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CoSN Joins Three Other Leading Education Organizations to Host First-Ever International Symposium on Innovation in Education
Consortium for School Networking —Tuesday, June 09, 2009
CoSN Joins Three Other Leading Education Organizations to Host First-Ever International Symposium on Innovation in Education
Washington, DC (June 9, 2009) - The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) has joined forces with three other prominent global education associations to host the first-ever international symposium on ICT in Education Networks, which will take place later this week (June 11-12, 2009) in Rome, Italy. More than 130 high-level decision-makers from 30 countries, who are members of international networks active in the field of education technology, also referred to as information and communications (ICT), are expected to attend.
The event was organized by European Schoolnet (EUN), a network of 31 Ministries of Education in Europe, in partnership with CoSN, education.au (the Australian national agency for ICT in education) and ANSAS (the Italian agency for innovation in education). The goal of the symposium is to build a vision for a common future for education and develop an agenda for future cooperation.
"CoSN is pleased to help initiate this international conversation on education technology," said CoSN CEO Keith Krueger. "Having a forum to share information, insights and best practices with education leaders from around the world is important to determining how we can prepare kids with 21st century skills for a globally competitive world."
Krueger is one of the symposium's speakers, and will participate in a plenary discussion, themed "Transforming Education Systems - Leveraging International Networks." During a breakout session themed "Innovative Technology in Education: New Platforms, New Expectations," Krueger will discuss the implications of CoSN's recent survey of school administrators, which gauged their views on the importance of Web 2.0 for teaching and learning. He will also moderate a closing plenary themed "Addressing Key Challenges For the Future: From Vision to Practice."
Symposium participants include delegations from 32 ministries of education. U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Innovation Jim Shelton has recorded a video message to welcome attendees.
Key industry partners are sponsoring the event, including eInstruction (www.einstruction.com), Intel Education (www.intel.com), Microsoft (www.microsoft.com), Oracle (www.oracle.com), PASCO Scientific (www.pasco.com), Promethean (www.prometheanworld.com) and SMART Technologies (www.smarttech.com).
Several other organizations support the initiative, including Futurelab in the UK (www.futurelab.org.uk), Apple Computers (www.apple.com), KERIS (the ICT agency of the Ministry of Education Science and Technology in South Korea - http://english.keris.or.kr), South East Asia Ministry (www.seameo.org), and World Links Arab Region (www.wlar.org).
Other networks expected to attend include African (Schoolnet Africa), middle-eastern (iEARN Lebanon, World Links Arab Region), European (Global eSchools and Communities Initiative, Digital Europe) and South American networks (Interdidatica, Fundação Vanzolini).
To learn more about the symposium, visit http://blog.eun.org/is/.
European Schoolnet
European Schoolnet (EUN) is a unique not-for-profit consortium of 31 ministries of education in Europe created in 1997. EUN provides major European education portals for teaching, learning and collaboration and leads the way in bringing about change in schooling through the use of new technology. www.eun.org
CoSN
Founded in 1992, the Consortium of School Networking (CoSN) is the premier professional association for school district technology leaders. CoSN is committed to providing the leadership, community and advocacy tools essential for the success of these leaders. Its mission is to empower K-12 school district technology leaders to use technology strategically to improve teaching and learning. www.cosn.org
Education.au
Australia's leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) agency for educators and delivers a range of web services to clients in the higher education, schools education and vocational education and training sectors. www.educationau.edu.au
ANSAS (ex INDIRE)
The Agenzia Nazionale per lo Sviluppo dell'Autonomia Scolastica (ANSAS) is an Agency of the Italian Ministry of Education to supports autonomy of educational institutions in Italy in the European dimension in education as well as in the processes of innovation and educational research in these institutions. http://www.indire.it/
