During the 18th ASEFClassNet School Collaboration Conference, held from 6 to 10 October in Maribor, Slovenia, the Open Education for a Better World (OE4BW) programme took centre stage — not only as a partner but as a catalyst for shaping the future of ethical, inclusive, and accessible AI in education.
In parallel to the conference, the annual OE4BW Strategic Meeting brought together programme coordinators (Mitja Jermol, Anja Polajnar), hub coordinators (Ervin Pfeifer, Savita Sharma, Subha Das Mollick, Rekha Chavhan, Fawzi Baroud) and experts in open education (Tel Amiel, Mitja Jermol) to discuss the programme’s future plans. The meeting focused on how open education and AI can jointly advance SDG 4 (Quality Education) through ethical innovation, teacher empowerment, and global collaboration.
“We need to treat AI like a microscope and telescope, while it can enlarge patterns, you must still learn to see.” Mitja Jermol, OE4BW Programme Leader and UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for OER and Open Learning
During the OE4BW Strategic Meeting, participants developed a business canvas highlighting improvements to the evaluation process for developer’s proposals, with a focus on quality over quantity. The discussion also covered the creation of a shared OER platform for OE4BW and the need to establish clearer programme guidelines to ensure consistency across all hubs.
Alongside the meeting, OE4BW Programme Coordinator Anja Polajnar coordinated sessions on open education and OERs together with Ervin Pfeifer, emphasizing that ethical AI integration must build on open and accessible foundations.
The conference, co-organized by the Asia-Europe Foundation, IRCAI, OE4BW, and the Institute of Anton Martin Slomšek (ZAMS), provided a platform for in-person collaboration, knowledge exchange, peer learning, and the presentation of results from the ASEFClassNet18 Innovative Teaching Practices (ITPs). Teachers from Asia and Europe shared how they are integrating AI in classrooms ethically, inclusively, and creatively, supported by OE4BW’s open learning principles.
Open educational resources offer a path to equity, transparency, and shared progress in education, as UNESCO Chairs in Open Education argue in this recent article. Building on these principles, OE4BW reaffirmed that OER, open practices, and open governance are crucial to ensuring that AI in education serves teachers and learners, not markets. By promoting openness, the programme helps communities co-create, examine, and adapt educational content and technologies to their local contexts.
“Openness allows teachers and students to become co-creators of content and technology, not passive consumers of pre-packaged tools.” Tel Amiel, UNESCO Chair in Open Education and Technologies for the Common Good
The collaboration between OE4BW and ASEF reflects a shared vision: open education is the foundation for an ethical and human-centric digital future. At ASEFClassNet18, OE4BW played an essential role in linking open educational practices with AI-enabled pedagogy, demonstrating how open resources and collaborative models can support schools worldwide.
As OE4BW prepares for its next annual Eduscope and programme cycle, it aims to deepen its partnerships with networks such as ASEFClassNet. The focus will be on developing open educational resources that support AI literacy, critical pedagogy, and teacher-led innovation, ensuring no learner or educator is left behind in the digital transformation.
The Maribor meeting underscored a key conclusion: the future of education depends not on algorithms, but on openness, collaboration, and shared ethical responsibility.
Learn more about the ASEFClassNet18 School Collaboration Conference on its official website.
Photo credits Videolectures.net
