European Schoolnet is the network of 31 European Ministries of Education, based in Brussels. As a not-for-profit organisation, they aim to bring innovation in teaching and learning to their key stakeholders: Ministries of Education, schools, teachers, researchers, and industry partners.

Since its founding in 1997, European Schoolnet has used its links with education ministries to help schools make effective use of educational technologies, equipping both teachers and pupils with the skills to achieve in the knowledge society.

European Schoolnet provides both Ministries and schools with: information and services relating to the innovative use of educational technology; outreach campaigns on specific educational topics such as maths, science and technology; and research activities.

What They Do

Thousands of schools are engaged in their various pilot projects and studies, testing new learning activities and technologies in the classroom, and exploring the use of new pedagogical tools in teaching STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). They identify and develop learning resources in various languages that teachers across Europe can use in their teaching, provide peer-to-peer online communities where teachers can exchange ideas and share resources, as well as offering various training opportunities online and offline.

To fulfil their goals, they develop European-funded projects with the European Commission, the Ministries of Education and industry partners. These projects include iTEC (Designing the Future Classroom) and ECB - Ingenious (attracting pupils towards science, technology, engineering and maths). They also run a number of services for teachers and policymakers, such as Scientix, to promote science education, and Insafe, dedicated to digital citizenship skills and online safety.

European Schoolnet has worked particularly towards enhancing cooperation across Europe between schools as the coordinator of the eTwinning Central Support Service since 2004. They also have a long experience in contributing to awareness-raising campaigns across Europe on the importance of gaining e-Skills (e-Skills Week), and transforming STEM education to increase the appeal of those sectors among pupils (ECB-Ingenious project).
 

To further their goal of supporting teachers to introduce innovation into their teaching, European Schoolnet created the Future Classroom Lab in Brussels in 2012. A unique hub for showcasing technological and pedagogical innovation, the Future Classroom Lab is supported by sponsors such as Microsoft, Samsung, Acer, Cisco, Lego and many others. Other projects dedicated to teachers’ professional development are being run on a continual basis, using the Future Classroom Lab to identify, analyse, and mainstream the best innovative practices in education, and equipping teachers with the necessary skills to develop their teaching practice.
 

With the help of their research team, European Schoolnet also monitors trends in education through its Observatory. They provide country reports on innovation and technology in education, as well as European research, such as the 2013 use of technology in schools report commissioned by the European Commission.