2026 Plenary conferences programme

Rethinking the grammar of schooling in the face of technological, ecological, and societal acceleration

Everything is accelerating: technology, behaviors, and the climate. Schools are changing too: hybrid learning, outdoor education, and community-based projects are already disrupting the traditional framework of a single place, time, and group. AI accelerates this shift even further by making knowledge accessible anytime, anywhere.

However, AI is distinct in its disembodied nature, lacking a direct connection to the tangible world. Paradoxically, a school confined to four walls risks mimicking this very detachment. What if what sets the school of tomorrow apart is precisely its grounding in reality?

So, should we tear down the walls, rethink schedules, and reinvent teaching methods? Which approaches actually deliver on their promise, and which ones are mere narrative?

Questioning the purpose of education at a time when part of our capabilities can be delegated to AI.

The question is not what AI is, nor even how to use it in the classroom. It is more unsettling: what needs to be learned, now that it is here?

Reading, writing, arithmetic: none of this is going away. But what if the core focus shifted? Navigating an uncertain world, collaborating, leading a project, showing resourcefulness, creating, and retaining agency over our own thinking. AI also challenges our definition of what it means to be "competent": what does it mean to know how to do something when part of the work can be offloaded?

So, what should we learn to do with AI, and continue knowing how to do without it? Should we merely tweak the edges of schooling, or fundamentally rethink what it transmits and evaluates?

Join Apple for a panel discussion on Thursday, December 3, 2026, at 2:00 p.m., bringing together representatives from the City of Marseille, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, the DRANE of the Aix-Marseille education authority, and AFINEF.

Drawing on their experiences and practical initiatives, the speakers will share how STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), supported in particular by the Apple ecosystem and the wider education community, helps develop creativity, computational thinking, and problem-solving skills from an early age.

The discussion will also highlight the essential role of collaboration between local authorities and the national education system in supporting teachers and encouraging all students, particularly more girls, to engage with science, helping ensure equal opportunities for every student to succeed.

 Examining the conditions that will enable AI and digital education to deliver on their promise.

Digital education has long held the promise of making education more accessible, personalised and inclusive. With AI, new possibilities are opening up: translation into simple language, audio description and enhanced cognitive accessibility. For pupils with special educational needs, the potential is very real.

However, in practice, disparities persist: from one school, one family or one teacher to another, the same tools are not used, nor are they used in the same way, nor is there a shared understanding of how they work.

So, under what conditions can AI help to bridge these gaps rather than widen them? How can we choose tools that genuinely benefit everyone, without losing control of them?

Striking a balance between budget, technology and teaching.

Screens, tablets, robots, licences, generative AI: technology has never changed so quickly, and budgets have never been so tight. In schools, technological choices must be made with the best interests of teachers, pupils and teaching in mind. Before buying, we need to know why. What kind of teaching practice does a piece of equipment actually make possible?

So, how do we distinguish the essential from the superfluous, useful innovation from a passing fad? And how do we decide on, fund and maintain equipment today that will need to remain relevant tomorrow?