“The future is digital, but it is still necessary to develop other skills. Which ones? The skills of the future. The skills that are the most difficult to find on the labour market. Those are the skills that machines cannot perform: problem-solving, creativity and innovation, adaptability, leadership, emotional intelligence.”
These words were taken from dr. Robert Kopal’s talk called „Creativity 4.0: creativity in spite of and thanks to the 4th industrial revolution“are just one of the emphasis from the 2th CARNET users conference CUC20: Network of ideas, held in Šibenik.
The largest conference in the field of ICT application in education in the Republic of Croatia was attended by 1074 participants, including teachers in primary and secondary schools, CARNET system engineers and coordinators, members of the scientific-research community and IT experts and entrepreneurs.
The main topics of the conference were covered and questions answered in more than 100 presentations and 63 workshops. The importance of media, digital and scientific literacy was emphasised as well as the use of digital skills and critical thinking, the application of artificial intelligence and neuroscience and efficient use of technology in education..
Dr. Michelle Zimmerman, a professor at Renton Preparatory Christian School, one of the top 3 STEM schools in the USA held a workshop „Leading Education Transformation“ for the school principles about the changes in the education system and new methods of learning.
“To lead the change in education is exciting and challenging. Although, with so many technological possibilities sometimes it’s hard to even get started”, feels dr. Zimmerman whose lecture „People First: Technology that Supports Humanity“ was the closing one of the CUC 2018.
Dr. Kristijan Lenac gave a talk entitled “What is blockchain and why is it important?”. “Blockchain is the new technology massively applied in different sectors of society. It’s announced as the new generation internet which provides direct transfer of value among the stakeholders with far-reaching effects on economy and society“, says dr. Lenac about the role of blockchain which is mostly associated with bitcoins and other crypto currencies.
One of the most important subjects in Croatia today is financing through EU funds. The lack of information on how to develop an idea into a project that is acceptable for EU funding is most commonly the barrier for withdrawal of funds In the workshop entitled „How to spend 10.160.430.000,00 HRK“ everybody who was inetersted could learn how to make a successful EU project from examples.
This year the conference has offered two new formats – Teachmeet and Speeddate in order to inspire participants to share their knowledge and experience and provide easier ways of finding partners for collaboration both in teaching activities and research when applying for the EU project funding.
As part of the conference there was a competition Record, write and win! intended for all primary and secondary schools with the aim of getting schools interested in creative use of ICT in teaching. The Šarengrad primary school dr. Franjo Tuđman won in the category of primary schools and Geodetic School in Zagreb won the prize in the category of secondary schools.
The Conference Programme Board announced that the best lecture was „Mediated transfer in teaching programming“ by Divna Krpan from the Faculty of Science Split and Damir Brčić from the Split-Dalmatia County.
There was also some talk about the personal data protection, intellectual property, entrepreneurship and the infomatization of the business operations in educational institutions as well as security and other challenges of the digital society.
