Development of the Future Classroom Toolkit

Cranmer, Sue and Ulicsak, Mary (2015) Development of the Future Classroom Toolkit. In: Re-engineering the uptake of ICT in schools. Springer, pp. 17-39. ISBN 9783319193656

Abstract

Key to iTEC was the need to empower teachers to facilitate positive and sustainable innovative classroom practices enhanced by digital technologies. Initially it was envisaged that experts would create challenging yet feasible scenarios that would be refined by stakeholders. From these scenarios, Learning Activities would be developed that would lead to innovation either pedagogically or technologically. Nevertheless, the complexity of defining innovation and the challenge of innovating within different contexts had been somewhat underestimated. As the nature of the project work became better understood, it became clear that stakeholders – particularly teachers – needed to be responsible for scenario creation in order to be able to assimilate innovative approaches into current practice. This chapter explains the evolution of this process from the creation of scenarios to the development of the Future Classroom Toolkit. Within this, it focuses on the role of maturity models to enable stakeholders to assess their current context and practice in terms of the level of innovation. In addition, it shows how the Future Classroom Toolkit can support and encourage stakeholders to take ownership of and augment their own innovative practices using digital technologies for the benefit of learners.