Patricia Wastiau (European Schoolnet) reports back on the conclusions of the conference. Through reports and notes from all sessions, she has summarised the key points and recommendations.

The following principles were noted:

• ICT based, excellent education must be for all


• ICT can facilitate personalised learning approaches


• Digital divide is shifting: now it's more to achieve proper use, rather than access in many countries

How can we realise 21st Century Learning?

• The challenge is no longer technological, but addressing education in a systemic way
  
• Starting from concerns of teachers is key: ICT itself is not an added value for teachers, but how can ICT address problems such as pupil disengagement, ongoing professional development, etc.?

Continue reading "International Symposium // Plenary session 6 // Closing" »

Posted by Patricia Munoz King at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This session was designed as an Interactive session with the audience: Addressing key challenges for the future: from vision to practice

Panel:
Moderator: Keith Kruger, CoSN

Greg Black, Director of Education.au was the moderator of this session, which included presentations from:
• Nancy Knowlton, SMART
• Kirsten Panton, Microsoft
• Frans Van Assche, EUN

At school level, ICT solutions are increasing but schools are not enough future-oriented and have to be encouraged. The discussions presented different visions of the way education could be in the future.

Nancy Knowlton from Smart said that a larger vision must be created and that it should flow down to every level of the educational system. Children are ready to learn and use new technologies in classrooms and, by 2020, technological material will finally take its rightful place in the classrooms.
Also, the role of teachers and learners has to evolve in the next years because the mode of teaching has currently started to break down in lot of schools all around the world. In the future, the students will cooperate more and more with their peers worldwide, they will take more responsibilities and teachers will move to the side and become more guides than mentors.

Continue reading "International Symposium // Plenary session 4 // A vision for the future- roundtable" »

Posted by Patricia Munoz King at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This session included presentations and discussion from:

• Roger Blamire - European Schoolnet


• Dr. Miao Feng-Chun - UNESCO Bangkok


• Laurent Odic - eInstruction


• Rhyan Bloor - Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Australia


• Elisabetta Mughini - ANSAS, Italy

Continue reading "Plenary session 3 // Priority international cooperation strategies" »

Posted by Alexa Joyce at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)