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of its entire community. In addition to a comprehensive school, the building will house a daycare, library, youth community centre and multi-purpose space. The premises have been designed to support uncompelled learning, community work, multimedia projects and acquiring knowledge. Students get st century skills Teachers Pasi Ma ila and Jukka Mie unen head a project in Oulu that aims to encourage the success story of schools into the future. They can hardly contain their enthusiasm. BY SALLA KORPELA PHOTOGRAPH BY INGRAM PUBLISHING O ulu is a mid-sized Finnish city and one of the country's most significant technology hubs. It is vigorously growing and is a popular place to raise families. The increased need for more schools gave Pasi Mattila, Jukka Miettunen and their colleagues an opportunity to re-think the kinds of spaces a school of the future needs. Designed on the basis of these concepts, the Metsokangas School is partially in use already. The Ritaharju School, near the university and Oulu Technology Park, will be completed in 2010. "Developing new school concepts are a tripartite collaborative effort of the city's school officials, the research community and private businesses," Mattila says. The most notable of the private companies is Microsoft, which is developing a global School of the Future network. The Ritaharju School is one of the 12 schools in the network. The Ritaharju School will be the heart Learning hubs and adaptable project spaces enrich the conventional classroom concept. "We want to give students 21st century skills and hope to use the best educational and technological innovations to do so. Nevertheless, the well-being of youngsters and their ability to grow up in a good community are the main priorities," Miettunen remarks. The new school takes a problem-based approach to learning. Students are given a question or topic to think about, and they are guided in finding relevant facts and cause-and-effect relationships in solving problems. Life at school is not life in a laboratory, however. Learning takes place as an integral part of the surrounding community and nature. The styles of learning are diverse and individual. Even though the completion of Oulu's school of the future is a couple years away, the plans have already sparked wide international interest. Mattila and Miettunen have reason to be pleased. The city of Oulu school innovations have earned a spot in the Shanghai World Expo 2010. ENCOURAGING CREATIVITY BY SALLA KORPELA PHOTOGRAPH BY IINGRAM PUBLISHING Teacher Tiina Korhonen proudly presents some of the things that engage the students at the Innokas Learning Centre, hosted at Koulumestari School in Espoo, Finland. The classroom's cupboards are filled with building and electronics kits and other supplies to foster creativity in children. A glass window built into the ground floor of the new school building allows the curious to get a peek at how the floor was built and what is underneath it. The blackboard has been replaced with a smart board, which also doubles as a computer display and invites students to participate in the educational process. "We don't believe in the old claims that school kills creativity," Korhonen says proudly. 28 FOCUS
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