EMINENT- Experts Meeting in Education Networking is an annual event organised by European Schoolnet.

EMINENT 2012 took place in Genoa on 14 and 15 November 2012 within the ABCD Education Fair hosted by the Fiera di Genova - Genoa Fair & Exhibition Centre.

The ABCD Education Fair is Italy's leading event devoted to schools and education. The Show offers a 360° view of the education sector, featuring exhibition areas, workshops, and conferences. This year ABCD featured over 130 exhibitors and an estimated 42,000 visitors, made up of students, teachers, parents, ministers and other active players in the education field.

Schools in Europe in 2025

#EMINENT2012

A key part of European Schoolnet's mission is to work with its 30 supporting Ministries of Education in order to assist them with developing and taking forward reform processes in compulsory and upper secondary education. 

At its annual EMINENT conference on the 14-15 November 2012, European Schoolnet explored how current trends in education and potential scenarios for the future classroom are likely to impact on the educational reform process. This year's conference particularly referenced and drew on:

• Emerging results from the €9.45 million iTEC project that is developing future classroom scenarios and evaluating these in >1,000 classrooms in 15 countries, the largest pan-European validation yet undertaken.

• Recent research findings and data on the use of ICT in schools as regards technology infrastructure provision and its use in and out of school, teacher and student digital competence and attitudes towards iCT.

As well as providing participants with an in-depth insight on the iTEC project and on recent research findings, EMINENT provided a unique opportunity, not only to explore what the school of 2025 might look like, but to define the policy roadmap that is needed in order to up-scale and mainstream innovative use of ICT in the future classroom.

Access to the Speakers bio, the full programme and the pictures (flickr).

Download the presentations (pdf):

• Welcome address: Italian strategies for innovation - Giovanni Biondi, Chair of European Schoolnet

• Keynote address: Why disruptive innovation is mostly happening outside of traditional education, and how state education systems might adapt - Tim Pearson, former Chief Executive Officer, RM Education

• First plenary round table: The journey to ICT in teaching and learning: how far are we? Patricia Wastiau, Principal Advisor for Studies, European Schoolnet; Roger Blamire, Senior Advisor, European Schoolnet

• Roundtable: From pilot experiment to mainstreaming policy

• The school must challenge the digital generation - Per Thorbøll, Deputy Director of UNI•C, Danish IT Centre for Education and Research

• iTEC High Level Group - Mainstreaming innovation - Gavin Dykes, General Secretary of the iTEC project High Level Group

• Scaling-up creative classrooms in Europe - Stefania Bocconi, CNR, Institute for Educational Technology

 Workshops

• A look into the future(s) - Will Ellis, ITEC Project Manager

• Creating learning environments for all: learners with special needs in the future classroom - Roger Blamire, Senior Adviser, European Schoolnet

• Teacher professional development for the Digital Age - Chair: Jim Ayre, Senior Advisor, European Schoolnet; Diana Bannister, University of Wolverhampton

• Report from the workshop - Roger Blamire, Senior Adviser, European Schoolnet

• Keynote address: Education - No Silver Bullet? - Lord David Puttnam, Senior Non-Executive Director, Promethean; Chancellor of the Open University; President of the Film Distributors Association

• Roundtable on the classroom of the future: Teachers today, classrooms of tomorrow - Kristen Weatherby, Senior Analyst, OECD - Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)

• Closing address: The European perspective for the school of tomorrow and Opening up Education - Lieve Van den Brande, Principal Administrator, DG Education and Culture, European Commission

Exchange platform between Ministries of Education and Industry Partners

• Future Classroom Lab - progress and challenges - Dorothy Cassells, FCL Manager, European Schoolnet; Jim Ayre,Senior Adviser, European Schoolnet

• Why cooperation between Ministries of Education and Industry is important? - Marc Durando, Executive Director, European Schoolnet