It’s January and time for the annual Education World Forum (EWF, Monday January 21), with its influential audience of ministers of education from across the world, that heralds a ‘BETT Week’ that attracts more than 30,000 visitors to London to find out how the latest technologies can support learning and teaching.

Although the debate takes place in London in front of an audience of international ministers of education and their colleagues, it is live-streamed directly on to the internet, where it can be viewed by anyone with an internet connection. They can contribute to the debate and ask questions via Twitter, using the hashtags #EFF20 and #TrendsShapingEducation.

EFF20 will be chaired by EWF programme director and EFF co-founder Gavin Dykes, and the panel will also include the Minister of Education from Ghana, Hon. Dr Matthew Prempeh, LSE professor and internet safety campaigner Sonia Livingstone, and UNESCO’s assistant director-general for education Stefania Giannini.

The other EFF co-founder, Jim Wynn, said that he had seen a lot of “Vision 2020” education strategies drawn up by governments and other organisations in the past, and was excited to get insights into what was really happening in schools. “So with perfect timing the OECD has produced a document to be launched at our EFF20 that looks at ‘Trends Shaping Education’. A lot has changed since people drew up their Vision 2020 plans. More people are globally mobile and some schools have to cope with many more students with different languages and cultures than ever before.”

“While digitisation is having a profound impact on both the curriculum and assessment, there are still many parts of the world where the internet is still a dream.  Where access is now possible entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the opportunities, but are schools able or even willing to develop relevant skills in their students?  With climate change a given, are the behaviours of teachers and students being challenged so that they can, one action at a time, mitigate the causes of climate change and know they can make a difference?”

“I’m really looking forward to EFF20 and seeing how education ministers respond to some of these challenges and, hopefully, hear about the action that some have already taken in places like Egypt, where the MoE is working with the World Bank and Teachers First to build a Climate Change Behavioural Framework that will encourage teachers to take action and change their behaviours.”

You can watch the livestream here, and take part in the debate on Twitter using the hashtags #EFF20 and #TrendsShapingEducation to make your comments and ask questions of the panel.