The incredible pace of technological development in recent years has affected all aspects of our daily lives. This pervasiveness can lead to a sense of inevitability and powerlessness over processes often perceived as too complex to grasp. In this panel, we will discuss how educators, learners - citizens, can retrieve agency and become protagonists, rather than mere spectators of these changes.

Thanks to a diverse ranges of speakers, we will explore different contexts, from rural areas to community centres, from workplaces to urban public spaces. We will learn about strategies, tools and policies to ensure that high-quality digital education for all becomes a reality

How can we navigate and, most importantly, shape change? How can seemingly complex processes be made accessible and understandable for everyone? How does artificial intelligence fit into the equation?

Join this panel to explore these many questions - and come with your own!

Michael Horgan is a policy officer and team leader for Skills for the twin transition in DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. Within the unit for Vocational Education and Training, he mainly works on digital skills, both in the context of the Skills Agenda and other key European Commission initiatives and tools, such as the Digital Education Action Plan, Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, the Digital Europe Programme and the Digital Competence Framework. This includes work on supporting qualitative and effective digitalisation of VET and provision of digital skills in VET. 

Safa Ghnaim is an educator with almost 20 years experience in instructional design, curriculum development and adult education. During the last two decades, Safa has worked in various public and private spaces developing engaging and participatory sessions that meet learners where they’re at and speak to topics they are curious about within the frame of digital and media literacy. Safa uses storytelling and incorporates activities to deepen learning and enhance key takeaways. 

Gema Parrado León has been a team and project manager at AUPEX since 2019, focusing on content creation, training design, digital dissemination, European projects and Erasmus programmes. She is also involved in different studies and initiatives related to EDSC and DigComp Framework. She previously spent 13 years as a digital facilitator in rural areas, training individuals in digital technologies and non-formal adult education to boost employability. 

Joe Litobarski has worked in Brussels on the EU digital-green transition for over a decade. He is currently retraining as an academic historian in the history of public cybernetics at Maastricht University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS). His research is on the history of e-democracy, e-participation, and e-governance from the 1960s to the 1990s with a particular focus on the institutionalisation of these concepts in the EU.