Under the title "Let's Programme Our Future," the 18th CARNet Users Conference – CUC 2016 – was held from November 9-11, 2016, at the Hotels Lone and Eden in Rovinj. The conference was organized by the Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNet and was held under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Croatia, Ms. Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, and the Ministry of Science and Education.
The conference was attended by over 980 participants, making it one of the largest CARNet Users Conferences to date. Additionally, content from the conference was partially accessible to those not attending in person via a video link on CARNet's Medusa portal.
During the conference, participants could connect by attending a comprehensive program made up of two keynote lectures, two panel discussions, 30 workshops, 48 active presentations, 22 paper presentations, and 14 presentations by sponsors. The conference offered special program units for participants of the E-schools project, which comprised 13 workshops and 3 project presentations, and a sys.trek unit of lectures intended for system engineers from CARNet member institutions, which consisted of 5 lecture units and three workshops.
The main conference program was divided into five thematic units: interactive learning and playful classes, open education, development of digitally mature schools, digital culture, and the impact of technology on the future of education.
This year's conference participants were given the opportunity to attend lectures by some of the most respected experts in the fields of information and communication technologies, education, and science. The conference was opened by an introductory plenary lecture titled "Technology Challenges for 21st Century Education," delivered by Bradley Tipp of Microsoft's World Wide Education Industry Group. In the lecture, he discussed the role of educational technology and trends that are changing how learning is delivered and received by teachers and students.
The second keynote lecture, delivered by the esteemed Croatian astronomer and educator from Višnjan in Istria, Mr. Korado Korlević, titled "STEM Education, How Early?", addressed trends in the development of key technologies that will characterize the 21st century, and the dilemmas surrounding how early to begin and what model to employ in teaching STEM subjects.
The first panel of the sys.trek unit discussed the topic "Women in ICT through Experience and Example". Since it is estimated that of the 7 million employed in the ICT sector worldwide, 30% are women, whereas of the appointed CARNet system engineers in CARNet member institutions, women make up less than 10%, the panel addressed the issue and reasons for this lack of women in ICT. The second panel, which closed the conference, discussed the topic "Let's Program Our Future – What Will Students, Teachers, Schools, and Learning Look Like in the Future?". Interesting panelists shared their vision of the education of the future and the role of students and teachers in it.
The CARNet Users Conference – CUC – is an integral part of the national project "e-Schools: Establishing a System for Developing Digitally Mature Schools (pilot project)", co-financed by the European Union from European structural and investment funds. The key challenge of the Croatian primary and secondary education system, from the perspective of the application of information and communication technologies (ICT), is to utilize the potential of ICT in the education system, through a systematic approach to the introduction of ICT in the educational and business processes of schools, and to produce recommendations for a strategy for the development of digitally mature schools. Therefore, the conference discussed the systematic approach to introducing ICT into the educational system by establishing a system for the development of digitally mature schools through a pilot program and an evaluation of the application of ICT in curricular and business processes in 101 schools in the Republic of Croatia. Numerous workshops were dedicated to STEM teachers and principals of primary and secondary schools involved in the project, and covered examples of good practice, strategic planning, the community of practitioners, digital competencies, and scientific research within the framework of the e-Schools project.
As a successor to the Webfestival competition, which had been organized alongside the conference for the past sixteen years, a new competition was organized this year titled "The Right Calibre for Knowledge." The competition involved teachers from primary and secondary schools in the Republic of Croatia, who prepared digital course materials using the CARNet tool Libar on the subject "Use of Information and Communication Technologies" and encouraged excellence in the preparation of digital course materials. 43 digital course materials were submitted, and 33 of them met all the competition's conditions. Branka Pastuović from Brodarica primary school won first prize for her digital course material entitled "Days of the Open Mind – DOS for Pupils in Grades One to Four" and received a laptop.
The International Programme Committee selected the paper "Can free games on tablets encourage pupils to learn multiplication and division worksheets?" by Sanja Loparić from the Čakovec Technical School as the best paper of the conference. Sanja won a STEMI hexapod robot.
The award for the most regular participant of the entire conference, for which all those who attended 75% of the conference lectures were eligible, was won by Marko Vucelja from the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Zagreb. Marko received an Iskon.Smarthome innovative remote home management system.
Paola Gović from Juraj Šižgorić Primary School in Šibenik received an acknowledgment from the teachers' council for properly completing the conference survey and attending the lectures, receiving a gift package from CARNet.
Once again, the conference, organized as part of SYS.trek, included a competition for system engineers attending the conference. Participants were tasked with solving a multi-step problem, which was successfully completed by Marko Meštrović, a system engineer at the Polytechnic in Knin.
The official language of the conference was Croatian, and lectures by foreign lecturers were held in English. You can find more information about the conference on the conference's official website and on its social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter under the hashtag #CARNetCUC.