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Keynote speakers

Manuela Milani

University of Brescia, Italy

 

Manuela Milani is currently advising on the creation of the Teaching and Learning Centre at the University of Brescia (Italy) and supporting innovation and the enhancement of teaching practices at Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic). She previously worked as an Academic Developer at the University of Milan. For over 20 years, she has been involved in faculty development in higher education, contributing to several European projects aimed at sharing tools and methods for professional growth. In recent years, she has designed and led numerous training initiatives for university teachers, with a particular focus on fostering reflective skills. She has published several articles on the use of cultural differences in teaching, on teaching observation, and on faculty development design.

 

Keynote speech: Designing for Whom? Motivational Diversity, Needs Analysis, and Training the Trainers First

Digital fluency initiatives are often designed for an imagined average learner. Yet digital fluency is not a fixed target — its meaning and relevance shift considerably depending on who the learner is and what their context demands. The populations targeted — teachers, practitioners, NGO workers, women re-entering education or the workforce, and displaced individuals — are motivationally heterogeneous, yet this diversity is rarely captured in needs analysis processes, which tend to focus on skills gaps while systematically underweighting motivational profiles.

This matters because motivation is not a soft variable — it is a design variable that shapes both the entry point and the expected outcome. When motivation is intercepted early, it becomes possible to identify which components of digital fluency are truly relevant for a given learner — and to build from there. Once those components are acquired, they can trigger a virtuous cycle of further learning. Ignored, motivation leaves the process sterile, and the full architecture of digital fluency remains out of reach.

The root cause lies one step further upstream. Trainers and instructional designers are themselves rarely prepared to conduct motivationally-informed needs analysis. They inherit frameworks that treat motivation as a given, rather than as the starting point of any meaningful design process.

This session proposes a reorientation: needs analysis frameworks that explicitly incorporate motivational mapping, and trainer preparation programs that equip educators to use them. Building genuinely inclusive digital fluency for youth, women, and displaced communities alike requires, first and foremost, training the trainers to ask better questions.

Zoltán Loboda

Educational consultant, Educational Development Ltd., Hungary

 

 He is a senior expert and consultatnt in education policy, digital transformation and strategic planning, with more than two decades of experience in national and European contexts. He currently works as a professional lead and consultant for large-scale digital competence development projects in Hungary, supporting strategic design and implementation aligned with the European DigComp framework.
As a former head of the Digital Competence Division at the Digital Success Nonprofit Ltd., he took aprt in the implementation of Hungary’s digital education strategies. His policy work included developing digital maturity assessment tools, supporting institutional digitalisation, and contributing to the creation of a national-level framework and quality assurance systems for digital competence development.
He has played a expert role in various Erasmus+ and other international projects, From 2012 to 2017, he led the International Department of the Hungarian Educational Authority, coordinating national qualifications framework and lifelong learning strategies. Earlier, he held senior positions at the Ministry of Education, directing EU affairs and representing Hungary in education-related international organisations. He was a member of the OECD Education Policy Committee and in the EU Education Committee for several years. As Chair of the ASEM Lifelong Learning Hub Advisory Board, he contributed to interregional policy dialogue on lifelong learning. He chaired the EU Education Committee during Hungary’s 2011 presidency.
Beyond policy development, he has been actively engaged in professional training, delivering EU policy and strategic planning courses for public officials, educators, and higher education stakeholders.
He holds a degree in history and literature, as well as postgraduate studies in sociology. In 2015, he received the Ágoston Trefort Award in recognition of his contributions to higher education development.
 
Keynote speech:  Can AI Buy Equity? Unlocking the promise of reframing inclusion through personalised learning and lifelong learning pathways in a new learning ecosystem.
The narrative of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education and learning holds the potential to reshape the promises of equity by enhancing personalisation, efficiency, and effectiveness of learning process. The keynote explores what is needed to unlock this promise, particularly for youth, women, and other structurally disadvantaged groups.
The presentation begins with a critical review of current AI narratives in education, which often present AI as a solution for optimizing learning. However, such discourses tend to overlook the complexity of inclusion. It is not merely about access or digital infrastructure, but about learners‘ dispositions, competences, empowerment, learning recognition and participation  fully in digital learning ecosystems. These dimensions interact with labour market opportunities to produce positive inclusive impact.
Reframing inclusion involves a shift towards systemic change that recognises the interdependence of tools, actors and structures. Using key EU policy frameworks, guidelines, and strategic opportunity windows, the keynote offers an evidence-based, policy-informed perspective on how AI can support inclusive learning. It presents selected tools, frameworks, and guidance that support more relevant, responsive, and relational learning.
Special attention is given to how micro-credentials, digital recognition, and blockchain technologies can support lifelong learning pathways. These systems enable flexible and modular learning journeys across different contexts, provided they are supported by trust frameworks and quality standards.
The keynote concludes by outlining the contours of a new learning ecosystem, shaped by new actors (edtech providers, AI developers, credentialing bodies), evolving roles traditional players, and networks of interdependence. In such an ecosystem, equity is not a by-product of innovation but its deliberate and measurable goal. AI alone cannot ‘buy’ equity — but when used thoughtfully, it can help build inclusive, flexible, and fair learning systems that meet the needs of diverse learners.