STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING IN VILNIUS
The EUN Steering Committee met in Vilnius on 22-23 September 2005, hosted by the Lithuanian Ministry of Education.

A highlight was a half-day session on the first set of outcomes of the Peer-2-Peer project. Another main issue was the work programme and the budget of EUN. The EUN Office reported on the implementation of the work programme 2005 and presented the six-month financial report for 2005.

Discussions also focused on the work programme for 2006 and on the work done on Internet Safety (Insafe) and the European Learning Exchange.
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NEW eTWINNING PORTAL LAUNCHED
A new and further developed eTwinning portal was launched at the end of September. The portal features a new graphical interface and restructured eTwinning portal to allow schools in Europe to eTwin more easily. In the first year of eTwinning, many schools have successfully carried out eTwinning projects. To reflect this, the new eTwinning portal has a greater focus on projects and experiences.
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INSIGHT PORTAL GETS A MAJOR REDESIGN
In the summer, the Insight portal was redesigned and reorganised. Reflecting this work, early September, a beta version of the portal was launched. The new portal will officially be launched and receive its final additions in October. Insight will provide effective and relevant tools for decision and policy-makers as well as for teachers and researchers.
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SCHOOLPLAZA TEACHER'S PORTAL NOW ONLINE
SchoolPlaza is now accessible to all teachers in Europe at www.schoolplaza.org. The portal is a unique collaborative environment where teachers sharing similar interests or teaching the same subject can meet, communicate and work together.

It allows teachers to register by giving a brief description of themselves and of their interests; thereafter the SchoolPlaza finds teachers who match your profile. Another feature is the reception desk, EUN will provide real-time online support during office hours to welcome and help users.
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VIRTUAL SCHOOL STOCKTAKING CONFERENCE IN STOCKHOLM
The closing conference for the Virtual School took place on 16-17 September 2005 in Stockholm. More than 70 people attended the successful event to take stock of the Virtual School achievements since its launch in 1998.

Virtual School was a pioneer and inspiring project for EUN. It was one of the first teacher networks and many projects have resulted from it, such as myEurope, eSchola and Spring Day.
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LIFE PROJECT ORGANISES TWO MEETINGS
The aim of the first meeting organised in Manchester on 5 September 2005 was to take stock of the current emerging issues in the area of interoperability of learning resources repositories and to identify key issues, obstacles and drivers. This expert group meeting formulated a number of recommendations addressing technical, semantic, as well as political interoperability issues.

The second meeting was held in Florence on the 9 September 2005. This meeting, with the ministries of education, was looking at national issues to develop, share, and use educational content.
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INSAFE NETWORK MEETS IN GREECE
The Greek partner of the Insafe network hosted a training session and steering committee meeting in Thessaloniki from 21-23 September. Key issues were the annual stakeholder meeting to be held in Paris during EMINENT, and the storytelling competition.

European Schoolnet is the coordinator of the Insafe network, which includes nodes in 20 European countries as well as a number of other international partners.
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ICLASS MOVES UP A GEAR
As part of EUN's new responsibilities as educational coordinator for the iClass project, Roger Blamire took part in a series of meetings and workshops in Dublin on 7-9 September 2005. He also took part in the Executive Committee meeting and chaired a meeting of the Education Co-ordination Board. The project is now moving from a technical focus to addressing end user and pedagogical issues. A series of evaluations beginning in Turkey in November will provide interim feedback to developers on the next generation tools and services coming out of iClass.
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PEDAGOGICAL ADVISORY GROUP MEETING IN BRUSSELS
The Pedagogical Advisory Group (PAG) for eTwinning held their final meeting for 2005 on 15 September 2005 in Brussels. The group discussed the first two items on the agenda for the Work Group 2 meeting being held the following day, the eTwinning Quality Label and the ten European Professional Development Workshops to be held during the school year 2005/2006.
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REGISTRATION FOR EMINENT 2005 IS OPEN
Hosted by the French Ministry of Education, European Schoolnet's annual EMINENT conference will take place at the Concorde-Lafayette Hotel, Paris, on 8-9 December 2005.

Registrations are now open at http://eminent.eun.org. This year's theme focuses on ensuring that schools exploit the opportunities offered by new technologies.
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In July, EUN submitted two proposals for the eLearning programme (DG EAC): ACME and LO4ALL. ACME answers a call for 'transversal actions' and LO4ALL for 'digital literacy'.

These were followed by two other proposals submitted in September: VIRTUALITY and EDUGRID both answering IST call 5 of the 6th Framework Programme. VIRTUALITY specifically answers to priority "Access to and preservation of cultural and scientific resources" while EduGRID answers the "Advanced Grid Technologies and Services" priority.
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