"<< Background >>At the core of Agile Management (a management philosophy developed in software management and recently being adapted across other sectors) is the Agile Manifesto (for software development): “We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: individuals and interactions over processes and tools; working software over comprehensive documentation; customer collaboration over contract negotiation; responding to change over a following plan. That is, while there is value in the processes, documentation, negotiation and plan, we value the interactions, collaboration, change more.” With the success of Agile Management, educators and entrepreneurs in education saw the potential of the method and brought it into a free learning, self-directed learning school in New York, 7 years ago. 2013 was the birth year of Agile Learning Centre. Their approach and success among students and their families grew into a global movement and a growing Agile Learning Centres Network. The Network describes ALCs as “restoring the joy of learning with a surprisingly effective educational approach: intentional culture supporting self-directed learning reinforced by agile management tools.” In Agile Learning we believe in and act on a series of core educational principles, including: learning is natural and happens all the time, people learn best by making their own decisions; children are people; people learn more from their culture and environment than from the content they are taught; accomplishment is achieved through cycles of intention, creation, reflection and sharing. In an Agile Learning context, the child decides what s/he wants to learn and to do in one day/week/semester or year. S/he is creating learning contexts, along with other people, to reach the planned goals, then reflects on what worked and why (what helped), what didn’t work and why, what is the next step and how to accomplish it. The process is complete when the learning/ activity result is shared with other people from the community or outside of it. We value interactions over processes, actions over comprehensive documentation, collaboration over the central authority of the adult/ teacher.It’s worth stating that implementing innovative pedagogies like agile learning is not simply an “add-on” to existing practices, but an avenue to transform teaching practices and school organization, in service of supporting deeper learning and 21st-century skills. That’s why this project wants to offer opportunities for schools to learn using agile tools and instruments, to create the proper learning spaces and to integrate technology in the daily life of students. In times our daily rhythms have so abruptly and fundamentally stopped in their tracks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the understanding for helping every student and educator develop a mindset towards self-directed learning through collaboration and play never surfaced so unexpectedly on a global scale. Through the activities and resources develped by the Agile4Collaboration project, we are addressing the organizations'/educational institutions' need for a trained workforce - trained Agile Learning facilitators.<< Objectives >>The overall aim of the project partnership is to contribute in a collaborative, agile way, to the development of Agile Learning in Europe as a learning method .that is closer to the natural way of learning of people, and that is highly beneficial for learners who are formed in an interactive, collaborative and self-directed way. To this end, the project sets the following specific objectives:1. Develop and put together a series of manuals, courses and other resources that incorporate the concepts and foundations of Agile Learning, but also a series of practices, methods, (digital) tools, and recommendations on how to use agile peer-to-peer learning. 2. Train and share these resources with a series of teachers, trainers, youth workers and other education professionals on how to use agile learning methods to facilitate agile learning processes and support the development of key competences of their students. 3. Develop a European online community of Agile Learning practitioners to continue the improvement, further development and adoption at a wide scale of these resources to foster the professional development of teachers/trainers/education professionals.<< Implementation >>The following activities will be implemented to reach the project's objectives: - design, development, testing and improvement of Agile Learning materials and tools: the Agile Learning handbook (Project Result 1), Agile Learning Design Toolbox (Project Result 2)- training educational professionals on Agile Learning philosophy, methods and tools: the development of an Open Educational Course (Project Result 4) and a ""Train-the-Trainer"" training with local and international teachers from the community (C1)- setting up and developing a Peer-to-Peer Online Community (Project Result 5) supported by a digital tool to facilitate agile peer-to-peer learning and community agreements (Project Result 3)- communication, dissemination and exploitation activities aimed at increasing the impact of the project ( 4 Multiplier Events - Impact Gatherings, synergies with other similar initiatives, participation to external activities).<< Results >>The activities that we will implement in order to reach the first goal of the project will have as result in 2 outcomes: 1) “Agile Learning - a theoretical approach” book and 2) “Agile Learning - toolkit”. Both of the manuals/ books will be the product of the partners collaboration in delivering a kit for new facilitators in Agile Learning (in new or existing Agile Learning centres) and for those interested in education as a field for their career (students in Science of Education, teacher trainers, trainers, youth workers etc.). Using these books will generate as outcomes: 3) less time spent in training new employees for the (new or existing) Agile Learning Centres (no matter if they are in non-formal or formal education); 4) scientific and tested ways to implement self-directed and agile learning in schools and universities offer new ways of learning for learners at all ages; 5) facilitated access to knowledge and know-how in Agile Learning for those who are not familiar with the US democracy in education or those who are not English speakers, as the outputs will be available in different languages spoken in Europe. The activities that we will implement in order to reach the second goal of the project, to train existent or future educators interested in better understanding and/ or working in Agile Learning, by the end of the project will have as results a course that will be hosted by the University Francisco de Vitoria and that will contribute to its development and life after the end of the project. Because of this output: a well defined open course in Agile Learning (with access at the “Agile Learning - a theoretical approach” book and “Agile Learning - toolbox”) we consider that the outcomes will be 6) a significant number of Europeans trained through the open course, 7) exceeded financial and mobility limitations for those interested in a training in Agile Learning (the reality is that the majority of the Agile Learning Facilitators from Europe are trained in United States or Mexico, on their own costs which makes it harder for people with typical or low incomes). The activities that we will implement in order to reach the third goal of the project, to set up, by the end of the project, an online community for European countries, focused on the European administrative, legal and cultural backgrounds will have as results 8) an European network (with different types of members according to the experience in Agile Learning or to the ways of approaching Agile Learning); 9) an electronic working and support space for collaboration between the members of the European network. Using this outputs we are going to have the following outcomes: 10) more active Agile Learning Centres (the reality now highlights that there are people trained in Agile Learning not having the right context to create a school or an educational centre, though they have the intention and motivation and the International Network is in contact with them); 11) (more) collaboration projects between the Agile Centres in Europe and the collaboration abilities will be strengthen and 12) agile management implementers among the Agile Learning Centres and Schools coordinators and managers. The activities that we will implement in order to support the adaptation, innovation and use of min. 4 Agile management tools and instruments in education will have as results 13) a digital tool that will contain different (min. 4) agile management tools as intellectual output; 14) an electronic classroom or learning space to be used by learners at different ages, from schools up to university. Having these 2 outputs implemented the project can generate the following outcomes: 15) increased digital competencies among students and facilitators; 16) lower stress regarding school closure in cases like the pandemic crisis that we are living right now; 17) enhanced communication competence among learners and 18) enhanced collaboration and teamwork set of skills and attitudes."