Developing a European Pioneer Teacher Community for School Innovation

Abstract

ULEARN is a project that aims to create a stable community of ‘pioneer teachers’ in Europe through a system that supports teachers’ lifelong learning, knowledge sharing and cooperation. Herein we call ‘pioneer teachers’ those who are keen to use ICT in the classroom and who can be seen as the early adopters of ICT-based innovation in education, already having had some experience in this field. They play a key role in the diffusion of innovation since the majority of teachers learn about new ideas from peers via interpersonal channels. To achieve our aims, U-LEARN.IT has being developed — a system that can be thought of as a virtual lifelong learning system of excellence for European pioneer teachers adopting ICT in education. It is based on the different needs of educational systems in European countries and involves three main functions: lifelong learning on ICT in education, the sharing of knowledge, information and materials, and cooperation within this community. As far as the pedagogical approach is concerned, the project focuses on lifelong cooperative learning supported by a networked infrastructure. The key pedagogical idea is that learning is the result of social interaction within a community of practice. The learning process is mainly based on asynchronous communication within a computer conferencing environment. The same environment supports cooperation among teachers and the sharing of knowledge, information and materials.