ICT at School's everyday life and OPTEK projects' blog (in Finnish only): http://blogs.helsinki.fi/oppiailoakouluun/in-english/

OPTEK - Educational technology at school’s everyday life research project aims to produce well-founded and lasting solutions to the use of ICT in the everyday life of schools. The project will develop models, processes and contents which will enable the efficient use of ICT in the study and learning environments of schools. The project is funded by Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation), private companies and the participating universities. The total funding of the project is 2.3 million euros of which 1.9 million comes from Tekes. The project timeline is 1.8.2009–31.5.2011.

The central objective of the project is to create operational models and contents, which will also solidify the use of ICT in all Finnish schools. Development and distribution of pedagogical technology innovations are at the heart of the project.

Operational models and innovative ways of using ICT will be further developed in extensive cooperation with eight research groups from different universities (12 research units and the Technical Research Centre of Finland), with industry and commerce (28 private companies), pilot schools (12 projects) and municipal education departments.

The project will create new solutions for the effective implementation of educational technology at schools. The project will also aim to bring about changes in school culture and further develop school communities which are heavily involved in the advancement of the information society.

The purpose of the project is to produce:

• innovations linked to teaching technology, new research data and linkages between previous research
• processes and contents for the use of ICT in schools’ study and learning environments
• operations models and service concepts, which will help to implement the use of ICT in Finnish schools
• functional cooperation models for research departments, schools and businesses
• new business activities.

The research data of the project will be gathered from the pilot schools by using various scientific methods. The research areas of the project are defined according to the following five themes:

• ICT infrastructure, hardware and software
• Learning environments and pedagogical models
• Content creation and learning materials
• Development of school communities, support of professional development and cooperation
• Development of public-private partnership models

Educational technology in school’s everyday life –project has been divided into four research packages, each of which consists of a sub consortium formed by multiple research units.

CICERO Learning is responsible for the coordination and international cooperation of the project. The whole research project is carried out in close cooperation with the ICT at School’s Everyday Life –project, which is also coordinated by CICERO Learning. ICT at School’s Everyday Life –project is funded by the Ministry of Transport and Communications (co-ordination), Ministry of Education and National Board of Education.

Leader of the OPTEK research consortium:
Professor Marja Kankaanranta,
Agora Center, University of Jyväskylä
marja.kankaanranta()jyu.fi
tel: +358 40 866 9085

Cooordinator of the OPTEK research consortium:
Sanna Vahtivuori-Hänninen
CICERO Learning
Siltavuorenpenger 5 A
00014 University of Helsinki
sanna.vahtivuori()helsinki.fi
tel. +358 40 5712442

Municipalities involved in the project:
Espoo
Helsinki
Kauniainen
Lappeenranta
Larsmo
Oulu
Punkalaidun
Riihimäki
Rovaniemi
Ruovesi
Tampere
Turku

Companies involved in the project:
AAC Global
Arctic Connect
Arcturia
Aronet-esitysyhtiö
Datafisher
Datapolis
DNA Finland
Elisa
Finnet-liitto
Fronter
Hewlett-Packard
Humac
IBM
Intero
Kuusela Com
Mediamaisteri
Microsoft
Nokia
Opinsys
Oppifi
Otava
Otavan opisto
Pohjois-Hämeen Puhelin
Taloudellinen tiedotustoimisto
Teknologiakeskus Hermia Oy / COSS
TIEKE
Täsmätelevisio
WSOYpro

Research units of the project :
University of Helsinki: Media Education Centre, Technology in Education Research Group, Matemaattis-luonnontieteellisten aineiden tutkimuskeskus and CICERO Learning Network

Jyväskylä University: Agora Center ja Finnish Institute of Educational Research

University of Oulu: Educational Technology Research Unit and Future School Research Center

Helsinki University of Technology: SimLab

Tampere University of Technology: Department of Business Information Management and Logistics and Advanced Multimedia Center

University of Tampere: Department of Information Studies and Interactive Media

VTT Technical Research Centre Intelligent transport systems unit

Åbo Akademi and University of Turku: IMPEd Resource Centre.