Future Classrooms

Gothenburg Region Joins iTEC Project

Gothenburg (SE), July 2011 - The European Schoolnet's iTEC project has welcomed an important new Associate Partner, the Gothenburg Region Association of Local Authorities (GR). The new partnership aims to strengthen scenario building in Sweden, as iTEC develops and validates scenarios for the school-space of the future in over 1,000 classrooms across fifteen countries in Europe.




Allocation of resources to lifelong learning is considered as one of the key areas in the Gothenburg Region Association of Local Authorities (GR), a co-operative organisation uniting thirteen municipalities in western Sweden. As one of the iTEC's newest Associate Partners, GR provides iTEC with a solid base in the country and further extends the project's pan-European scope. With the involvement of GR, iTEC will now be involved and work with schools in fifteen countries.

The Gothenburg region includes 210,000 pupils, 20,000 teachers, and 1,000 school heads. GR Education, a service organisation within the regional body, plays an important role among these actors by supporting lifelong learning and providing a place for exchanging ideas, knowledge, and experience. The Association also runs several joint projects and collaborates with a large number of organisations outside the municipal sphere.

For example, a new project called GUNS will establish cross-border cooperation among nine Nordic schools and eighteen school classes, who will jointly plan and carry out joint cross-border projects related to languages, science, history/social studies, and mathematics supported by new technologies. GR Education will also organise a two-day "Mötesplats Skola" conference in October 2011 to present various regional initiatives in the field of education. iTEC will take part in one of the Conference sessions called "European Perspective into School Digitalisation."

GR's concrete activities to support iTEC will be related mainly to future classroom scenario development and school piloting. So-called "one-to-one" computer projects have a relatively strong presence within the region's educational sector, and schools involved in these initiatives will pilot and test some of the iTEC scenarios.