The role of an ILC is to bring academics, educators, and industry together to imagine and create transformative pedagogical practices, using appropriate technologies in a design based, research informed, studio based learning environment.  The ILC can be used to leapfrog existing paradigms constraining innovative practice.  Leapfrogging, in the context of sustainable development, is a term used to describe the accelerated development of an intervention by “leaping over” conventional approaches and/or technologies and moving directly to a more appropriate, and often more advanced, one.  An often-cited example is found when regions skip over the installation of landline telephony and move directly to mobile phone connectivity, leapfrogging the lack of phone access by embracing the newer, more appropriate mobile phone solution.

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A pedagogical example of leapfrogging in challenging contexts would be the adoption of an inquiry approach to teaching and the authentic use of the environment as a teaching resource.  Rather than spending time and money trying to catch up by equipping schools in configurations favouring a teacher-centric delivery, the ILC suggests finding regional partners and developing resources, tools and strategies that address contextual issues with local solutions.  This approach would help leapfrog traditional classroom practices, both the pedagogy and physical design of the actual learning environment, allowing educators to embrace the change suggested in the literature, including UNICEF’s Child-Friendly School (CFS) standards (Irvine & Harvey, 2010).