We need to know what you need from this community. Please take a moment to take our online survey, and feel free to comment on this post or write your own.
While the OpenSpace platform covers all ETF themes, and serves all ETF stakeholders, today we're launching a dedicated group to bring innovative educators together to learn from each other across national boundaries.
if this community doesn’t meet your goals, it won’t succeed
But our goals aren't that important - if this community doesn’t meet your goals, it won’t succeed. So please spend a few minutes taking the online survey - your input will help us design this community to better serve you.
Please also join the community to be kept updated.
Lastly:
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share this blog post to help us reach more people interested in innovative education.
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don't hesitate to tell us what you think - either leave a comment to this post or - even better - write your own (tag it "Innovative Educators").
Need more background? Read on.
What is this online community, and Who is it for?
A community is simply an informal network of people with a shared interest. People form and join communities because a community’s collective knowledge is greater than any one member’s – so if a community deploys its collective knowledge to help every member, it’s definitely worth joining.
a community deploys its collective knowledge to help every member
As you can see from the programme of blog posts, conversations and online events we have lined up, our initial focus is to bring together innovative 'education practitioners' - people on the 'front line' of delivering innovative education in ETF's partner countries.
The resulting 'community of practice' should help everyone discover new ideas and share their experiences across borders.
What’s next?
We welcome everyone interested in innovative education. Educational curriculum designers, policymakers, academics and developers of innovative education solutions, for example, are also interested in innovative education, but come to it from different perspectives.
If we can bring them together in a 'community of interest', we’ll see successful experiences on the front line in on country taken up by policymakers in another, for example, or the latest ideas from academia and industry tested in more classrooms at the chalkface.
Beyond that, this is the first focused community launched under the ETF’s Creating New Learning initiative. Our longterm goal is to roll out a community covering all aspects of Creating New Learning, creating the only international professional space you will ever need to help you improve your country’s national education, training and labour markets.
We emphasise the international aspect because you may already be part of a national network. Our goal is to complement, not compete with national networks, bringing you useful expertise, experience, information and peers from neighbouring countries and from across Europe.
Over to you
But that’s just our idea. We need your ideas on how this community can help you.
So, once again, please take the online survey and join the community so you can share your thoughts, either by commenting below or via your own post.
Either way, tell us:
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What sort of content contributed by members would you look for – e.g., reports from academics or blog posts from the chalkface; policy analyses or project profiles; experts you can consult, or innovative practices proven in the field? Why?
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What sort of content would you contribute yourself? Why?
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What sort of interactive tools (forums, blog posts, commenting, etc.) are you most comfortable with?
We look forward to taking this further!