The OEB Plenary Debate

Allan Päll is the Secretary General of the European Youth Forum and an advocate for youth rights. The Youth Forum is the representative body for youth organisations in Europe. He studied politics in University of Tartu and led student unions in Estonia and at European level (European Students’ Union), advocating for student voices to be included in educational policy. His keen interest has been to promote a student-centred education with a strong focus on social inclusion and to promote youth participation in society and politics.

Links

http://www.youthforum.org/

Miles is principal lecturer in Computing Education at the University of Roehampton. Prior to joining Roehampton, he spent 18 years in four schools, much of the time as an ICT coordinator and most recently as a head teacher. His research interests include the pedagogies of computer science education and informal learning. He is a former chair of Naace, the UK ICT subject association, and continues to serve on its board of management and is a member the management board of Computing At School and the UK Forum for Computing Education. He is a fellow of the BCS, RSA and HEA.

Over the years he has contributed to a number of computing related projects including: CAS's computer science curriculum, the national curriculum computing programmes of study, the CAS / Naace guide to the computing curriculum for primary teachers, training of CAS Master Teachers, the BETT and ERA Award winning Rising Stars Switched on Computing, Barefoot Computing, Code Club Pro's training materials, QuickStart Computing and resources for the BBC and Microsoft.

He gives regular keynotes and CPD workshops on computing and education technology in the UK and abroad and has worked on a number of international consultancy projects involving curriculum development and CPD.

Links

http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/staff/Miles…

An MP at 25, and a Business Minister in the Coalition Government of 2010-2015 aged 32, Jo Swinson wasted no time in shaking up the political establishment. Her passion for improving the world of work saw her battle to extend flexible working, and introduce landmark legislation to allow couples to choose how to share parental leave. Jo recognises the complexity of the productivity challenge in the UK, and she continues to work with business leaders to promote employee engagement, employee ownership, and workplace wellbeing.

For almost a decade, Jo has been a thought-leader in the field of wellbeing and public policy. She was a leading voice in the successful campaign to measure the country’s wellbeing alongside the GDP figures. A digital pioneer, Jo was one of the first MPs to use Twitter and served as Vice Chair of the Prime Minister’s Digital Taskforce.  Now a Director of award-winning data intelligence company Clear Returns, Jo speaks with authority (and without jargon) about the challenges and opportunities of the digital age.

An inspiring role model for young women, Jo secured Government support for gender pay transparency in large companies.  She highlighted the problem of body image pressure affecting young people, especially girls, and co-founded the Campaign for Body Confidence, working with the fashion, media and advertising industries to drive change. Jo was one of the first Government Ministers to have a baby and take maternity leave while in office. Jo’s husband, Duncan Hames, made history as the first MP to carry a baby (their son Andrew) through the voting lobby of the House of Commons.

A champion for consumers, Jo led a crackdown on unscrupulous payday lenders and introduced new powers to tackle rogue traders. She is the architect of the Consumer Rights Act which for the first time gives consumers protection when buying digital content.

For 10 years the MP for East Dunbartonshire in the west of Scotland, Jo was one of the key voices advocating for Scotland staying in the UK at the independence referendum. Combined with her experience at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, she is well placed to talk about the future uncertainties of the EU referendum, possible Brexit and a second Scottish referendum. When she’s not working, you can find Jo running (she finished the 2011 London Marathon in under 4 hours) or hiking up a mountain in her native Scotland.

Jo’s work has taken her from the dusty heat of Sierra Leone to the ice caves of Svalbard, from investigating human rights abuses in Chechnya to training women MPs in Iraq. She has spoken at the United Nations and the OECD, and appeared on programmes as varied as Question Time and Blue Peter.

Jo’s earliest forays into politics was in the Debating Society at Douglas Academy in Milngavie, but leading her school Young Enterprise company to the Scottish finals gave Jo a taste for business and she gained a First Class degree in Management from the London School of Economics. 

Marketing roles followed at Yorkshire radio station Viking FM and fast-growing media company Space and People, before the lure of politics saw Jo elected as the Lib Dem MP for her home seat of East Dunbartonshire in 2005, becoming the “Baby of the House”.

Pedro De Bruyckere is an educational scientist in Ghent  in Belgium since 2001. He co-wrote 2 books with Bert Smits in which they debunk popular myths on GenY and GenZ, their latest entitled “Ik Was 10 in 2015” (“I was 10 in 2015”). He’s a blogger, a self-proclaimed addict to education and pop culture and one of his strongest points is that he is funny in explaining serious stuff.

Links

http://www.arteveldehs.behttp://www.pixel-online.net/edu_future/…

Dr Harold Elletson is an international communications and public affairs consultant. He is also the Director of The New Security Foundation, which conducts research into the implications of the new security environment for civil society. The New Security Foundation provides an international forum for dialogue between the public and private sectors and offers analytical insight and information about new security conditions. The Foundation hosts the Security and Defence Learning track at OEB, as well as organising other conferences and seminars. A particular area of expertise is tourism security and the connection between culture and security.

He is a founding director of the Africa Forum on Business, Investment and Security, a member of the steering committee of OEB, a member of the Organising Committee of eLearning Africa and a consultant to ICWE GmbH. He is also the editor of The eLearning Africa Report, which is published every year and contains a survey of ICT in education in Africa, a comprehensive country report outlining progress in ICT4E in every African country and a funding guide.

Dr Elletson was previously Director of the NATO Forum on Business and Security, which he created with support from the NATO Science Programme.

A former Member of the United Kingdom Parliament (from 1992-1997), he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the early stages of the peace process and was also a member of the Select Committee on Environmental affairs. He served as a member of the Lancashire Education Authority (the Education Committee of Lancashire County Council) before being elected to Parliament where he represented the interests of schools and colleges in his constituency in discussions with Ministers and on the floor of the House of Commons. He is a Fellow of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme and of the Industry and Parliament Trust.

As a communications and public affairs specialist, he has advised many leading companies on aspects of their business in challenging markets, including BP in Azerbaijan and Alstom in Siberia. He has written widely on political and historical subjects and his first book, The General Against the Kremlin, was published by Little Brown. His journalism has been published in a variety of newspapers and magazines. Dr Elletson holds a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Bradford.