The Moscow International Education Fair (MIEF-2016), organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (MoES) in cooperation with IITE and other Russian and International organizations, took place on April 13-16 2016, in Moscow, Russian Federation. The main objective of the Fair this year was to provide specific tools for practical implementation of the theory and promote best practices. MIEF 2016 brought together more than 50.000 students, teachers, specialists and decision-makers in education and became a platform for over 500 forums, lectures, workshops, masterclasses, trainings and a large-scale exhibition. The Programme included business events for professionals and open activities for mainstream audience.
UNESCO IITE took part in the MIEF exhibition and business events.
During four days of MIEF work, participants had a chance to visit IITE’s booth and familiarize with printed and video materials of the Institute.
On 13 April, the Institute conducted the special session «Interaction of IITE with UNESCO Global Networks and Private Sector Partners: ICTs in Education and Innovative Pedagogy”. The IITE’s session gathered nearly 100 participants to discuss the latest trends and projects of ICT in education based on cooperation of the Institute with UNESCO networks, leading IT-companies and universities. Head a.i. of the UNESCO IITE prof. Alexander Khoroshilov together with Programme Specialists Mr. Tigran Epoyan and Ms. Natalya Amelina informed the session audience on current initiatives of the Institute and its activities on the development of cooperation with UNESCO Global networks and commercial partners.IITE’s partners from international and national private sector – Intel, Cisco, GlobalLab, Arkadin, LANIT, VympelCom, Odnoklassniki, as well as representatives of UNESCO ASPnet Schools and partner universities presented their projects and examples of fruitful collaboration with UNESCO IITE.
On 15 April 2016, IITE and SAP company – one of the leaders of the corporate applications market, signed a Partnership Agreement in Education and ICT. The goals of collaborative programmes are to promote and implement digital economic courses; to make modern technologies knowledge available everywhere including inaccessible and rural areas of Russia, CIS and other state-member of UNESCO.
Within the framework of the MIEF-2016, Head a.i. of the UNESCO IITE prof. Alexander Khoroshilov met with Ministers of Education of several member-states of UNESCO. On April 14, Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, the Minister of State for Higher Education Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, took a part in the MIEF-2016 and visited the UNESCO IITE to discuss perspectives for further collaboration in higher education and teacher professional development. On April 15, a meeting with the Minister of Education of Republic Sakha (Yakutia), Russian Federation Ms. Feodosia Gabysheva and the Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Mr. Veniamin Kaganov took place at the MIEF.
Mr. Qian Tang, Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO, attended the MIEF-2016 on April 14-16 by the invitation of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (MoES). On 15 April, he had a meeting with the Minister of Education and Sciences of the Russian Federation Mr. Dmitry Livanov, Vice-Minister of Education and Sciences Mr. Veniamin Kaganov, the Director of the International Department of the Russian MoES, IITE GB member Mr. Nikolay Toivonen and Head a.i. of the UNESCO IITE prof. Alexander Khoroshilov. The keyissue discussed was the collaboration of UNESCO and IITE UNESCO with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. Besides, Mr. Tang participated in the Round Table on cooperation in education and science between Russia and Europe, at the ceremony of awarding the best school students in the field of robot techniques, and delivered a presentation “SDG4-Education 2030: UNESCO as a Global Education Actor” at the special session. He also visited IITE exhibition booth and attended the official ceremony of signing the Partnership Agreement between IITE and SAP/CIS.
IITE’s external international expert Dr. Christian M. Stracke,Associate Professor for Open Education and Innovation from the Welten Institute – Research Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology of the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL) took part on Fair, and as a keynote speaker of MIEF-2016, presented his inspiring lecture on “Open Education: Policies, Methodologies and Practices”.