European Schoolnet stakeholders and partners meet in Rome at EMINENT conference
European Schoolnet’s annual conference took place in Rome on 4-5 December 2008, offering two days of debates, plenaries and workshops. The event was attended by 240 participants from all over Europe and beyond representing ministries of education, industry partners, teachers and experts. The conference was opened by Giovanni Biondi, Chair of the Steering Committee and Marc Durando, Executive Director of European Schoolnet.
The conference consisted of four plenary sessions with key speakers including Mike Trucano of the World Bank who gave the opening keynote on the topic of ‘People and technology in world class education systems’. Other prominent speakers and policy makers at the conference included Andrea Gavosto, director of the Agnelli Foundation (Italy), Pr. Luigi Berlinguer, a former Italian Minister of Education and Maruja Gutierrez-Diaz, Head of Unit Innovation and Creativity at the European Commission’s Education & Culture Directorate-General.
Two parallel workshop sessions allowed participants to break in groups to discuss topics of interest, these included on the first day: ‘ICT policy and practice’, ‘Electronic games and new ways of learning’ and ‘Building – and using – the European Learning Resource Exchange’. On the second day, workshops were organised linked to European Schoolnet’s newly created working groups: ‘Digital learning resources’, ‘Interactive whiteboards’, ‘Digital skills’ and ‘Linking national and regional portals’.The workshops proved to be a highlight of the conference as they allowed experts, policy makers, industry partners and teachers to exchange ideas and practice examples on the ground. They met one of the key objectives of the conference: to facilitate bridges between practitioners, industry suppliers and policy makers.
Another highlight of the conference was the eLearning Awards Ceremony on 4 December. Eight winners were awarded prizes for their schools for a total of €40,000 in cash prizes and equipment worth a similar amount. The ceremony was followed by a gala dinner in a Palazzo in the centre of Rome, generously hosted by the Agenzia Nazionale per lo Sviluppo dell’Autonomia Scolastica. Sponsors of the eLearning Awards this year were Young Digital Planet, Interwrite Learning, Intel, Promethean, SMART, Cisco, Microsoft and O2 Telefonica. Apple also supported the event with funding and and technical support for the EMINENT 2008 Podcasts.
The conference was organised in cooperation with Agenzia Nazionale per lo Sviluppo dell’Autonomia Scolastica (ANSAS, ex Indire).
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