What is #ASEFClassNet?
For over two decades, the ASEF Classroom Network (#ASEFClassNet) has been providing capacity-building opportunities for collaborative teaching and learning and a platform to explore the potential of cutting-edge EdTech tools and the integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in secondary, high, and vocational schools in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Partner countries. Its target group is broad, given its intergenerational & multi-stakeholder outreach. It ranges from students, teachers, school leaders, teacher trainers, researchers, policymakers, and to EdTech experts. Since its inception, about 2,000 teachers from all 51 ASEM Partner countries have participated in and become members of the ASEF Classroom Network. As a result, about 35,000 students have been engaged in over 430 Asia-Europe School Collaborations and local spin-off activities.
9th ASEF Classroom Network Conference (#ASEFClassNet09)
The 9th Asia-Europe Classroom Network Conference was organised in co-operation with St. Mark’s Senior Secondary Public School, Meera Bagh, and supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India on 12 – 16 November 2010. The conference was attended by 84 participants (including 6 student representatives and 3 observers) from 59 schools and institutions (Ministry of Education and National Commission of UNESCO etc.) coming from 28 ASEM* countries.
The theme “Climate Change and Biodiversity: How They are Connected and the Impact of Biodiversity Loss in the Community in Asia and Europe” was selected in conjunction with the 2010 international year for biodiversity. The main objective of the conference was to promote understanding on the value of biodiversity and to raise awareness of conserving biodiversity in the community through teachers/educators and students in Asia and Europe.
For the first time, student representatives attended an ASEF ClassNet Conference, as a reward for participating in an award-winning Online Collaboration. Students showcased their Online Collaborations and experienced life at a local Indian school; their teachers also had the opportunity to learn about, and experience, a different education system through presentations, and by visiting local Indian schools, respectively. This introduction of students to an ASEF ClassNet Conference represented a deepening of the network; such developments were acknowledged and advanced during interactive plenary sessions on “Strengthening the ASEF Classroom Network.”
A total of 33 new Online Collaborations were co-designed by participants to be coordinated by teachers from schools across Asia and Europe. Six of the previous year’s Online Collaborations were presented with ASEF ClassNet Awards in recognition of their outstanding work to facilitate better intercultural understanding and use of ICT in education. The six winners were:
Gold Awards
- Eco Tourists’ Passports
- Five Times Five
- WHAZZUP? 2009-2010
Merit Awards
- Chain Stories 2009
- East Speaks West, West Speaks East
- Liveable Cities for “Generation Next”
*Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Thailand and Vietnam.
