Outreach

Digital Futures Outreach Program aims at improving learning, promoting societal engagement, and strengthening communities through addressing societal needs.

Digital Futures will take a leading role in establishing an infrastructure and a research milieu allowing for high-impact research on education practice on a large scale. Examples include the role of VR, AI, robots, educational data mining, learning analytics and academic analytics to support flexible, cost-effective, and individualised learning. Another aspect is the ability to transfer new findings in pedagogical research to teaching practice in a timely and efficient way. Therefore, we also see a need to support research that illuminates the processes and tensions influencing the adoption of innovative evidence-based educational approaches.

Digital Futures for Education consists 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. We aim to:

We invite you to be part of the conversation on 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.

Activity Plan & Goals

Technology for the future of education: The ongoing pandemic has shown that there are huge challenges to performing high-quality education via online or hybrid means. Calling for better educational systems including learning analytics, virtual reality, virtual labs and digital examination procedures. Further, it has also shown the huge challenge of replacing traditional examinations with online sessions. We might consider pairing technological research with applications in other domains in order to enhance the possible impact.

The future of knowledge creation: Rethinking the role of universities in society means breaking through traditional structures, limitations and responsibilities which are often culture related with historical roots. The structural mesh hinders innovative learning and the deployment of technology. We will focus on projects breaking today’s norms, to prepare for a radical paradigm shift (Knowledge 4.0) in higher education.

Skills for the digital future: New skills in all educations, from nurses to mechanics, imply a competence lift in industry and is a lifelong learning challenge. What are those required skills (collaboration, computational thinking, critical thinking, self-regulation in learning etc); and how should they be distributed to a larger cohort?

Community: Build strong relations to innovative forefront environments, such as current- and emerging leaders illustrated by The New Engineering Education Transformation at MIT (NEET), Singapore University of Design and Technology (SUDT) and TU Delft. Arrange workshops engaging with new knowledge and perspectives, allowing learning processes to take time, challenging the speed culture of digitalization.

Publications

We like to inspire and share interesting knowledge…