Abstract
The Living Lab paradigm creates open and inter-disciplinary environments where participants can interrogate challenges and co-create solutions. A successful Living Lab context incorporates a clear focus/vision, strong leadership, self-sustainability, a strong sense of community-owned challenges and the potential for sustainable community development. This paper discusses and outlines the elements of Living Labs, and how these have played a role in the establishment of a new Education Living Lab at a University in South Africa. Core values, stakeholders and key success factors of Living Labs are discussed. This is followed by the description of a case study of the establishment process of a Living Lab. The newly established Living Lab already shows success with collaborations and innovation between communities, industry, academia, learners and schools. This is illustrated in an application of the discussions on the Mobile Learning focus area - the first active sub-focus area within the Education Living Lab.
Highlights
The UNDP (United Nations Development Programme, 2011) still describes South Africa as a developing country, mainly because 42.3% of its estimated 50.59 million people live in what the UNDP describes as multi-dimensional poverty. 17.4% of the population live below the poverty line, 9.7 million people are functionally illiterate and 12.5 million people are unemployed (Statistics South Africa, 2012)
This paper describes how the Living Lab (LL) paradigm is applied to act as a catalyst to address complex challenges in Education whilst working towards the Department of Science and Technology’s (DST’s) vision for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) innovation
From an African perspective, the LL can be defined as: Environments, a methodology or an approach which caters for user-driven open innovation within real-life rural and urban settings/communities, where users can collaborate with multiple committed stakeholders in one or more locations, to become co-creators or co-designers of innovative ideas, processes or products within multidisciplinary environments
Summary
The UNDP (United Nations Development Programme, 2011) still describes South Africa as a developing country, mainly because 42.3% of its estimated 50.59 million people live in what the UNDP describes as multi-dimensional poverty. 17.4% of the population live below the poverty line, 9.7 million people are functionally illiterate and 12.5 million people are unemployed (Statistics South Africa, 2012). 17.4% of the population live below the poverty line, 9.7 million people are functionally illiterate and 12.5 million people are unemployed (Statistics South Africa, 2012). The South African Government regards Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as an important vehicle to achieve this, which is evident in the ICT Research, Development and Innovation Strategy pursued by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). This strategy envisions a future where “South Africa is an inclusive information society where ICT-based innovation flourishes” (DST, 2007). Discussions are led by the question: How can the development of an Education LL at a research intensive university comply with the conditions for successful establishment of LLs in South Africa?
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