European Schoolnet is governed by the Ministries of Education who are full members of the organisation.
Statutory bodies
Ministries represent the decision-making body of European Schoolnet through a number of groups, namely:
- the Steering Committee, for the political and strategic orientations of European Schoolnet. It adopts the work programme and the budget of the organization;
- the Board of Directors for administrative and financial operations.
“More than ever education is challenged to improve results while budgets stay the same, or even shrink. This calls upon us to look for new ways of learning. We know by now that ICT helps to develop each talent of every student and to increase flexibility and efficiency in the educational system. We need to work together to make sure this knowledge is set into action. European Schoolnet is the network to exchange knowledge about and to explore new ways of integrating ICT in education. This is why we are happy to participate.”
Toine Maes, Kennisnet, the Netherlands
Subcommittees
- Policy and innovation committee
Activities are linked to the three areas of the work programme supporting policy, research and innovation. The Policy and Innovation Committee (PIC) is open to all members of the Steering Committee and acts as a forum to discuss policy, research and innovation topics identified by the Steering Committee not covered by the Working Groups, for example e-books and digital games in 2010. PIC meets up to three times a year and members are invited to bring an expert on the subject to the meeting. - Learning resource exchange subcomittee
Established in May 2010, this committee steers and manages the ongoing development of the Learning Resource Exchange (LRE) service for schools.
Meeting reports and associated papers are to be found on the EUN ministry of education platform (restricted access).
Working groups
Working groups are set up by a group of Ministries of Education to tackle a specific issue. The remit and duration are defined by the ministries involved.
- Interactive whiteboard working group
With support from the major IWB vendors, the aim of Ministries in this working group is to address areas of common concern, share good practice and develop policy related to innovative use of IWBs in Europe.
15 Ministries of Education are involved: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK.
Guidelines and reference documents on the use of IWB for schools and teachers are available. - Digital competence working group
By the end of 2010, 15 Ministries of Education were involved in this working group focused on digital competences for students and teachers: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Finland , Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom.
The work of this group is in line with the UNESCO’s project on ICT Competency Standards for Teachers to create a common core syllabus of ICT competency, provide a set of qualifications, advance skills in pedagogy, collaboration and school innovation using ICT and harmonize views and vocabulary for ICT in teacher education. - Special educational needs working group
This working group targeting ICT policies for pupils with special educational needs has as a primary aim to share expertise and knowledge, define common interests and research needs and explore possibilities for setting up joint projects in this field. 9 Ministries of Education are involved: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. This working group is involved in the SENNET project where you can find research results and resources on the issue.
