by:Jenny Méité on: December 17, 2025Some conferences you attend to discover. Others, to take stock.
OEB 2025 clearly belonged to the second category. With this being my fourth time at Online Educa Berlin, and UbiCast’s eleventh, the 31st edition felt like an opportunity to step back and reflect : on our practices, our tools, and above all, on our shared responsibility as part of a rapidly evolving learning ecosystem in the age of AI.
From 3 to 5 December 2025, Berlin once again hosted Online Educa Berlin (OEB), bringing together over 2,000 participants from more than 70 countries. This diversity was reflected in the annual ranking of participant origins shared during the opening plenary: Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, South Africa and the USA were the most represented countries this year.
Opening plenary: learning in 2026
As every year, the conference opened with an interactive plenary led by Donald H. Taylor. The traditional audience poll once again revolved around the same question:
“What comes to mind when thinking about learning in 2026?”
Before revealing the results, participants were invited to briefly exchange ideas with their neighbours. This simple interaction proved surprisingly powerful. My neighbour, visiting from the USA, described the future of learning as chaotic, while I suggested challenging.
When the audience votes were revealed, three dominant themes stood out: Ownership, Balance and AI.
Together, they outlined a future in which learners are expected to take greater responsibility, organisations must actively seek equilibrium between technology and human agency, and AI is now firmly established as a structural, rather than peripheral, component of learning ecosystems.
A theme shaped by collective reflection
The overarching theme of OEB 2025, “Humanity in the Intelligent Age: Empathy, Responsibility, and the Duty of Care”, was directly inspired by last year’s poll, which highlighted the values of Humanity, Hard Work, and a Sense of Togetherness.
This year’s focus felt like a natural evolution: a shift from intention to responsibility, and from awareness to action. Across keynotes, panels and workshops, one central question kept resurfacing:
How do we ensure that technological progress strengthens, rather than erodes, what makes learning deeply human?
Three keynotes, three complementary perspectives
Andrew Maynard : AI & the Art of Being Human
Andrew Maynard opened the keynote series with a thought-provoking exploration of the relationship between AI and human cognition. He challenged the audience with a central question: Is AI a cognitive Trojan horse : something that feels like a gift, perhaps too good to be true?
He described AI as a mirror to our minds, reflecting both intelligence and bias. While its potential is undeniable, he warned of a growing risk: switching off critical thinking by systematically outsourcing reasoning and decision-making to machines.
His conclusion was both clear and pragmatic: AI should be embraced, but used with care. The real challenge is not adoption, but staying intellectually active while doing so.
Neil Selwyn : Building an EdTech Based on Values (Rather than Vibes)
Neil Selwyn delivered a necessary reality check for the EdTech sector. Too often, educational technologies are driven by trends or hype, rather than by clearly articulated values. We need to collectively define the values that should guide our work, acknowledge the ways current EdTech can unintentionally reinforce inequality or harm the most marginalized, and ensure that future EdTech benefits everyone : respecting people, the planet, and the public interest. Better EdTech is possible, but it requires deliberate effort and hard work.
Maja Göpel : Transformability
Maja Göpel’s keynote was, for many, including myself, the most impactful. She introduced the concept of transformability, defined as: “The capacity to create untried beginnings from which to evolve a fundamentally new way of living when existing ecological, economic, and social systems reach their limits.”
She reminded us that humanity is, at its core, a cooperative biological species. Our success has always depended on collaboration, shared responsibility and care. In a world increasingly shaped by AI, she warned against narratives focused on replacing humans, stressing instead that humans are already here, and essential.
Maja emphasised the importance of learning, unlearning and relearning, not only in terms of skills and knowledge, but also attitudes, values and vision. She cautioned against the “winner-takes-all” logic driving many technological races, describing it as a spiral of powerlessness that risks pushing us beyond critical tipping points.
Her conclusion was a powerful call to action: move from “I” to “we”. Collective empowerment, rather than individual optimisation, is the only sustainable path forward.
Beyond the keynotes: signals from the conference floor
Across the programme, several recurring themes clearly emerged:
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the ethical integration of AI into learning environments,
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learner and educator well-being,
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the preservation of critical thinking in an age of automation,
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lifelong learning as a shared societal responsibility,
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and leadership grounded in empathy and care.
OEB 2025 did not aim to provide ready-made answers. Instead, it created space for meaningful conversations ; conversations that acknowledge complexity rather than attempting to simplify it.
From conference insights to shared responsibility
Taken together, these perspectives shaped the overall tone of OEB 2025. The message was consistent: learning technologies are not neutral tools. They reflect choices, priorities and values, and therefore carry responsibility.
Closing reflections
OEB 2025 served as a timely reminder that educational innovation must remain anchored in human values. This perspective strongly resonates with what we strive for at UbiCast: acting with purpose, demonstrating will when facing complex challenges, and exercising care for learners, educators and the broader ecosystems in which we operate.
In an intelligent age, humanity is not something to be protected from technology, but something to be consciously carried through it.
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