Future Classroom Lab Validation Servicehttp://fcl.eun.org/validation-service

Rationale

• Many companies and EC projects want to ‘prove’ the impact on learning outcomes of their solution • But have limited knowledge of

educational research methodologies ….. and limited budgets

• Have difficulty understanding costs involved of different evaluation methodologies

• Or how difficult it can be to run school pilots given other demands on teachers

• Can be time-consuming to explore and define evaluation requirements

What companies and EC projects told us

• Very interested in a validation service

• Need faster research (companies) and support (EC projects)

• Some companies have (limited) possibility to provide hardware, software, content, services

• (e.g. Adobe, IRIS Connect, NEC, Promethean, Samsung, SMART in Creative Classrooms Lab project on tablets)

• Even SMEs can provide a free license for software

• Organisations need different validation models for school pilots including ballpark costs

Survey: what teachers want from validations• Free hardware/software (of course!)• But, professional development is also a very

strong motivator• Data Recording by teacher must be:

• Time-efficient & flexible• Online meetings, short & simple surveys, videos

of practice etc.

• Timeframe• Ideally six months to use new hardware/software

• Timing• October to May, excluding December & January

How schools are validating….http://lsl.eun.org/news/-/blogs/school-validation-of-ict-products-at-the-turku-region

Jouni Paakkinen, Director, Centre for ICT in Learning, City of Turku, Finland

ValidationManual

Validation Manual

• Distills and summarises European Schoolnet expertise in running both very large scale school pilots (2,600 classrooms in 17 countries) and much smaller ‘lighter’ evaluations

• Also provides 12 downloadable templates and tools that companies can use if they decide to run their own pilots:

• Model contacts for national coordinators• Planning checklists• School data form• MoU for school cooperation• Lesson observation template• Code of conduct for school –industry

collaboration• etc.

Examples of validation size/costs

FCL turnkey validation service

• Open to all Future Classroom Lab partners

• Starts with workshop to: • define the research question(s) to be addressed

• explore scope and approximate budget

• no cost for this workshop or obligation to proceed

• EUN prepares a short proposal outlining• Most appropriate evaluation methodology

• Logistics of running pilots including selection / support of teachers/schools, provision of technology…..

• Deliverables

• Budget

Validation Service projects

• Service launched at the end of 2014

• European Schoolnet already working with:

• Samsung: completed professional development programme for Samsung schools in June 2014 and now moving to phase 2

• Acer /Google: pilot started in March 2015

Samsung professional development programmehttp://fcl.eun.org/samsung-pdp • October 2014 - June 2015 (Phase 1)

• Introductory webinar

• FCL workshop where Samsung teachers are introduced to the Future Classroom Toolkit

• Teachers develop scenarios and learning activities

• Pilot these in schools– EUN online support / webinars

• Final teacher workshop for peer exchange

• EUN evaluation of the activity - proposals for next steps

• FCL workshop for Samsung subsidiaries June 2015

Acer / Google pilot

• March - December 2015

• FCL workshop - training teachers in use of Future Classroom Toolkit

• Scenarios involving Acer Chromebooks and Google tools

• EUN moderation of Google+ group, Google Hangout session

• Evaluation includes online questionnaires at beginning and end of the programme, analysis of teacher blog posts….

Next Steps?

• Think about your research question and the information you will need in order to define it (pp14-17 of Validation Manual)

• Consider different evaluation approaches (Section 5 of Validation Manual)

• Arrange a time to discuss your requirements

• A face-to-face workshop in the FCL in Brussels for you and your team?

• Or an online meeting?

• Contact: Jim Ayre, jim.ayre@eun.org

http://fcl.eun.org/validation-service