DRAFT AGENDA

Global Education Industry Summit – Helsinki, 19-20 October 2015
Policy and Business in Dialogue for Education Excellence
Jointly organised by the OECD, the European Commission and Finland
Venue: Finlandia Hall, Helsinki

Monday 19 October 2015

10:00 – 12:00 Registration

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch

13:00 – 14:00 Opening Session

• Welcoming address by Ms. Sanni Grahn-Laasonen, Minister of Education and Culture of Finland
  
• OECD address by Mr. Stefan Kapferer, Deputy Secretary-General
• External Speaker: Ms. Tuula Teeri, President of Aalto University
• General Facilitator: Mr. Gavin Dykes

14:00 – 15:30 Session 1: Redesigning learning environments to better support learning

Today, schools and classrooms are changing rapidly. New insights in learning, pedagogy and the enormous potential of technology invite us to rethink, redesign and reshape learning environments even more radically. Innovative learning environments can encourage more active engagement of learners, ensure that teaching and learning are better tuned to individual needs while fostering greater collaboration among learners. At the same time these developments can do more to connect learning in formal settings with learning outside and to stimulate lifelong learning. How can education policies accelerate redesign of learning environments and encourage timely adoption of innovative approaches to learning and teaching and ultimately improve learning? How can new resources and technologies do more to position learning as their core purpose?

• Facilitator: Mr. Chris Dede, Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies, Harvard Graduate School of Education (US)
• Rapporteur: Mr. Paul Collard, Chief Executive of CCE (UK)

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break and Family Photo

16:00 – 17:30 Session 2: Mobilising technology to widen access and improve quality

Education systems face the challenge of widening access to high-quality opportunities to learn. In the 20th century massification and standardisation have led to an extraordinary expansion of education systems, but have not brought equal opportunities for all. Can technology do more to widen and differentiate access for disadvantaged learners? How can technology be harnessed to personalise learning and to fine-tune educational opportunity to each learner’s needs? Which policies can and should be developed to ensure that all learners benefit from the best possible opportunities to learn?

• Facilitator: Mr. Alek Tarkowski, Co-Founder and Director of Centrum Cyfrowe Projekt Polska think-and-do-tank (Poland)
• Rapporteur: Ms. Vibeke Kløvstad, Communications Director, Norwegian ICT Agency (Norway)

17:30 – 17:40 Closing of Day One

19:45 Departure to Dinner from the Crowne Plaza Hotel

20:00 – 23:00 Dinner at Restaurant Porssi

• Toast speech by Minister Sanni Grahn-Laasonen
  
• OECD address by Mr. Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills
• European Commission address by Ms. Martine Reicherts, Director-General for Education and Culture

Tuesday 20 October 2015

08:30 – 9:00 Refreshments and Networking

09:00 – 10:30 Session 3: Digital revolution supporting pedagogies and teachers

Digitization challenges everyone, but also enables new opportunities. Teachers in particular have a role to play. However, is simply 'going digital' enough, or should digitization be considered an opportunity to rethink pedagogies and teaching practices, and more broadly, change working cultures in education? If digitization is such an opportunity, then policy making should respond by providing new opportunities for teachers, so that students benefit from new opportunities to learn and to demonstrate their creativity. New pedagogies should meaningfully make the most of digital devices and resources. Making such digital change in education cannot be left to schools and educational institutions alone; it requires smart innovation in devices, software, materials and, of course, associated development of teacher competences and strategies and school communities as a whole. In most countries governments are not at the steering wheel of digitization, but they can certainly set the framework conditions. We need innovators and experts from government, business, research and education to work together to develop and implement new approaches for educating and supporting teachers so that they are well prepared and equipped to face the digitization challenges. How can and should governments and industry work together to support this?

• Facilitator: Mr. Heikki Mannila, President of the Academy of Finland (Finland)
• Rapporteur: Mr. Martyn Farrows, Director, Learnovate Centre (Ireland)

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:30 Session 4: Partnerships for transformative education policies

Partnerships and collaborative networks are vital for building effective 'innovation ecosystems' in education. Schools and teachers are central to such networks, but they need supportive environments. Appropriate policies help shaping the context in which partnerships with stakeholders and innovators can flourish. Professional networks, communities of interest and communities of practice are critically important to enable transformative and innovative education policies that have a real impact on what happens in schools. How can partnerships, communities and networks be fostered and developed? How can the education industry assist in building effective innovation ecosystems?

• Facilitator: Ms. Karen Cator, President and CEO, Digital Promise (US)
• Rapporteur: Mr. Risto E.J. Penttilä, CEO, Finland Chamber of Commerce (Finland)

12:30 – 13:30 Closing Session: Conclusions

13:45 – 14:15 Press Conference

13:30 – 14:30 Lunch