Rapid Fire: Prototype

Tactiléo : An example of innovation in E-education

Maxime Legrand – 26/04/2012

2

Project Education

A European consulting firm dedicated to the development and promotion of strong links between Education, Research and the business world

Project Education has advised and helped more than 50 projects across all fields of Education and innovation, from natural sciences to social sciences and humanities

Project Education has considerable experience in advising higher education institutions, government institutions, research teams and small and medium enterprises reach their goals of academic excellence and innovation. Project Education has also advised consortiums and clusters on the deployment and implementation of their projects, both in Europe and globally.

Our consultants are often called upon to work on promotion strategies for projects, but often the project leaders realise they also need assistance with developing a commun strategy for all partners and encouraging teamwork. This is the key to success in all projects.

3

The promotion and dissemination mechanism for innovative projects

3

New product inside the core business

Development outside core business

Spin-off

Development outside core businessLicenses

& patents

Academic actors Private partner

Other companies

Public / private collaborations

Technological sourcing

4

What is a prototype ?

The Oxford dictionary defines a prototype as: “the first example of something, such as a machine or other industrial product, from which all later forms are developed”

The prototype creation and imagination phase is the key moment when both technical conditions and commercial constraints meet

The analysis of market needs and potential uses is crucial at this early stage in a project

The prototype needs to respond to market needs: a perfect example of this is the iPhone, which was initially a Humanities and Social sciences based prototype, responding to society’s needs, before becoming a technological prototype!

5

Important things to remember when developing a prototype with other partners!

“Almost everyone is able to imagine and create a prototype, but very few people are able to think beyond their own fantasies in order to take society’s needs into account”

What is essential when imagining and creating a prototype in a group is that each partner identifies what they can bring to the project as an individual and then jumps into the collective movement in order to think only about the project as a whole!

“The true strength of each human being is in his ability to overcome his own individual condition” Albert Camus

This is exactly what you need to do when imagining a prototype!! Move past your own condition and think about the project’s strategy

as a whole. That’s where the prototype’s success lies!

6

The birth of Tactileo : From one project to another

Digital Benchtop+

Touchpad

Applied to natural sciences & physics…

…Then on to use in new subjects

(Litterature, English…)

Create a complete touch environment

« The class of the future »

The beginning of the project

The end of the project

7

Partners with very diverse interests

Leader of the consortium.Its main goal was to find new partners

Undetermined interests

Sell devicesThe partner left the consortium

Finance the institute and find new experimentations for their researchers

Only a few of the team wanted to participate in the project

Finance the institut and improve their research. A partner really involved

Supply the consortium with contents

Sell their virtual contents

8

24 hours before the call for tenders deadline, we noticed an administrative rule : up to 30% of the grant could be allocated to R&D.

So it was necessary to start a 2nd round of negotiations with several partners to reduce their grant application

A negotiation at all times, until the very end of the project

9

A new and innovative classroom:For dynamic and collaborative learning opportunities

10

Tactiléo's digital tables : Wortking both with the virtual and the tangible

11

How to rally project partners and encourage innovative teamwork and thinking?

The aims of workshops:Using creative and innovative atmospheres and locations to encourage team-work and new ideasAlternating plenary sessions (for decision) and group workshops to move ahead and imagine / createEncouraging very diverse partners to work together, to imagine the future and to put aside current constraintsA means to moving quickly forward on the project

« A fascinating and

inspiring day »« I really felt like we

were being listened to

and understood! »

« A group of passionnate

indivudals getting together

to create »

« The workshops were a way of

getting in touch with concrete ideas

and decisions… and that’s very

reassuring when developing a

project with so many different

partners»

Some testimonials from the Tactiléo workshops:

12

A moment to share

13

Questions? Comments?

Thanks for listening!

14

Annex / The framework of the call for projects: Prototypes in e-education

The aim of the call for projects

The aim of the call for projects

How are these aims to be achieved?

How are these aims to be achieved?

The reasons necessary for public funding

The reasons necessary for public funding

The stakes at play that justify the call

for projects

The stakes at play that justify the call

for projects

- Acquiring fundamental knowledge- Evaluating by competencies- The generalisation of digital tools for pedagogy and education- The personalisation of student pathways- Improved integration of special-need students

- Acquiring fundamental knowledge- Evaluating by competencies- The generalisation of digital tools for pedagogy and education- The personalisation of student pathways- Improved integration of special-need students

- The development and implementation of prototypes for e-education and e-teaching.- The prototypes are to aim for the use of digital technology in teaching, across one or

several links in the field (content, tools, platforms, pedagogical material)

- The development and implementation of prototypes for e-education and e-teaching.- The prototypes are to aim for the use of digital technology in teaching, across one or

several links in the field (content, tools, platforms, pedagogical material)

- By confronting the imagined solutions and innovations to real-life conditions of use- Surpassing the experimental level- Improving and validating:

- The technology and usages suggested- The impact in a teaching environment- The economic model and its sustainability

- By confronting the imagined solutions and innovations to real-life conditions of use- Surpassing the experimental level- Improving and validating:

- The technology and usages suggested- The impact in a teaching environment- The economic model and its sustainability

- Costly projects- The experimental nature of many of the projects- The lack of immediate market response

- Costly projects- The experimental nature of many of the projects- The lack of immediate market response

15

The aims of the Tactiléo project

An ambitious project dedicated to helping students, Tactiléo aims to build and implement an ecosystem within the classroom that will allow for truly digital and innovative teaching : collaborative, nomadic and taking full advantage of the scope of tactile technology (telephones, tablets, digital tables and lab benches) already used in classes or yet to be implemented.