BPM4ED: A research project for designing 21st-century schools

Schools and teaching are quickly changing due to the continuous evolution of the world and society, and thus new forms of education are required: on the one side, the emergence of smart cities and smart communities demands for active citizens interacting with institutions, and on the other side ICT is modifying both the learning environments and the training models. The so-called "21st century schools" differ from the current ones in almost all the aspects: building architecture, furniture, teaching and learning methods. This new kind of school is spreading all over the world, and governments recognizing the importance of an efficient, modern and up-to-date education system are committed in the design and implementation of these new schools. But some problems make this scenario confusing, preventing an ordered development of this new kind of schools: first, the lack of theoretical models able to represent the "21st century school" features; second, tools to manage and design these schools and their services and activities are, when they exist, based on the old paradigms (i.e., the traditional school with classrooms, etc.) and are not still integrated in an unique toolbox able to support the whole school operations and management. In this paper, the ongoing BPM4ED (Business Process Management for EDucation) research project is described: schools are seen as organizations and business process management techniques are used to analyze and classify them; the final and ambitious goals of the project are the development of a design methodology for "21st century schools" and the definition, design and implementation of a new class of integrated tools, possibly including the existing ones, to manage all the school activities and services.