There exist several competing definitions of innovation. Austrian-American economist J.Shumpeter (1939) is often considered the first to address the concept and role of innovation in society. The most often used definition of innovation comes from Oslo manual (OECD, 1997): an innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization or external relations. There are four main types of innovation (ibid): the product innovation, the process innovation, marketing innovation and organisational innovation. Although innovation is frequently related with implementing new technology, this is not a necessary condition. Innovation is a concept that is still mainly associated with economics, rather than education. Innovation and education were first addressed together in the report 'No Limits to Learning' (Botkin, J., Elmandjra, M., Malitza, M., 1979) issued by the Club of Rome. This influential report contrasted traditional and innovative learning, latter was defined through the two main features: anticipation (encouraging solidarity in time) and participation (creating solidarity in space). Ten years later, Botkin revisited the report and found educational systems at large still not able to change towards the vision of innovative learning. The ideas related to fundamental change in learning have been inspiring the educational research. For instance, the knowledge building theory proposed by Bereiter & Scardamalia addresses essentially the same challenges and offers a useful theoretical framework for developing and researching new types of learning environments. Unfortunately, such new learning theories have had a littel impact on everyday practices in schools. In 2010, IPTS published results of a comparative study, addressing the presence of creativity and innovation in national curricula of 27 European countries. While the term 'creativity' was found in most of them (mainly associated with arts), occurences of 'innovation' were rare (Heilmann & Korte, 2010). 

The new national curriculum for Estonian primary and secondary schools was published in 2010 and came into power from 2011. This curriculum contains a cross-curricular theme 'Technology and innovation', aiming at providing students rich and meaningful first-hand experiences of project work involving new technologies. Each student is expected to participate in at least one collaborative project, addressing the real-life problem of a selected client (e.g. local enterpreneur, school administration, municipality) through innovative implementation of new technologies. This paper provides the rationale for this cross-curricular theme and summarises the results of an empirical study involving xx teachers from one school. As all of the cross  curricular themes are descirbed in a brief manner in the curriculum and there are no resources (lesson time, textbooks, guidelines, a dedicated teacher in each school) explicitly dedicated to their implementation, implementation of cross-curricular theme poses a serious challenge to schools. In order to assist schools, we initiated this study, which eventually resulted with a set of online learning resources, exemplary innovation scenarios and a teacher training course.

Shumpeter (1942) Business Cycles: A theoretical, historical and statistical analysis of the Capitalist process. OECD (1997) Oslo manual. Bereiter, C. (2002). Education and Mind in the Knowledge Age. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Botkin, J., Elmandjra, M., Malitza, M. (1979) No Limits To Learning. Pergamon. Heilmann & Korte (2010) The role of creativity and innovation in school curricula in the EU27. IPTS.