#eden09 keynote speakers thursday

Keynote speeches
(the lights went out when the first key note speaker began, so ... sorry for typo's, I could no longer see my )keyboard, I am somewhat of a blind typer, but still)
As I am writing, I will post my thoughts between brackets always introducing them with 'remark'.

"Learning and Creativity in a New Environment" by Anna Valtonen, Aalto Finland and Nokia, Finland
With textually heavy ppt (on slideshare?)

why is our educational environment new? She responds from a organisational university mindset, not pedagogical.
education needs to be reformed and in synch with changes in the operational environment
big issue: university will get larger autonomy
each university has to specialize
mergers are made, (remark: but although she mentions diversity in the university landscape, she does mention a merger between the three 'best' universities... so where does that strengthen or diversify the rest?)
The speaker gives an overall view of some Finnish universities which did not inspire me, but all of a sudden, she moves on to a much more interesting input...
(remark: trying small movies, pasted together to give a viewer the possibility of pausing and reading the text on the slides and still get some idea of the speaker's voice)
(remark: as soon as this speaker talked about design - her topic - her voice and her emotion as she spoke became more interesting. I would have loved to hear her talk on how new technologies could influence design and the overall city/street/housing landscape. She would do it with enthusiasm and it would be interesting - for me), in the end she mentioned it a bit.
She ends with an interesting question: What happens with creativity at the universities. She mentions interdisciplinary actions and people and ... architecture.
She mentions that students as well as staff could get space in the uni to play and develop their ideas, so whomever got an idea, could ask to develop it... that sounds really now and good!
She gives some multi-disciplinary examples and those are nice (an example in the movie).

What have we learned from it?
a great remark here that scientists need to be teachers, not purely writers (in movie)

so she mentions three key words: motivation, inspiration and responsibility



(lights in the concert hall back on... jeej)
"Beyond Removing Barriers: developing Conditions for Creativity and Innovation" by Claudio Dondi, SCIENTER, Italy
The european innovation gap: how to go from innovation desire, to innovation policy and eventually innovation achievement. Unfortunately each step is slower than the previous.
a bit of a monotone voice, so my hyperbrain runs off with me from time to time. He has grey hair and a nice suite.
there is a lot of new informal learning done with the use of social media, so the dreams of a lifelong learning society can become true (at least for some of our citizens).
So learning could become more organic at all levels (community, society, individual).
Claudio is focusing on 10 imperatives for change beyond 2010 coming out of the learning innovation conference in May, Brussels.
http://www.learnovation.eu
all interested stakeholders can contribute to the selection of the top ten imperatives for change
Claudio emphasizes that keeping an open mind is essential to allow innovation and especially innovation achievement.


"What must We Invent for Tomorrow? Five Critical Foces that will challenge the US Learning Community (and perhaps yours) to Innovate the Future by Nicholas H. Allen, University of Maryland, US.
Will disperse his slides later on he mentions.
eLearning is a revolution, but it is a revolution and change is in the work. So what needs will be addressed, what demographic shifts will make a difference, what about competition.
An interesting speech on the forgotten group of learners that are the online and lifelong learners. Educational policies focus on traditional education, but this no longer fits the bill.
The key factors he mentions that influence education are similar in Europe (immigration, aging population, educational needs, technological shift, financial and political pressure on educational institutions...)
(remark: ok, I definitely need to put my pension plan in action! Because Nicholas is right, when the 40's reeach retirement age, they will need to keep working due to financial pressure)
(remark: he mentions that tertiairy education will be a must soon... this is a possible blogpost. Where do we go if educational time is growing, and it must be balanced with a carreer?)
Mentions the explosion of mobile learning, touch screen technologies mimicing paper sizes...
the impact of social media.
Emphasises the important research results and tracking systems (there are no studies that indicate the impact of OERs).

(possible blogpost, is it useful to have OERs when learning gets more learner centered?)