The updated CCL literature review (v.2- April 2015) takes into account new evidence published within the lifetime of the project. The Tablet for Schools report published in 2014 found that ‘the interest in this area has continued to grow among academic researchers’. An overall limitation of the research to date continues to be small sample sizes and limited timeframes (Claerke & Svanaes, 2014). The updated literature review also integrated new topic such as active learning, collaboration and assessment, independent learning skills and the use of tablets by students with special needs that have emerged as relevant within this project. It builds, amongst others, on the news items featuring new evidence on the use of tablets published in the resource section during the lifetime of the project. 

 Update on trends in education, exchange and creating own outputs

The second CCL Peer Exchange workshop on 14 and 15 November 2014 took place in Zürich in Switzerland, in conjunction with European Schoolnet’s ‚EMINENT‘ conference. 24 CCL teachers from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, Slovenia, Portugal and the UK exchanged during the two days on the implementation of the second round of Learning Scenarios and innovative use of tablets with their students. 

During the ‚EMINENT‘ conference with the focus on ‚Assesing key competences: shifting paradigms‘, teachers got updated on latest research in education, other European Schoolnet projects and specific topics such as special needs education, science education, key competences and digital skills. Moreover, industry partners presented new software solutions.

The second part of the workshop was devoted to an exchange among the teachers of the project. Example presentations of the teachers‘ work are available on the website. In general, teachers gave the feedback that they worked better with the Learning Scenarios in the second year, as they had a better idea of the process and more support.

Finally, teachers also had to actively create own outputs in group works during the workshop. They presented their thoughts on what worked and what was difficult when implementing their scenario. One group managed to create their own website during the session, another group drafted instructions on how to use mobile devices to create a treasure hunt. More examples are available here. Teachers gave very positive feedback on the workshp and appreciated again the possibility to exchange with teachers from other countries the most. They found it reassuring to hear that colleagues struggeled with the same challenges and got tips on what works. 

The "Exploring the creative use of tablets in schools" report summarising the findings of the Observation Visits is now available. In the project the University of Wolverhampton carried out 22 classroom Observation Visits in 22 CCL schools in the eight participating countries (at least two per country). The objective was to observe the real use of tablets during lessons and to discuss how the Learning Scenarios involving tablets had been implemented. The Observation Visits included interviews and discussions with head teachers and senior management teams, as well as with other teachers and support staff involved with the implementation of technology in the school. The visits were described also in the Observation Blog as the visits took place across Europe.

Based on the Observation Visits a set of the recommendations were elaborated to help policy-makers to take informed decisions on optimal strategies for implementing 1:1 initiatives in schools. The recommendations are divided into four categories: Implementation of devices and connectivity; Pedagogy; Resources, applications and content; and Whole school issues.

In addition, during the Observation Visits a further 11 lesson observations involved other teachers using the tablets with students in the schools: these are described in the Case Studies.

• Observation Visits Final Report, including the recommendations to policy-makers
• 11 Case studies based on the Observation Visits

The main results of the CCL project were presented in a webinar on 4 June. The webinar recording is available here as well as the presentations.

Webinar recording

Presentations

• Introduction and presentation of the CCL project, by Anja Balanskat, CCL project manager, European Schoolnet
• Findings of the observation visits in 8 countries by Diana Bannister, University of Wolverhampton
• Conclusions and recommendations to policy-makers by Anja Balanskat
• Feedback on the MOOC on the use of tablets, Benjamin Hertz, coordinator of the European Schoolnet Academy
   

The CCL project partners share their views on the project's lessons learned.

The Creative Classrooms Lab project (CCL) is coming to its end! During two years, the project has brought together teachers and policy-makers in eight countries to design, implement and evaluate 1:1 tablet scenarios in 45 schools. The project produced learning scenarios and activities, guidelines and recommendations to help policy-makers and schools. The results include a set of recommendations to policy-makers to take informed decisions on optimal strategies for implementing 1:1 initiatives in schools and for the effective integration of tablets into teaching and learning.

This main results of the projects will be presented in this webinar that will take place on Thursday 4 June at 16:00 CEST (4PM). The webinar is aimed at policy-makers on national, regional and local levels.

The webinar includes the following presentations:

• CCL project conclusions and recommendations to the policy-makers by Anja Balanskat, CCL project manager, European Schoolnet
• Findings of the observation visits in 8 countries by Diana Bannister, University of Wolverhampton
• Feedback on the MOOC on the use of tablets, Benjamin Hertz, coordinator of the European Schoolnet Academy

To sign up for the webinar please go here.

The workshop "Innovative Schools - Teaching and Learning in the Digital Era" was organised by the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) on 4 May in Brussels. The following video based on the Creative Classrooms Lab project was presented to the seminar audience that included high-level policy-makers.

Wanting to see more videos? Click here!

The Creative Classrooms Lab will run a series of webinars to present topics related to the educational use of tablets. The webinars are free of charge, but please sign up here. The participation link for each webinar will be sent to all those who sign up.

Past and upcoming webinars include:

• School-to-School Collaboration, 7 April 
• Parental Involvement and Tablets - 22 April, 18:00h Brussels time
• Special Needs Education and Tablets - 7 May, 18:30h Brussels time
• Flipped Classrooms - 14 May, 17:00 Brussels time
• Personalised Learning with tablets - 21 May, 17:00 Brussels time

See all the webinar recordings and presentations here

The Creative Classrooms Lab final Capacity-Building Conference took place on 25 March 2015 in Brussels. The event was attended by over 80 participants including policy-makers on European, national, and regional levels, industry representatives, teachers and researchers. Follow tweets from the conference here: #CCLproject

Presentations

• CCL project at a glance, Anja Balanskat, European Schoolnet
• School Observation Visits: Lessons learnt from tablet experimentations in schools, Diana Bannister, University of Wolverhampton, UK
• Developing pedagogical scenarios for tablets, Roger Blamire, European Schoolnet
• From Piloting to Mainstreaming: European Perspective, Benjamin Hertz and Jim Ayre, European Schoolnet
• From Tablets to Self-Assessment of Teachers’ Digital Competence (Mentep), Patricia Wastiau, European Schoolnet

Content Creation and the Flipped Classroom

• Introduction by Elena Mosa, INDIRE, Italy
• Daniela Cuccurullo (lead teacher Italy)
• Philip Everaerts (teacher Belgium Flanders)
• Rui Lima (lead teacher Portugal)

Collaboration and Assessment

• Introduction by Bernhard Racz, BMBF, Austria
• Simona Granfol (lead teacher Slovenia)
• Wolfgang Ӧlzant (teacher, Austria)

School-to-School Collaboration 

• Introduction by Jan de Craemer, Flemish Ministry of Education
• Sandrine Geuquet (lead teacher Belgium Wallonia)
• Petra Boháčková (lead teacher Czech Republic)
• Robert Conings (teacher Belgium Flanders)

Using tablets for personalisation/ Liberating learning

• Introduction by Valerie Thompson, e-learning foundation, UK
• Phil Spoors (lead teacher UK)
• Rui Lima (lead teacher Portugal)

Pictures

In the Creative Classroom Lab project, policy-makers and teachers developed scenarios for the use of tablets in schools. The scenarios are visions for the future classroom that address trends and challenges facing schools. Learning stories are sets of concrete classroom activities. Both were developed using the Scenario Development Toolkit developed in the earlier iTEC project.

The brochure provides an introduction into the four main teaching and learning approaches underpinning the seven learning stories developed and piloted by 45 teachers from 8 countries:

• Collaboration
• Content Creation
• Flipped Classroom
• Personalised learning

Download the brochure here (PDF)

The other results of the project include

• Scenarios and learning stories developed during the project.
• Video case studies illustrate the implemented learning activities and were produced by CCL partners and teachers.
• The insights gained from the CCL project have been integrated into an online course (MOOC) in the European Schoolnet Academy in April 2015. The course includes modules on how tablets can support new learning approaches such as content creation, collaborative learning, personalised learning and the flipped classroom
• The final report from observation and documentation of practice includes case studies, practical examples of scenarios and recommendations for education ministries and schools moving forward with tablet implementations and the use of 1:1 technologies. To be available on the CCL website.

The Creative Classrooms Lab will run a series of webinars to present topics related to the educational use of tablets. The webinars are free of charge, but please sign up here. The participation link for each webinar will be sent to all those who sign up.

School-to-School Collaboration, Tuesday 7 April, 16:30 CEST

The scenario "School-to-school collaboration" was developed within the Creative Classrooms Lab project to exploit the two key advantages of tablets: mobility and multimedia. The two benefits have been combined in a project about remembrance education (in this case, in two different projects) which provides many opportunities to exploit the unique advantages of tablets. School-to-school collaboration can enhance different skills and competences with the students such as team work, cultural competences, language learning, etc. The CCL Lead teacher from Czech Republic, Petra Boháčková, will explain in this webinar how she developed the project with her students and the partner schools in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.

Other webinar topics will include Flipped Classroom, Personalised Learning and Collaboration-Assessment.

A recent research paper "Research on mobile learning activities using tablets" presents current research on mobile learning activities in Lithuania while implementing the flagship EU-funded Creative Classrooms Lab project on the application of tablet computers in education. In the paper, the quality of modern mobile learning activities based on personalised learning, problem solving, collaboration, and flipped classroom methods is compared against the quality of traditional, mostly face-to-face learning activities based mainly on knowledge transmission. Research was twofold – on the one hand, the results of online questionnaires of teachers and students that participated in the first cycle of CCL pilots in Lithuania were analysed, and on the other hand – an expert evaluation method was used. Special attention is paid to the suitability of learning activities to particular student learning styles. Presented approaches on learning activities, quality evaluation and optimisation problems could help educational institutions to select suitable mobile activities for particular learning styles.

The paper was prepared by the project partners in Lithuania, Eugenijus Kurilovas and Anita Juskeviciene from the Centre of Information Technologies in Education, and the Lithuanian CCL lead teacher Virginija Bireniene from the Klaipeda Simon Dach pro-gymnasium. The paper has been submitted and approved for the 11th International Conference on Mobile Learning 2015 at Madeira, Portugal.

Pictures: Virginija Bireniene

The Creative Classrooms Lab has developed an online training course which provides a 5 week journey of exploration into the world of tablets in schools.

Tablets with their simple interface, portability, speed, affordability and their variety of apps are quickly moving into schools across Europe and a growing number of teachers are experimenting with tablets or are interested in doing so. However, this bring to us many questions: What rules do I need to set for the use of tablets in class? How do I deal with related administrative and technical issues? How can tablets support innovative approaches such as personalized or collaborative learning? This course does not only provide guidance on these topics but also provides a forum for you to exchange with your peers on these questions.

The course aims to inspire to use tablets to foster innovative teaching and learning. In four modules it provides a general introduction to the use of tablets in schools (Module 1) and then discusses how tablets can support new learning approaches such as content creation, collaborative learning, personalized learning and the flipped classroom model (Modules 2, 3, 4). While the course will be in English, it will be supported by national course ambassadors who can provide support in your national language throughout the course. Take a look at their profiles further below to see if there is an ambassador for your country (click on their picture to see their profile).

Successful completion of the course will be certified using digital badges and a digital certificate.

Enroll now and help us spread the news by tweeting #tabletscourse and joining our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/CreativeClassrooomsLab/


 

The Creative Classrooms Lab (CCL) project, a two-year policy experimentation on the innovative use of tablets in schools, will hold its final conference in form of a capacity building workshop on 25 March 2015 in Brussels. The one-day conference will showcase new pedagogical practices around the use of tablets in schools, unveil the findings from the final report on the school observation visits, and engage the participants in a debate on the final recommendations for education ministries and schools wishing to move forward with tablet implementations and the use of 1:1 technologies.

The conference is addressed to senior policy-makers at national, regional or local level, who will work together with the project partners and lead teachers to identify current policy challenges and provide a final set of recommendations to foster and sustain innovative and large scale tablet implementations.

The conference is free-of-charge, however, the participants need to cover their own costs (travel and hotel). A pre-registration is available online. The seats are limited and therefore, your participation will be confirmed by the workshop organisers in a separate email. To pre-register, please go to: http://bit.ly/CCL-workshop

The recent EUN Briefing Papers looks into the questions around technology-enhanced collaborative learning, with a special focus on the Creative Classrooms Lab project.  

Among education researchers and practitioners, there is a growing consensus towards the positive role of collaborative work in the classroom, which is seen as a way to engage students in the learning process and prepare them for the challenges of the labour market and adult life. But to what extent are students in Europe engaged in group work? How is the use of computers linked to it? And what are the opinions of education stakeholders towards the role of ICT in students’ collaboration? Results from the Survey of School: ICT in Education can help us answering some of these questions.

Download the Briefing Paper Nº8 here (PDF)

About EUN Briefing Papers

Briefing Papers aim to present the findings of the Survey of Schools: ICT in Education on a specific topic, relating them to the results of European Schoolnet’s projects. Survey of Schools: ICT in Education provides detailed, up-to-date and reliable benchmarking on ICT in school education across Europe, painting a picture of the use of technology for learning in schools: from the provision of infrastructure, to teachers’ and students’ use of technology, and their confidence and attitudes towards ICT.

The Survey and all the Briefing Papers are available here: www.eun.org/observatory/surveyofschools

Picture rights: Daniel Gruber