Sign in
Enhancing Education Through Connectivity:
The Smart Connected Classrooms pilot project
About the project
To bridge the digital divide and modernise education systems to match the needs of the digital era, the pilot project Smart Connected Classrooms has been launched in Europe. Funded by a grant from Qualcomm Incorporated, through its Qualcomm® Wireless Reach™ Initiative, and supported by the Scientix® STEM Alliance, an initiative of European Schoolnet (EUN), this innovative pilot is set to revolutionize the way teachers and students engage in the learning process.
Unfolding across two phases, the project is researching the impact of digital technologies on learning patterns and classroom dynamics, as well as advancing recommendations for the effective integration of digital tools in the classroom.
Phase 1: The Education-As-A-Service set
In its first phase, running in the school year 2022/23, five classrooms in two pilot schools, one in Spain and one in Portugal, have been equipped with always-connected personal computers and the Qualcomm® Education-as-a-Service (EaaS) set, which encompasses various hardware and software solutions, including a Smart Panel from OneScreen, an eGlass, a wireless teaching station, among others.
Outcomes of Phase 1
Engaging 5 teachers and 128 students, this initial phase yielded substantial findings. If you want to know more about the projects’ outcomes, download the final evaluation report and listen to teachers’ testimonies in the accompanying video.
Phase 2: Virtual Reality
Implemented during the 2023–2024 academic year, this second phase of the project focused on examining the impact of VR on teaching and learning, engaging 37 teachers and 607 students across two schools in Spain and Portugal. The findings highlight a promising future for VR in education, offering valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and technology developers. You can access the report here.
Phase 3: Virtual Reality in Science Education
The Smart Connected Classrooms project is entering its third phase during the 2024/25 academic year, focusing on the impact of virtual reality (VR) on 5th-grade students' science learning. This phase features a quasi-experimental study, comparing the outcomes of students learning with VR to those not using VR. The study involves 13 teachers and 520 students across Spain, with four treatment schools using VR and three control schools not using VR.
You can read the full results, conclusions and recommendations for VR integration in the report.
Smart Connected Classrooms Event in Madrid: Advancing Digital Education through Collaboration and Research
On 30 September 2025, the Smart Connected Classrooms project, in collaboration with the National Institute of Educational Technologies and Teacher Training (INTEF), organised an event in Madrid bringing together teachers, regional education authorities and industry representatives to exchange best practices and reflect on the use of digital tools in education — with a special focus on virtual reality (VR). The event also presented the outcomes of the pilot project, which involved 55 teachers and 1,175 students in Spain and Portugal over three school years.
Watch the full event video below.
EUROPEAN SCHOOLNET’S PILOT METHODOLOGY
EUN has been running validation pilots for more than 20 years, enabling STEM Alliance Partners to liaise with our MoEs to test innovation solutions with pilot schools. The goal of these pilots, based on specific methodologies and targeted approaches, is to validate technologies by testing, refining and finally mainstreaming them via professional development opportunities or dissemination campaigns, all through a carefully thought and widely proved research protocol.
Marc Durando, European Schoolnet Executive Director
Strategic Stakeholders
Technical Support
