Just as a reminder, Intensive Study Programme (ISP) is a short programme of study which brings together students and teaching staff of partner institutions, participating in Erasmus+ programme Strategic Partnership in Higher Education, funded by the European Commission, altogether with other relevant invited experts, specialists and professionals.
The general purpose of each ISP is to:
- encourage efficient and multinational teaching of specialist topics;
- enable students and teachers to work together in multinational and multidisciplinary groups
- allow members of the teaching staff to exchange views on teaching content, new curricula approaches, to test innovative teaching methods that could eventually become part of a newly devised joint course or curriculum in an international classroom environment
ISP in Oulu, Finland
The main aim of this ISP was to dive into the world of education, innovation and co‑creation between schools, educational institutions and companies. We learnt more about co-creation projects and expertise across Europe and beyond, focusing of course on Finnish experiences in building a thriving ecosystem for co-creating EdTech products and services.
This five-day event was organised by our partner organisation – Oulu University of Applied Science (OAMK) between February 17-21, 2020. Main agenda items included:
- Presentation from UCL EDUCATE by Dr. Alison Clark-Wilson
- Presentation of the Smart Learning Environments for the Future project by Johanna Pihlajamaa from OAMK
- Presentation from Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico by Dr. Genaro Rebolledo Méndez and Dr. Leonardo David Glasserman Morales
- Presentation by Jannie Jeppesen, CEO at Swedish Edtech Industry
- Presentation of the and workshop for Teaching Staff by Hanna Elving from Swedish EdTest Nacka
- Design Thinking for Education workshop for Students by Janne Karjalainen
- Full-day visit to the Yli-Ii Comprehensive school, participating in the Microsoft Associate Showcase Schools program - meeting with the school’s Principal, Jukka Miettunen, school's STEAM-team, teachers and students
- Presentations from Business Oulu & Worlddidac
- Presentations by Lucia Figar and Carlos Garriga from Instituto de Empresa in Spain
- Presentation by Prof. Oddgeir Tveiten from University of Agder in Norway
- UCL EDUCATE workshop by Doctoral candidate Anissa Moeini
- Presentation by Danny Gauch, CEO of Worlddidac
- Presentation by Dr. Jennifer Zapf, Director of Education Entrepreneurship & Senior Academic Fellow from University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education
- Workshop on collaboration between schools and companies by Avanto Entrepreneurship program
- Pitching session by PINO Network members
- Mini-fair: Collaboration between schools and companies
- Presentation by Prof. Kati Mäkitalo, Dean, professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Oulu
- Presentation by Anne Sorvari from Oulu Innovation Center
- Presentation by Emily Reardon, Director of User Experience at Sesame Workshop
- Students start-ups presentations and presenting solutions, developed during the week in international learning groups
- International expert feedback sessions with participants mentioned above, as well as Märt Aro , Co-Founder of the Nordic EdTech Forum, Igor Kouzine, Senior Advisor in the Education Entrepreneurship Master’s program, Houtan Froushan from UCL EDUCATE programme, Nikolaj Plagborg-Møller, Future Learning Manager from Technical University of Denmark, Edoardo Montenegro, Co-Founder of Betwyll – education management Start-Up, Leticia Ponce, Founder of IE Start-Up Lab, as well as Teaching Staff from our partner institutions – Jan Willems, Scarlet Coopman, Sophie Huys and Wim Van Petegem from KU Leuven, Anissa Moeini and Alison Clark-Wilson from UCL, Carlos Marquerie from IE University, Blair Stevenson, Jukka Savilampi, Janika Kaunio and Johanna Pihlajamaa from OAMK and many more.
We wanted to make sure that as many people as possible will be able to benefit from this event, we decided to record some of the presentations, keynotes and workshops, delivered during this ISP and share it with fully open access with our audience online. You can access our playlist here: EETN ISP in Oulu - keynotes
Design Thinking workshop for Students
During the week, our students were working in international groups on designing solutions to existing EdTech problems.
Recommended reading on Design Thinking from the workshop:
- Design thinking defined
- Design Thinking as a Strategy for Innovation
- What Is Empathy In Design Thinking? A Comprehensive Guide To Building Empathy For Your Users
- Case example: Vroom
- Case example: Michael’s Fingers
- Design thinking for educators
Outcome
The aim of this five-day training event, was to learn from each other, get inspired, network with top experts and give our students good base so that they can continue developing in the field of Education Technology, improving education in Europe and using evidence-based materials to backup their work.
We had an opportunity to discuss various solutions and case studies, not only from Finland, Spain, United Kingdom and Belgium, but also from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Germany, Mexico, Italy, USA and Japan. Our students had a very unique opportunity to learn from the best experts in the field and get specialist feedback on their work.
We also used this opportunity to create a base for producing high-quality materials for our EdTech Platform, interviewing top experts, expanding the network and discussing new collaboration opportunities within its members.
We keep growing and some of our materials can already be found in the Food for Though, Knowledge and Case Study sections, as well as on our VIMEO or YouTube channel and our social media – Twitter @EurEdTech or LinkedIn.