When participants were asked to describe innovation, there was no common consensus about the concept: some participants seeing innovation as a step by step improvement while others thought of innovation as a radical shift of doing things.

Participants agreed that when introducing change and innovation in schools it should be rather a step by step process as schools are still traditional organisations.

During a breakout session, participants were asked to single out one example from their country they see as innovative. Participants had some difficulty, partly because they saw innovation more as a process than an “object”.

Some of the projects mentioned included in the UK “Mudlarking in Depford” where students use a GPS handheld interactive map and wireless networks to explore outside the school using ICT. In Sweden a new law will introduce an ‘individual development plan’ between teacher, pupil and parents to set objectives for the pupils’ learning. More detailed information about the projects will be published in an upcoming article on Insight.

P2P and innovation
The P2P project on peer exchange in policy-making, inspection and school practice was taken as an example of peer learning that could be a potential tool for innovation. Bert Jaap van Oel from the Dutch inspectorate of education reported on the P2P inspection strand’s work to build a common evaluation framework. An upcoming Policy peer review book on the Common inspection scheme will be published on occasion of the P2P closing conference on 26 April 2006.

Mick James from BECTA gave a presentation on Becta’s work to identify leading edge practice and how innovation can be transferred between schools. He pointed out that to turn isolated innovative action in schools into systemic change, incentives are necessary since schools in the UK are in competition to attract students.

Ella Kiesi from the Finnish National Board of Education reported on the experiences gained during the P2P activities, she raised the issue of how the PIC group could influence policy development.

Sven Borgh from the Swedish National Agency for Education and Peter Karlberg from the Swedish National Agency for School Improvement presented the close collaboration between the two Swedish educational agencies and how this tandem fosters school development.

eLearning Programme
On the second day of the meeting José Pessanha, from the European Commission’s DG Education and Culture presented the future EC eLearning programme due to start in 2007. At the end of 2006 the European Commission will publish a key white paper on ICT in education.

In a concluding presentation Francesce Busquets, XTEC, Barcelona presented a range of software to support teachers when creating Digital Learning objects. He raised the question of how teachers creating material and software and sharing resources can contribute to innovation.

In a final address to the group, Alan McCluskey, the PIC chair, mentioned an issue that is growing important forICT agencies and ministry departments: How to  handle the shift in priorities that comes with the increased integration of ICT in education. This has  resultedin a move of the spotlight away from ICT to other issues not directly linked to ICT, but depending on those technologies.

This question will be the central theme at the next PIC meeting to take place in connection with Xchange 2006 in Northern Ireland. The meeting is scheduled in Belfast on 6-7 June 2006.

A publication in the series “Policy and Innovation in Education” inspired by the discussion of innovation at the Barcelona PIC meeting will be available at the end of April.

P2P dissemination:
http://p2p.eun.org
PIC Community:
http://community.eun.org/entry_page.cfm?area=703
xchange:
http://becta.org.uk/xchange2006/index.cfm
More about XTEC software to support teachers:
http://clic.xtec.net