Digital Futures for Education: Back to the future! What do universities look like in 2040?

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Digital Futures for Education is a new series of conversations and events that bring together key actors from academia, civil society, and the private and public sectors. Its mission is to provide a colloquial space for discussion and reflection on the digital transformation in education and the role of universities in today’s complex societies. The goal is also to build a community with key national and international educational actors.

More specifically, Digital Futures for Education aims to:

• Stimulate an interdisciplinary dialogue across national and international universities to identify social demands and needs locally and globally.
• Bring about a well-founded debate on the possibilities of digitalization and data-driven education in Sweden.
• Cultivate critical and generative discussions on the ongoing research educational programs and projects at KTH, Stockholm University, and RISE.
• Align research goals and agendas in educational technology with everyday sociotechnical practices.
• Promote more inclusive conversations on digital transformation in higher education.

Now Digital Futures welcome interested in participating in these conversations about the digital futures for education. Please sign up to indicate your interest in participating as a speaker or attendee.

CONVERSATION SCHEDULE 2022

Conversation 1: Back to the future! What do universities look like in 2040?

Date for the event: 25 May 2022

In this conversation, we bring together experts from political science, education, and sustainable human-computer interaction to discuss visions about the future of higher education.

Confirmed speakers:

• Gunnar Karlsson, KTH led the project KTH Design Fiction_Education 2027-2028
• Johannes Stripple, Lund University led the project Lund Education 2040
• Elina Eriksson, Sustainability Group at KTH.
• Maria Fogelström Kylberg, CEO at Stockholms Akademiska Forum

Moderator: Teresa Cerratto Pargman, Stockholm University

Some of the questions leading the conversation are:

• How do ideas of the future inform action in the present?
• What tools help us to envision and reflect on possible futures?
• Who gets to imagine futures and with which impacts?
• What does higher education look like in 2040?
• What is the impact of the digital transformation initiated in 2020 on the student-teacher relationships, quality, and sustainability of higher educational practices?

Conversation 2: AI Imaginaries in Education: Hitting the target but missing the point?

Date for the event: September 8, 2022. Time: 13.00-14.30.

This conversation discusses the opportunities and risks of deploying AI and, more specifically, automation in higher education.

Confirmed speakers:

• Annika Bergviken Rensfeldt, Associate Professor, Gothenburg University
• Jannie Jeppesen, CEO, Swedish EdTech Industry
• Fredrik Heintz, Professor, Linköping University

Moderator: Cormac McGrath, Stockholm University & Digital Futures Faculty Member

The following questions lead the discussion:

• Will the use of AI help students develop critical and creative thinking and collaborative and communication skills? Or, will it help students to approve university assignments and exams?
• Will the use of AI, and in particular, automation brings us to understand student learning better? Or, will it encourage the emergence of surveillance practices and invasion of student privacy at universities?
• What does it mean to design, develop, deploy, and use AI responsibly, in higher education?
• As scholars, developers, and practitioners how can we harness our knowledge and experience in education, human-computer interaction and computer sciences while negotiating a living contract with AI in our practices and discourses?

Conversation 3: EVENT: Postcards from the YEAR 2033

Date for the event: November 

We invite students, teachers, ed-tech companies, and anyone interested in learning, competence development, academia and higher education to write postcards from 2033, looking back at a successful university digital transformation: what decisions were vital? What are we thankful for?

Suggest topics and potential speakers!

This space for conversation aims to bring together key actors from academia, civil society, and the private and public sectors in Sweden and abroad. We warmly invite you to be part of the conversation on the digital transformation in education by suggesting topics and potential speakers to Teresa Cerratto Pargman, Associate Director Outreach, Digital Futures. Please send your suggestion to  tessy@dsv.su.se. Write “Digital Futures Outreach” in the subject of your email.