For the third year in a row, the premises of the eTwinning Central Support Service in Brussels were transformed into a fully functional TV studio with the purpose of hosting the exciting official opening of the eTwinning annual conference.

The conference was officially opened on Thursday 20th October by Maria Koleva, Deputy Head of Cabinet for Mariya Gabriel - Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. She congratulated eTwinners for their hard work and innovative projects and stressed the importance of this year’s Annual Theme by announcing this year’s eTwinning book, Our future: beautiful, sustainable, together eTwinning and the New European Bauhaus. During her speech, Koleva, announced on behalf of Commissioner Gabriel the eTwinning Annual Theme for 2023, which is Education and Innovation. Later, she invited eTwinners to explore the European Commission’s Ethical guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence and data in teaching and learning for educators.

The keynote address ‘Imagining and creating the future of education’ was delivered by the futurist and humanist Gerd Leonhard. Gerd shared with the audience his futuristic view on the place of education in the future, and invited teachers to start thinking out of the box:

‘We’re not going to get ready with traditional education. We’re going to get ready with new kinds of education, with new kinds of creativity and imagination. Not just with the good old logic of the past.’

According to Gerd Leonhard, the future will be predominantly governed by a sense of humanism, and that the human factor will always be above the machines.

‘Machines are for answers, humans are for questions. We need to have an environment that encourages not just swallowing information so that we could use it later.’

The second half of the first day was dedicated to the exceptional teachers who were awarded the eTwinning European Prizes. More than 50 teachers from all over Europe connected live to be rewarded by the European Commission and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency for their successful projects. The videos of the winning projects were premiered, and the winning teachers were given the opportunity to show their talent and inspire the connected eTwinners.

The second day kicked off with an interactive learning activity in which participants met in small groups to build a digital time capsule together. What is the role of education now and what will it be in the future? This is the question which participants focused on to compose their message. Throughout the whole conference, participants also had the opportunity to visit the virtual exhibition dedicated to the Annual Theme, including materials and resources eTwinning created to guide and inspire eTwinners. The exhibition will remain open until 30 November.

After the three sessions with a total of 38 workshops (click here for the full agenda), the 450 registered participants followed  a very inspiring panel discussion on ‘Imagining Education in the future’. The five panellists represented a variety of stakeholders and included Michael Teutsch - Head of Unit, Schools, European Commission, Isabel Crespo, Europeana, Martin Meissonnier, film director, Natalia Tzitzi, teacher, and Petra Crnicki, student teacher. The discussion addressed key predictions made by Gerd Leonhard, the first day keynote speaker, and what these meant at a quite practical level for teachers, students and other school stakeholders. The panellists also explored the future of eTwinning and how to foster students’ well-being as part of their exchange.

On the third and final day of the conference, the participants attended, with great interest, the keynote address ‘Teacher in an eTwinning School’ delivered by Loredana Popa, eTwinning Ambassador. Ms Popa mentioned that all teachers should make learning fun, unusual and engaging, and offered different examples of her class. She mentioned that: ‘For me education in the future means everyone is heard, not just listened to; heard not just with ears but mostly with the heart’. She talked about the importance of creativity and imagination and finished by saying: ‘Education in the future is still centred on what makes us human. Technology is just a means, not the hand to hold.’

The conference was closed by Michael Teutsch - Head of Unit, Schools, DG EAC, European Commission, who thanked all participants and highlighted the importance of the eTwinning community in supporting visionary teachers and students in Europe and beyond.