the iTEC partners will take a decision on which ones of the tested prototypes will be used in the large-scale piloting.
• Large-scale pilots are prepared and then implemented.
• Data and feedback from the pilot schools is gathered from the processes throughout each cycle and provided at the end for analysis (resulting in an evaluation report).

What are the Participatory Design workshops/sessions?

Participatory Design (PD) is a design methodology that emphasises the involvement of actual customer (in this case, educator) in all phases of design. The Participatory Design workshops are one of the ways iTEC aims to ensure that the views of practicing teachers are taken into account and that the innovative new tools and practices that iTEC develops are meaningful and useful for them and their pupils. The PD sessions are organised in at least five countries, preferably in all, in order to get early feedback from teachers.

Is it possible to participate in the scenario development?

Participation is possible in the following ways:

• Taking part in the different surveys (trends descriptors, teachers’ survey and Power League tool for students). Each of these is announced on the iTEC website when open for contributions.
• Taking part in the ranking of the mini-scenarios which will be carried out online.
• Posting comments on the website about the published scenarios.  To post a comment you need to be a registered at the iTEC website.

Please note that we don’t accept new scenario proposals since we can’t unfortunately give them the attention they would deserve. 

School piloting

Which countries are involved in school piloting?

The iTEC school pilots will be carried out in the following 14 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia and Turkey.

Furthermore, some other European countries are involved through SMART, Promethean and iTEC Associate Partners. These countries may be different in each cycle.

Is participation in other countries possible?

The school pilots are organised by the Ministries of Education and industry partners in the indicated countries. Unfortunately it is not possible to accept individual schools from outside of the mentioned countries.

What are the requirements for pilot schools?

iTEC schools should:

• Have experience in educational projects in ICT at national level and ideally be experienced in international projects.
• Carry out an innovative and effective use of learning technology(ies) in a classroom.
• Have equipment, resources and connectivity levels that enable the scenarios to be developed without major further expenses.
• Have necessary human resources and a supportive head teacher/management team.

When the pilot cycles are carried out?

Here you see the schedule for the five cycles:

 
Who the national coordinators are and what is their role?

The national coordinators are appointed by the Ministries of Education. There are two different roles:

• National Pedagogical Coordinator (NPC): a NPC is responsible at national level for the overall piloting in schools which includes organising Participatory Design sessions, selecting and supporting pre-pilot and pilot schools, and overseeing evaluation data collection and case studies.
• National Technical Coordinator (NTC): a NTC is responsible for setting up the technical conditions for pilots in schools.

Join iTEC

How can I get involved in iTEC?

There are different ways to get involved in iTEC:

• iTEC online community: The iTEC online community is open to all interested stakeholders, both organisations and individuals. Everybody that registers as an iTEC Community Member will receive regular updates and newsletters on the project and will be invited to participate in different online activities (e.g. scenario surveys, webinars). Read more here
• iTEC Associate Partners: Organisations (Ministries of Education, ICT providers, universities, etc.) wishing to have a more active role in the project can do so as unfunded iTEC Associate Partners using their own resources. Read more here (pdf)
• iTEC pilot schools and teachers: If you are a teacher and you are interested to take part in the iTEC school pilots with your class, please send us an email indicating your contact information (name, email, telephone number, school address) and a description that shows your schools complies with the basic school requirements.