EMINENT 2007

230 participants from all over Europe and beyond met on 6-7 December 2007 in Brussels for the seventh edition of European Schoolnet’s EMINENT conference. Representatives of Ministries of Education, industry partners and practitioners were welcomed by Odile de Chalendar, outgoing chair of the European Schoolnet Steering Committee. EMINENT was opened by Jan Figel’, European Commissioner for Education, Culture and Youth.

The conference theme was “Political priorities for education and the role of technology”. The two-day discussions involved policy-makers from European Educational Authorities, as well as by high profile politicians including Prof. Jorge Pedreira, Deputy Minister of Education, Portugal and Krzysztof Stanowski the Under-secretary of Education of Poland.

There were five plenary sessions, including the eLearning Awards ceremony on Thursday 6 December 2007. A series of workshops took place on Friday, covering four digital learning resources, online safety, e-maturity and .self-regulated personalised learning.

The conference, organized in partnership with Belgacom, was closed by Marc Durando, Executive Director of European Schoolnet and the newly elected chairman of European Schoolnet’s steering Committee, Giovanni Biondi, of the Agenzia Nazionale per lo Sviluppo dell'Autonomia Scolastica in Italy (INDIRE).

Continue reading "EMINENT 2007 conference - summary" »

Posted by Paul Gerhard at 03:49 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Giovanni started by saying that it is now time for new concepts concerning digital resource, online environment and schooling, where the environment is the keyword. Communication is the new language of new generation and teachers and schools have to catch up with this. The open question is what the role of schools in the 21st century is? Schools are more open now, new environment are given to pupils, teachers and we have to adapt.

What is needed is not only changing the content or standards or to find new technological solution, the new ‘phase’ we are entering requires re-thinking the whole ‘environment’ of the school.

To achieve something it is necessary to invest in human resources, in-service training of teachers should be should have been driven by other models of learning and not only focus on technology.

In the European Schoolnet, Ministries of Education have to step in and get more involved, this consortium was created by Ministry of Education for Ministries of Education. It is necessary that they take the full advantage of their membership.

Posted by Paul Gerhard at 11:12 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Jorge Predreira, the Portuguese Deputy Minister of Education, highligted two goals of the portuguese EU presidency which comes to an end this month as regards the Lisbon agenda which was at the heart of the presidency:

1) To improve the visibility of Education and Training in the Lisbon strategy and highlight its link to growth and jobs. The presidency aims to put it at the heart of the renewed Lisbon strategy and beyond 2010.
2) To improve the competitivity, and here again education and training has a key role to play

Additionally he higlighted the challenge of equity and inclusion.It is vital to bring everybody on board of the tremendous progress and developments that have happened in the past years, this can be achieved generalising the uptake of new technologies in teaching and learning.

He concluded by saying that the challenges are huge, but the return on investment is equality large, ICT can bridge the gap between the schools which are centres for the production of knowledge and the society at large.

Schools are now facing different challenges with students coming from diverse backgrounds, cultures, ICT can have a true impact there.

Posted by Paul Gerhard at 11:02 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Here is the text of the after-dinner speech given by Doug Brown of the Technology Futures Unit at the DCSF in London, at EMINENT, a mind-opening, entertaining and brilliant piece which covers all aspects of how innovation and change have affected teaching and learning - and our lifes in general - in the past ten years.

Download file

Posted by Paul Gerhard at 09:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The panel comprised Martina A. Roth, Director of Global Education Strategy, Corporate Affairs Group, Intel Corporation, Piotr Mroz, CEO, Young Digital Planet, and Stephen Jury, Vice Chairman, Promethean.

All the industry members were emphaising their commitment to work together with other stakeholders in the field of education to achieve better results. It was communicated that there are many win-win-solutions around for business and public sector to work together, they saw EUN's role quite crucial as a middle-man who has contacts and knowledge of both worlds.

Words by the member of the European Commission Figel, "hardworking, teamworking, networking", were mentioned as a good example of this conference, a work that should be carried on it the future to work on common challenges.

Where to go from here? What is the collective vision?

It was suggested that bringing research into the equation of Ministries of Education and industry partners could prove useful in the future. Also, it was suggested that the co-existence of teachers generated content and industry generated one shoud exist, e.g. how to make the industry content available in harmony. Moreover, looking at ways of recognising capacities of companies to help achieving the outcomes, when entering in partnerships, was suggested.

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 01:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Marc Durando, executive director of European Schoolnet concluded the conference by saying that European Schoolnet went through a very busy and challenging year 2007.

Marc highlighted the following points:

1) EUN is not a project agency... it has a political agenda set by ministries of education.
2) EUN has to provide a european platform on echange and sharing learning resources
3) EUN has to work on analysing the impact of ICT on teaching and learnign
4) EUN has to support teachers, teacher training as they are at the centre of change

we must agregate knowledge building all over europe, the interface of policy and practice, which give us a specific role as a plateform.

Marc highlighted the importance of the International perspective, we have received visitors at this conference from the US, Australia, South America, we have to move on to this direction as we should increase exchange for the agenda of the school of tomorrow.

Finally Marc thanks the European Commission for the support, the Ministers of education who attended the event (Portuguese and Polish), our industry sponsors for the event and the eLearning Awards and lastly the EUN team for its dedication to making this event successfull...

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Maruja Gutierrez-Diaz
Head of Unit European Commission - Directorate General for Education and Culture Directorate A Unit A4 - "Innovation and transversal policies"

Ms. Gutierez-Diaz started by thanking for the Eminent conference and its continuity, she already participated in the one in La Hulpei in 2000. She was positive about the demands that were presented previously by other participants, who asked for more structure on the relationships between the European Commission and Industry, where EUN has also a very welcome part.

All together, the issues that were presented by EUN in the beginning of the conference are very dear and close to the ones of the Commission, e.g. eTwinning has been successful and has a big potential for internationl cooperations, too. Use of Eminent was also mentioned as a very good example of how important parts of evaluation can be embedded into policy actions.

Ms. Cutierez was also positive about the news and advancements on digital learning resources exchange (LRE) , which she also finds useful for Life Long Learning, where curriculum mapping seems a very useful feature for teachers.

Lastly, she talked that our world is increasingly digital, however, it is important to life that without loosing the human factor, at the end- everything is about people.

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

PrimTice is a sustainable capacity building network, policy targeted to primary education. It is a process to collect in a database several hundred teaching scenarios (more than 900 today). Its aim is to highlight teachers best practices with ICT, and to enable techers to benefit from the experience of their colleagues to build their own pedagogical sessions. Within the PrimTice framework,several actions aim at triggering the use of ICT in primary education (projects targetting the use of interactive whiteboards, laptops ...)

Each operation is supported by surveys and studies. PrimTice is an evidence based observatory and could be a first milestone for scaling up the study on the impact of ICT in primary education on European scale.

Posted by Paul Gerhard at 12:56 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Workshop A: Learning resources
Riina Vuorikari, EUN, Social tagging in the MELT project presentation

Ebbe Schultz, UNI•C, The EdReNe Thematic Network
Download file

Teemu Leinonen, University of Art and Design Helsinki, Creating Open Educational Resources with LeMill in the CALIBRATE project Download file

Prodromos Tsiavos, University of Oslo, Creative Commons Licenses and OER Download file

Lisa Petrides, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management, OER: Access to Knowledge for All Download file

Workshop C: E-maturity for all: Spreading good practice and policies
Chair: Anja Balanskat, Senior Policy Analyst, EUN

Key ideas in this session were the view that e-maturity for a majoirity of schools was a slow process, the value of frameworks to assist in change processes and the need for more synergy between eTwinning and projects developing models for peer learning (eg P2V).

Anne Gilleran, EUN
Peer learning for schools - the role of eTwinning in developing e-maturity
Download file

Peer learning to develop the e-maturity of schools and systems: the P2V project
- Schools: Alfred Askevold, Skeiene Ungdomsskole, Lisbeth Pedersen, Utdanningsdirektoratet Norway [Download file], Averil Morrow, Southern Education and Library Board, Northern Ireland [Download file]
- Inspectorates - a common European approach to ICT assessment, Bert Jaap van Oel, Inspectorate, The Netherlands
Download file
- Policy - a peer learning methodology for policy-makers, Alan McCluskey, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Download file
- Sharing pedagogical ICT practice, first steps toward a European observatory of practices? - Nathalie Terrades, Ministry of Education, France
Download file

Towards all e-mature learners
Digital literacy, Kirsten Drotner, University of Southern Denmark
Download file

Workshop D: Self-regulated personlised learning
1) Tiphaine Lalonde Download file
2) Roni Aviram Download file
3) Owen Conlan: Download file
4) Richard Galvin: Download file
5) Tiphaine Lalonde (2): Download file

Posted by Paul Gerhard at 12:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The morning part of the day was spent in parallel workshops. A full 2,5h were spent listening presentations on four main topics. The short keyword summaries are below.

A: International co-operation, working session on Open Educational Resources for teachers
The GENIE meeting on Wednesday evening with inputs from the US, Australia and South America showed the need to think globally about content-sharing, not just in Europe. Approaches differ significantly from country to country in Europe. Frameworks are essential to share knowledge, and the Learning Resource Exchange aims to support this through projects like EdRENE and ASPECT and with the support of the Hewlett Foundation. Sustainability ibeyond the life of projects is an issue. Mechanisms are needed to enable projects to be more global in scope and impact, to ensure adequate funding and to lead to sustainable outcomes. 'Open' is not synonymous with 'sustainable'; a structure is essential for success.

B: E-Safety workshop
Five examples of good partnerships between ministries of education and e-safety awareness nodes in the INSAFE network were presented (eg Germany, Italy, Belgium (Flemish community)). Successful partnerships were characterised by joint knowledge building (a theme running across all the workshops) leading to changed beahviours. For schools the way forward for e-safety is integration into the curriculum, as has happened in Belgium, Poland and Ireland.

C: e-Maturity
There is a long way to go to a state where the majority of schools are e-mature; frameworks are valuable in assisitng schools along the journey to e-maturity. ICT needs full integration for the pay off to really take off. There should be more concertation between eTwinning and projects about peer leanring (eg P2V).

D: Personalised learning
The iClass project has developed SRPL - Self-Regulated Personlised Learning - a model for the future. It includes key notions like joint knowledge building (again), reflection, self-profiling, planning, reporting and recording, choice, mindfulness, personal preferences, flexible environment. SRPL represents a shift from the learner as a passive participant in a system to learner autonomy and responsiblilty within a personalised system providing apporupriate tools. Teachers are at the heart of it (at the beginning of the project the focus was on learners). Dialogue with teachers and researchers has been beneficial. Validation work will take place in 2008 using a mock up, focus gorups and questionnaires; the outcomes will have a strong influence on product development by the ICT industry.

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"I was watching reruns of Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy before I came here..."; "There are more experts sitting in this room..."; "Even my driver would be able to answer to that question..."; "... these were the opening words of Doug Brown, Deputy Director of Technology Futures Unit, Department for Children Schools and Families, UK. What a start.

The follow-up of Mr. Brown's speech was sort of stand-up comedian mashed up with a civil servant, he was point-on with things that every policy-maker, who is dealing with e-learning on every day bases, would recognise. It was entertaining and mind-tickling - and somewhat cathartic, too, after a long and thoughtful day of interesting presentations.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish! Let's blog some more tomorrow - and move those minds.

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mathematics, science and technology: implications of the Rocard report - Johannes Klumpers, Head of Unit, Directorate "Science, Economy and Society", Directorate-General Research European Commission
Download file

E-safety: emerging issues and national responses,Anja Balanskat and Janice Richardson, European Schoolnet.
Download file

Personalisation and the iClass project, Prof. Roni Aviram, Chair, Center for Futurism in Education, Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
Download file

Imagining the future school: a scenario planning tool for policy-makers, Lex Stomp, Manager, Department of teacher training for secondary education, Windesheim University, The Netherlands
Download file

Interactive whiteboards: Italian initiatives and evaluations, Giovanni Biondi and Leonardo Tosi. Agenzia Nazionale per lo Sviluppo dell'Autonomia Scolastica
Download file

Posted by Paul Gerhard at 05:33 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

eLearning Awards are given out for the 7th time tonight. There were 563 submissions from all over Europe that were full of good practices and innovative pedagogical ideas.

Sylvia Binger from European Schoolnet gives out a short description of how the entries are screened and evaluated. This part is shared between the staff in the EUN Office and external reviewers.

Derrick de Kerckhove, Professor at the University of Toronto, acted as Chair of the 2007 eLearning Awards Jury. This was the fourth time that he acted in this role, and he reassured that every time there is some new in the entries.

View Derrick de Kerckhove presentation Download file

According to Mr. de Kerckhove there are some trends to be seen around us. There is a rise of the "wreader" ("Facebook Generation") and "Google generation". He also talked about "The era of the tag", which he calls the soul of the Internet. (Blogger's comment: More about tags on Friday morning workshop of Content).

Challenges for e-learning: Think "plurally", develop communities, share knowledge and value informal learning. Some of these trends were also seen in the project that were submitted for the Awards.

Next, we will go into WINNERS. Will soon share more about that with you. Even I don't know who will win, yet.

The generous sponsors of this year are seen here!

PS (10th December) And the winner is ... from Malta:
Press release on the awards:

List of winners and prizes.

Here they are:

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 05:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Take a look at the pictures from the conference on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/euninsight/tags/eminent2007/

Here are some from Cecile Gouzet.

Did you take your own pictures? In case you also use Flickr, use the same tag as we do "eminent2007" so that they all appear here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/eminent2007/

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Lex Stomp from Department of teacher training for secondary education, Windesheim University, the Netherlands, talked about the use of a scenario planning tool, where it is used for example in courses of teacher training to help planning and future policy needs.

Scenario tools as such are nothing new, they have been used in different areas of society to help planning. The scenario method allows one to create his/her own story about the future projection, which by no mean is supposed to be a prediction, rather just "an educated guess". Stories are especially strong when little facts and theories are available.

More about this scenario building tool is available for example in Insight website or here.

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Roni Aviram from Ben Gurion University, Israel talked about personalisation of e-learning as it is dealt with in the iClass project.

Five goals in the project are personalisation , self-regulation, intrinsic motivation, morality and participatory belonging. These are elements for self-regulated personalised learning, which Mr. Aviram said is needed in nowadays educational environment. More can be explored on Friday's workshop D. "Personalisation in practice".

More information on iClass at: http://www.iclass.info/iclass01.asp

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The blogging team has been collecting the links of the websites and studies mentioned in the presentations and speeches. You can find some of them on the sidebar of the blog: RELATED EMINENT LINKS. They are also accessible here: http://del.icio.us/tag/eminent2007.

We have probably missed some of the links? If you find some that should be there, please don't hesitate to post them on del.icio.us by using a tag "eminent2007".

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

eSafety is one of the major challenges that the teachers face nowadays, 2/3 of the countries who were surveyed for the recent EUN report on eSafety (now available in the reception desk) have actions in place regarding this. A short brief about the report was presented by Anja Balanskat and Janice Richardson from European Schoolnet.

Growing balance between the child protection approach and a larger focus on educating the user by fostering a new type of literacy seem to be an emerging trend. New skills are needed such as "digital competency", for example.

As an eSafety highlight was mentioned a Norwegian project called "You decide", which will be part of the tomorrow's workshop on eSafety. Moreover, two members of the INSAFE network presented their national activities.

INSAFE network: http://www.saferinternet.org

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We now continue the 3rd Plenary session, which is on "Current issues". Johannes Klumpers, Head of Unit, DG Research European Commission explores the issue of uptake of science topics in schools.

" I would like to become a scientist"; " I like schools science better than most other subjects" showed that in some countries girls dislike science very much., Interestingly, in some developing countries these were answered very differently.

ot -

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We now continue the 3rd Plenary session, which is on "Current issues". Johannes Klumpers from DG Research, European Commission, explores the issue of uptake of science topics in schools.

" I would like to become a scientist"; " I like schools science better than most other subjects" showed that in some countries pupils and students, especially girls, dislike science very much., Interestingly, in some developing countries these were answered very differently. The Rocard Report on Science Education. []

Increased attention to Scientific Culture is needed. European Commission views this important also for the whole future of Europe, as seen from the point of view of achieving European Knowledge Society. Part of the recommendations of the Rocard Report also suggest that new forms of pedagogy are needed, like inquiry based learning methods.

European Commission DG Research has a special focus on this in the future FP7 calls for proposals. One of the novel point in these projects will be its dissemination of the results; these future projects will use a common service provided by the Commission where web-sites, their translations, etc. would reside.

Posted by Riina Vuorikari at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)