LeMill
Estonia , 2005 to Unknown
Compendium: Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Background
LeMill is a web community for finding, authoring and sharing open and free learning resources. Its main target groups are teachers and learning-content authors, but anyone is free to join. All the resources are freely usable by anyone in any context it is released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5. LeMill has four sections: Content, Methods, Tools and Community. In the Content section there are different templates that enable teachers to create web-based learning resources, media pieces can be uploaded and used as learning resources and references to external resources can be added. In the Methods section teachers share descriptions of various educational methods. The Tools section contains descriptions of tools that can be used in teaching and learning. The tools can be physical (such as a classroom or a blackboard) or virtual (software for drawing mindmaps). The Community section allows the user to browse the other members’ materials and work with them in groups.
The motivation
To provide a commons-based alternative to the traditional textbook publishing industry. All the learning resources in LeMill are published under an open licence that gives individual teachers the possibility to adapt the learning resources according to their specific needs.
Participants
LeMill is designed and developed by an international team that includes partners at universities and research institutions: University of Art and Design Helsinki (Finland ), Tallinn University (Estonia ), SZTAKI (Hungary ), Intermedia, University of Oslo (Norway Tallinn University
Aims and targets
Objectives of the initiative
To build a web community where teachers can find, create and share free and open educational resources.
Target group
The main target groups of LeMill are primary and secondary school teachers in Europe . The LeMill community also includes educational administrators, researchers, teachers, students and open-content activists in various countries.
Methods applied to reach the objective
- Participatory design.
- Commons-based peer production.
- Integration of different subjects.
- Collaborative learning.
Strategy and actions
Level of implementation
LeMill is implemented at European level as it is developed within the CALIBRATE (http://calibrate.eun.org) project funded under the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme.
Implementation
LeMill has been presented at several conferences and seminars. Teacher training courses have been organised in various countries. In Estonia Czech Republic and Hungary
Monitoring and evaluation
Funding/Cost effectiveness
Budget
€460 000 (October 2005 — March 2008).
Sustainability/Transferability
Outcomes/impacts
Achievements
Specific results
By the end of March 2008 more than 2 300 teachers and learning content creators from more than 40 countries had joined LeMill. They have created 1300+ reusable learning content resources, 200+ descriptions of teaching and learning methods, and 400+ descriptions of teaching and learning tools. The most active countries in LeMill are Estonia , Hungary , Georgia , the Czech Republic , Lithuania and Finland
Success factors
Lessons learnt
For an educational software project to be successful it is important to include users in the early phase of the project. LeMill has been designed and developed in close cooperation with teachers. Design sessions with teachers were organised in four countries. Early prototypes of software were made available for users. This gave important feedback from the teachers and helped to improve the system and add new features gradually.
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