by Victoria W. Thoresen*

Signs of despair, cynicism, hopelessness, and frustration are evident amongst young people around the globe. They are daily being bombarded with information about the deteriorating condition of the climate, the continuing destruction of the environment and the lack of initiatives to counteract the consequences of unsustainable development. Many have experienced these conditions themselves. Some schools have begun to recognize their responsibility to heighten awareness of the crucial need for more sustainable lifestyles. Courses related to education for sustainable development are becoming increasingly prevalent. Nonetheless, in many cases the focus remains on what has gone wrong rather than what is being done to improve the situation. Theoretical solutions tend to be presented more often than concrete examples of possible paths to follow. (more…)

The LOLA Vision is articulated on four major points:

• FOCUS ON LOCAL SCALE: LOLA aims at looking for promising sustainable initiatives at a walking distance from the school…

• ADOPT ACTION LEARNING: LOLA is an investigation process based on interviews. It doesn’t require particular knowledge or preparation…

• ACT NOW: radical change doesn’t come only from top-down policies…

• CHANGE WAYS OF LIVING: LOLA proposes to search for new sustainable way of living…

Here are some promising initiatives:

  (more…)

One can summarise LOLA key principles around:

• PUPIL’S PARTICIPATION in a mutual learning process…

• ACTIVE LEARNING: LOLA process intends to be an inquiry-based learning process. It is not pure discovery learning…

• SCHOOL-COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: pupils will learn about sustainabilityand share diffused knowledge on sustainability in the school-community and beyond…

• FLEXIBLE TEACHING METHODS to suit different contexts in terms of age, location and time available…

• DIVERSITY OF SUSTAINABLE WAYS OF LIVING: Lola is progressively building an international repository of sustainable ways of living…

(more…)

• PUPILS  AND TEACHERS…

use the toolkit to explore new and more sustainable ways of living between looking for initiatives in the surroundings of their school and investigating more theoretical questions about sustainability…

• HEADMASTERS…

use the toolkit to launch a transversal project in their school, they set up an exhibition, present the process to their staff to stimulate a programme of activities on sustainability…

• TEACHER TRAINERS…

of original and advanced learning process, collaborative, project based, conducted outside the school, rooted in the local social fabric…

• EDUCATION POLICY  MAKERS…

use the toolkit to train teachers to explore different teaching processes, to experience it themselves and to compare achievement and learning benefits for the pupils…

WHAT DO WE INTED BY THE TOOLKIT?
A toolkit is a set of elements that enable its users to realise a particular activity. In the case of the LOLA the purpose of providing a toolkit to secondary schools is to enable teachers and pupils to create significant learning sessions. From this short definition we can draw an important consequence for implementation: LOLA is NEITHER a ready to use package NOR a fixed exercise! (more…)

The core element of the LOLA toolkit is a set of STEP-BY-STEP CARDS describing the different possible steps to search for a promising initiative, to get in contact with its protagonists, to document what they do and report it in a nice and highly communicative way. (more…)

Along with the cards a REPORTER BOOK is available in the LOLA toolkit. It is the main investigation tool for the pupils to organise their interviews. It contains basic concepts and examples of initiatives to investigate; interview question guides and photo check-lists; progressive reporting formats to organise information and images, personal comments and disclosure agreements…

This new brochure introduces to the LOLA Toolkit. It gives an overview of the genesis, intentions and goals of the project as well as a panorama of possible implementations that could be elaborated from all the toolkit material available on line. (more…)

+++Please note that the files are in .pdf. To obtain original .ppt files for translation, contact editors.+++

1. The LOLA Toolkit is downloadable for free. All elements are copyleft; they can be transformed and used for any purpose unless commercial ones.
The toolkit contains:
_a Guide Book which consists in a set of step-by-step cards showing the LOLA process to be used as a reference guide by kids and a didactic guide for teachers;
_a Reporter Book: an easy to construct booklet supporting the kids in making the interviews and taking pictures and where they should write down and draw all their observations.
_a Teacher Feedback Form
(Note that this Toolkit was tested and refined during the LOLA’s pilot project)
Click here to download the LOLA ToolKit (English, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Slovak translations available)

2. You can also download for free the new LOLA Brochure:
Click here to download the LOLA Brochure

3. Click here if you want to start questioning aspects of our daily living with a the LOLA illustrated list of typical unsunstainabilities, the LOLA Guidelines for sustainable design and a presentation of some promising cases to support discussion in the class.

4. Finally, if you want to download the LOLA Exhibition and/or the Exhibition Guide, click here.