Under discussion were plans for two core activities to strengthen the collaborative value of EUN. First, the launch of a public version of the Learning Resource Exchange for Schools (LRE) that is being developed in the CALIBRATE and MELT projects. The LRE is being offered as a service to all EUN Ministries and the meeting represented the start of discussions related to the long-term sustainability of this initiative. Expectations about the LRE are already high as indicated in the recent Open Educational Practices and Resources report which suggested that “The most important Europe-wide (and potential global) player in e-learning content may become the European SchoolNet (EUN) through their European Learning Resource Exchange which is currently under development.” (.OLCOS Roadmap 2012, January 2007).

The second activity concerns mechanisms to exchange and analyse practices in schools. Participants agreed that evidence is missing about what is actually going on in Europe’s schools as regards the effective implementation of policy. They discussed whether the development of an EUN observatory – an Insight for practice, a peer exchange of practices and incubator of school transformation – would  be of interest to education ministries and schools. Work would be in partnership with ministries and industry, adding European value to existing national and international activities in this area.

At the meeting the EUN Office presented other documents including a report on progress with new members wishing to join the EUN Consortium and the new-style EUN Annual Report 2006 which presents the main activities, events, publications and projects of European Schoolnet in 2006. Included in the 2006 report are key data for each of the 28 members of the EUN Consortium, to give members an overview of national involvement in projects, competitions, activities for schools, meetings and events and how they compare with each other.

The next meeting of the Steering Committee is in Brussels on Thursday 14th June 2007.