María Acaso has over twenty years of experience working on education issues. Since the beginning of her training at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid she has been convinced that the current education system is outdated and in need of an urgent change of paradigm. Her main interest is to promote this change of paradigm in the teaching community. In order to achieve this goal Professor Acaso proposes five action points that will transform education, and the leading idea that in the 21st century education will not be about What (content) but How (methodologies). For this reason all her activities (teaching, research, lectures, publishing) aim to provide teachers with the confidence and passion to position this change of paradigm at the very center of their teaching practice. María Acaso has been invited to lecture and research at some of the most prestigious institutions for education such as Universidad Autónoma de México, New York University, Colby College, The Bergen National Academy of The Arts, The New School of Social Research, The School of the Arts Institute of Chicago, Harvard University, Stanford University, Museo de la Memoria (Chile), MOMA (NY), la 9 Bienal de Mercosur (Brasil), Museo de Antioquia y Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín (Colombia), Culturgest (Lisboa), and the Getty Museum. She is the author of a number of books, most recently of “rEDUvolution: hacer la revolución en la educación” (Paidos, 2013) that are an inspiration for teachers. Her blog mariaacaso.es is internationaly known for her contributions to disruptive education and art education.

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Jim Ayre is a Senior Adviser to European Schoolnet, the network of 30 Ministries of Education in Europe. He has a background in educational technology and multimedia in the UK and has supplied consultancy, research and evaluation services to the European Commission since 1994. He is also Managing Director of Multimedia Ventures Europe Ltd. which has been providing consultancy services to ICT hardware, software and services companies since 1991. At European Schoolnet he is currently providing support to education ministries in the Interactive ClassroomWorking Group and helping to steer the development of its Future Classroom Lab.

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Diana Bannister is the Assistant Director for Pedagogic Partnerships and Head of Postgraduate Taught provision in the Institute of Education, University of Wolverhampton. She started her career as a primary teacher and deputy headteacher, but then moved in 2001 to the University to lead projects on technology, school improvement and mainstreaming change. In 2009 she began working with schools across Europe, helping teachers to make effective use of technology to support learning and teaching. Diana has led strategic development and research with numerous Ministries of Education understanding the challenges of implementing technologies to support school improvement. She regularly leads professional development sessions with school leaders and teachers exploring strategies for school development, collaboration and pedagogical change. Diana has worked with and visited schools in over 30 countries observing and documenting practice understanding how to mainstream change in schools. Recent European project work includes Living Schools Lab and Creative Classrooms Lab. Diana is also Head of Postgraduate Taught Provision recognising the benefits to continuing engagement and further research to improve and develop professional practice.

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He has directed for several years the ANSAS (National Agency for the Development of School Autonomy), the former Indire (National Institute for the Development of Innovation and Research in Education) until recent time. He has also planned and developed a very large program for in service teacher training using an e-learning platform designed and performed by Indire in 2001. Appointed as a professor in several Italian universities, Mr Biondi has also taught abroad in foreign universities. He has collaborated with numerous research institutes worldwide, such as ETS (USA) and UNESCO, and since 1985 he has also been involved in several international collaborative projects. He has developed as well experimental programmes such as those in automation, based on cd/isis software (UNESCO), while carrying out educational activities for international organizations (FAO) Giovanni Biondi has also an extensive experience in the management of European programmes and projects. In 1985 he became head of the Italian Eurydice Unit; in 1995 he was appointed as director of the Italian Socrates Agency and in 1996 he was among the founders of European Schoolnet.
In 2009, Mr Biondi became Head of Department for the Planning and the Human, Financial and Instrumental Resources in the Italian Ministry of Education and organized the Italian plan for digital innovation in education. From 2009 to 2013 he has been Head of Department for Planning at the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research.
From June of 2013 he holds the position of President of Indire (National Research Institute) and Chair of European Schoolnet.

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An engineer, he is director of the Technology Area and head of Information Systems for Indire. He is a contact person for Indire's research into Scholastic Architecture, which is thoroughly analysing the relationship between spaces (that they provide an adequate level of functionality, comfort and wellbeing to be able to realize a school's many activities), learning times (that they satisfy current educational needs) and its transformation due to the introduction of new kinds of technology.

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An architect and urban planner, since 2005 she has been a Council Member of the Association of Architects, Planners, Landscapers and Conservationists of Rome and Province, and Department Head for the “Sustainability and Energy Efficiency Project” of the same association.
She is the author of numerous publications on urban planning, building, landscaping-environment issues, as well as environmental sustainability and energy efficiency. She has worked as a scientific curator and has taught at many corporations, institutions and authorities on issues to do with environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, urban planning, building and environmental assessment.

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Professor Harry Daniels is Professor of Education at Oxford University. He has directed more than 40 research projects funded by ESRC, various central and local government sources, The Lottery, The Nuffield Foundation and the EU. His extensive publications include a series of internationally acclaimed books in socio-cultural psychology. His current research projects concern children who go missing from school and the implications of new school design for children's experience of schooling. Two completed major studies: “Learning in and for interagency working: Multiagency work in Northern Ireland ESRC TLRP” and “Learning in and for Interagency Working ESRC TLRP”, were both rated 'Outstanding’. Follow up work led to significant impact in practitioner/policy making bodies funded by a consortium of The Local Government Association, IdEA and Local Authorities Research Council Initiative. He is: Adjunct Professor, Centre for Learning Research, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia; Research Professor, Centre for Human Activity Theory, Kansai University, Osaka, Japan, and Research Professor in Cultural Historical Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education.

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Prof. Peter Hübner (born 1939) is the architect and pioneer of a new “pedagogical architecture”. As a critic of barrack-type learning spaces and an eloquent lateral thinker, his innovative thinking is behind the realisation of innumerable schools, youth clubs and preschools, and he is simultaneously intensively concerned with the features of the “schools of the future”. Between 1975 and 2007, he was the head of the Institut für Baukonstruktion und Entwerfen (Institute for Building Construction and Design) at the University of Stuttgart in Germany. In 1980 he founded the Plus+ bauplanung GmbH office in Neckartenzlingen near Stuttgart.

Jannie Jeppesen has an extensive experience as a consultant of digital competence and pedagogy development methods in Swedish schools and municipalities. She has given lectures at numerous international conferences. She was also the principal of the Vittra Telefonplan school – a school that was in the foreground of employing digital education methods and an innovative learning environment – for which she was awarded the "Innovative Prinicipal 2012" title. Jannie Jeppensen is leading the Swedish part of an Erasmus+ project, EduSpaces on digital and physical learning environments.

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Wesley Imms is an Associate Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia. His background includes teaching art and design education in primary and secondary schools in that country and Canada, and in recent years being heavily involved in teacher training at the Masters and PhD level. His research explores the overlap of quality school design and teacher practice. He is lead Chief Investigator on two current Australian Research Council Linkage projects. The first, focusing on evaluating 21st century learning spaces, examines methods of constructing evidence from sound teacher-led evaluation in order to advance the quality of education in modern learning spaces. The second, a four-year multimillion dollar study involving education departments in Australia and New Zealand as well as 15 national and overseas industry partner organisations, focuses exclusively on teaching practices in innovative learning environments. A/Prof Imms holds many teaching and research awards from his institution, and is currently primary supervisor to more than 20 national and international PhD studies into learning environment design and use.

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As former Head Architect for Administration and Development of the Helsinki City Education Department, Kaisa Nuikkinen has developed school buildings which strive to function more effectively and to anticipate the demands of the future. These school buildings are designed to be econmically viable and provide the highest quality of architecture. As part of the “Quality School Program” of the City of Helsinki, she has played a key role in the construction of over 50 new school buildings from 1994 to 2015. To share her experiences with others, Kaisa Nuikkinen wrote the book “Terveellinen ja turvallinen koulurakennus” (2005) by commission of the National Board of Education in Finland. It was translated into Swedish in 2005 with the title “En sund och trygg skolbyggnad“ (A sound and secure school building).
The name of her doctoral thesis (2009) is “Koulurakennus ja hyvinvointi. Teoriaa ja käytännön kokemuksia peruskouluarkkitehtuurista” (”School Building and Well-being. Theory and experiencies of comprehensive school architecture”). The aim of the study was to find out the connection between a school building and the well-being of the pupils and the staff and create instructions for designing learning environments supporting well-being. The phenomenon to be studied was the experienced well-being produced by the learning environment.
She has also an article “Learning Spaces: How They Meet Evolving Educational Needs” on the book conceived in conjunction with “The Best School in the World” exhibition at the Museum of Finnish Architecture 2011.

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José Francisco de Almeida Pacheco is a Portuguese educator who pioneered a school called Escola da Ponte, in Vila das Aves, Portugal. Pacheco was the principal of Escola da Ponte since 1976. The school has international prestige for its innovation and good inclusive practices. Under his direction, the School broke with the teaching methods imposed on students and teachers. Abolished series, events, classrooms, subjects to make learning autonomy and make the study have felt for children and young people. The success of the school inspired other projects, mainly international. In Brazil Pacheco is one of the co-creators of the Ancora Project School which challenges the traditional concept of education and the world’s prevalent standard model of schooling following an “educational philosophy which proposes that self-knowledge and experience are the key tools for learning. Pacheco promotes several innovative school projects and is the author of several books and articles on innovative Educational practice.

Ex dirigente scolastico della Escola da Ponte in Portogallo, ha rivoluzionato il concetto di ambiente di apprendimento per realizzare una scuola in grado di rispondere efficacemente alle sfide della società. Pacheco è stato chiamato in Brasile per promuovere le sue idee su vasta scala.

Drawing on 26 years' experience as a teacher and member of the school management board of the Schule Schloss Salem, in 2001 Dr. Otto Seydel (born in Potsdam in 1945) founded the Institute for School Development in Überlingen. This institute played a key role in the creation of the German School Prize of the Robert Bosch Foundation (Stuttgart) and was appointed by Land Bremen to manage external school inspection. Since 2010, the Institute's activities have concentrated on school construction issues. Dr Seydel is also a member of a group of experts on “Planning and Building Schools” at the Montag Foundation (Bonn), and a research group “City Space Formation” of the Universities of Heidelberg and Stuttgart. His work chiefly focuses on consultancy for those schools and school leaders in Germany and abroad who wish to construct or renovate a school building.

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