FabLab Schools EU - Towards Digital Smart, Entrepreneurial and Innovative Pupils is a project funded by the Erasmus+ Programme, Key Action 2: Strategic Partnership | School. This project supports a sustainable use and scaling of Fablab and digital fabrication to diverse European communities. The project uses a design-based approach to digital fabrication in education and how it can facilitate the development of new competences for teachers and students in a digital age.

Building on the result of the Danish FabLab@School research project (2014-2018), the aim of FabLab Schools EU is to scale the research approach and regional initiative to a broader European context. Many initiatives in this field are highly local and there is a need to address the scalability of such experiments across local, regional and national boundaries.

FabLab Schools EU has taken on the following objective:

• To increase teachers’ competences and pedagogical skills in educational digital fabrication;
• To provide pupils with innovative skills and digital competences required in the 21st century;
• To develop methodological principles for educational digital fabrication; and
• To develop EU recommendations and policy formulation adaption of educational digital fabrication in EU. 

In order to achieve set objectives, the project consortium has worked closely together and carried out the following planned activities:

• Development of methodological principles for educational digital fabrication
• Collection of good practices in educational digital fabrication
• Testing of methods in schools
• Production of manual and policy recommendations.
• Study visits in schools and Fablab experiences in Italy, Denmark, Spain and The Netherlands.

The project aims to increase teachers’ competences, change the way they understand and integrate design and digital technology into their teaching practices. The need for developing teaching competences of educators is being highlighted across Europe, for example by the European Commission (European Framework for the  Digital Competence of Educators - DigCompEdu - JRC Science for Policy Report - EC, 2017). The project links this understanding together with the development of specific methodological principles that will facilitate the teachers’ ability to work with digital fabrication in their educational practice. 

Project Partners

The partnership consists of 4 countries and 5 organizations: The municipality of Vejle (Denmark) as coordinator, Aarhus University (Denmark), LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (Spain, Vereniging Ons Middelbaar Onderwijs (The Netherlands), and Centro dello Sviluppo Creativo “Danilo Dolci” (Italy).

Funding Partner

Erasmus+ Programme, Key Action 2: Strategic Partnership | School