iTELAB

ITELab (Initial Teachers Education Lab) was a Knowledge Alliance project (2017-2019) between higher education institutions and industry to foster innovation and knowledge exchange in initial/preservice teacher education (ITE). The ITELab Knowledge Alliance project included six partner universities providing teacher education, of which five piloted the modules and student MOOC and one acted in an evaluation capacity. Project partners also include three companies that offer Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions and professional development for teachers.ITELab was co-ordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN), a pan-European network of 34 Ministries of Education concerned with the transformation of teaching and learning in schools. EUN's work in previous projects with Ministries of Education, plus a needs analysis carried out with teacher educators highlighted, that the way in which student teachers currently receive training on ICT is a key roadblock related to the mainstreaming of innovative pedagogical practice that involves ICT. There is also a ‘disconnect' between ITE and continuing professional development (CPD) and, as a consequence, in-service training on the pedagogical use of ICT is increasingly required to equip teachers with the essential competences that they did not acquire during their initial training.Universities and companies worked together in ITELab, along with Ministries of Education, national ICT agencies and other stakeholders (participating as Associate Partners), to address these issues. The project provided data and case studies that highlighted new approaches to integrating ICT within ITE courses and the challenges that still need to be addressed in order to boost innovation in this area within higher education. The project co-designed and tested new course modules and a MOOC for student teachers extending to universities and student teachers from across Europe. The project also created and ran a new ITE University-ICT industry Forum to share knowledge with a wider group of stakeholders online and in three Capacity Development Workshops. The ITELab project was managed under the umbrella of EUN's Future Classroom Lab (FCL) an inspirational learning environment to rethink the role of pedagogy, technology and design in classrooms. A new EUN FCL-ITE group has been formed to continue the knowledge exchange around the need to innovate in ITE to support the development of the digital pedagogical competences of student teachers. The group continues the work started as part of the EC-funded ITELab project (2017-2019) and engages all education stakeholders ( universities, industry, schools, MoE and policymakers) with its work being shared in online events and at EUN's FCL School Innovation Forum and EMINENT 2020. http://fcl.eun.org/ite