6Aika: The Smart Learning Environments of the Future

The Smart Learning Environments of the Future project improves the business opportunities of companies that offer services, products and technologies related to learning and smart learning environments, both physical and virtual. The central aim of the project is also to advance the development of user-oriented learning environments in the six cities involved in the Six Cities Strategy. These development environments can include comprehensive and secondary schools, daycare centres, universities and universities of applied sciences, various living lab environments, virtual environments and, for example, the urban environment as a whole. The whole city as a learning environment covers public spaces such as libraries, museums, parks and event areas.

The learning environment products and services to be developed in the project can be divided into six thematic categories:
1. Development of physical locations as smart and sustainable learning environments.
2. Utilization of digital tools and new technologies in efficient use of spaces.
3. Virtual learning environments and augmented reality.
4. Analytics in learning and education.
5. Product and services development environments and RDI infrastructure.
6. The whole city as a learning environment.

Each project partner implements trials, demonstrations and pilots in concrete learning environments representing the categories listed above, utilizing the methods of open co-creation.

In the pilot targets in Turku, the aim is to develop a cooperation model to respond to the challenges related to multidisciplinary learning environments in schools, which are caused by the evolution of digitalization and the optimization of space usage. The premise of each pilot is to create new business opportunities for companies by testing new operational models, platforms and applications for products and services in cooperation as well as by streamlining the transition of the emerging products and services to the market and to end-users. These goals are achieved by, for instance, providing assistance in service design, attracting partners and distributing information.

The project contributes to the production of new structures and operational models for the cooperation between businesses as well as actors in research, education and innovation, and end-users. The operational models already in use will be enhanced further. The aim is to create new comprehensive solutions linked to learning environments and new product and service ideas while the project is ongoing. In the long term, the project supports, for its own part, the creation of new jobs in businesses that develop learning and learning environment solutions.