Skype has been working to integrate technology into the classroom for some time now and their latest partnership with the United Kingdom’s Educational Foundation will go a long way to bring value and expertise to that effort. The Education Foundation is a place where educators are working with members of the community to enhance learning and bring more resources to students.

The learning Lab is a physical space in London that serves as a classroom, studio, and laboratory for educating the community and spring-boarding innovative, and state of the art developments. Schools, universities, and other institutions are all welcome.

Graham Stuart MP and Chair of the Education Select Committee comments on Learning Lab:

“The Learning Lab is an exciting project that gives companies and partners a great chance to showcase their products, services and innovative work, as well as connect up with leading educators from across the UK”

Here’s a brief description of the Learning Lab from their website:

We are currently designing the lab to be flexible enough to cater for a range of uses – from showcasing new products and services as well as hosting one of our major projects on the ‘Future of Technology and Education’. The space will also be made available to policy makers, government officials and partner organisations to hold strategy workshops and roundtable sessions and for leading experts to share these insights through The Education Foundation’s programme of events, which will be broadcast and streamed live to the wider world.

Here’s a little about what they’re looking for:

We are always looking for organisations to be our new partners and to support our work in The Learning Lab. The Lab has already attracted a range of high profile people in the education sector and it will attract an audience of thousands of visitors from schools, colleges and universities and government, plus a significant online presence.

What Skype adds to the equation is communication and social networking. Skype allows educators to reach students in places they would have never been able to travel to, and through the Education Foundation those connections can be made and integrated into classroom learning and online discovery.

For those who would like to get involved follow these links to the Education Foundation or the Skype in the classroom page. I’ll leave you with a message from Skype about their hopes for the partnership.

“Our hope for The Learning Lab and our partnership with The Education Foundation is that more opportunities will be created for teachers and students to use technology in the classroom and barriers to communications can be removed, allowing them to connect and learn from others around the globe.”