EDEN has been organising the Open Classroom Conferences since 1997 with the support of the OCLR Working Group. The 2015 Athens Conference will address the needs and necessities in search for Innovation in School Education.

Developments in learning innovation and the impact of ICT on school education have presently been realised through many policy actions, programme initiatives and projects. At the same time, socio-economic challenges and the recent, often critical scenarios – social mobility, migration, globalisation, multi-culture structures – change the mandate of what we call Open School Education.

The search for new, more effective school structures, and the overcoming of broader challenges that societies are facing in their way towards the Knowledge Economy, is uninterrupted. The demand is increasing for upgrade of quality, in order to meet the needs for new competences and skills. It is proven that learning personalisation helps foster motivation and engagement, so learning is becoming more and more individualised and self-managed even in institutional settings.

The EU has adopted policy initiatives like the Opening Up Education and formulated ambitious goals in the EU2020 programme, for the school education sector as well. Still, most Member States are striving to introduce innovation through resisting structures and hindering factors.

Transforming systems to open environments will necessitate significant amendments to the existing teacher profiles in order to run a school system successfully. Through its range of presentations and activities the conference aims to contribute to the social, political and research dialogue, addressing the new complexities, contexts and resources. The exploration of what makes school education innovative will be enhanced by practical activities demonstrating and demystifying those 21st century teacher skills and competences that are so often regarded as essential but intimidating.

To serve this double purpose the conference will showcase and celebrate the excellence of "change agents" from all over Europe who – having been involved with EU projects like ODS and DigiSkills – developed (often from scratch) and/or improved their digital skills and competences by participating in online trainings and face to face summer schools, workshops and competitions. All teachers yet novice to these innovative projects will be able to learn from these inspirational best practices and exploit the active community members' experiences and achievements.

During the 3 days you will be able to benefit from professional development opportunities by participating in a selection of the projects’ most popular trainings and webinars in a face to face setting, while the Scholarly Contributions Day of the programme will offer strands of paper presentations and Synergy sessions where you are invited to introduce your own research and validated practice to your peers.