On the 28th and 29th of November, the TELT-team visited the 25th edition of Online Educa Berlin (OEB): an exchange on the use of new technologies in learning and training. During this gathering, 2500 international learning professionals visited over 120 conference sessions in various formats. Hot topics of this year’s conference included artificial intelligence, lifelong learning, and innovative learning spaces.
Conference Keynotes
During the plenary sessions, different keynote speakers discussed their view on future education. Their professional backgrounds varied from researcher to political speaker and CEO of a big EdTech company. What really stood out, was the contrast between their stories. An important message we can take away – which might actually sound a bit controversial when visiting a tech conference: although new technologies provide us with all kinds of exciting opportunities, adopting new technologies is not a goal in itself. We should never forget to be critical when implementing new technologies, because technology should always support (changes in) education and not the other way around.
But of course, this doesn’t mean that we should just sit and wait and not experiment with new technology. For us, this conference actually provided the perfect opportunity to gather some knowledge about new technologies we might want to start experimenting with, hear about the success stories (and failures) of other organizations, and generally get inspired.
Takeaways for TELT
We’ve let all impressions sink during the Christmas holiday break, so in the new year we were able to look at our takeaways afresh. During the follow-up meeting, we redefined our team vision on new technologies that were presented during the conference, like artificial intelligence and blockchain for education. We also discussed different interesting blended learning design methodologies (Carpe Diem, ABC Learning Design) and helpful frameworks (Readiness for Technological Adoption, Students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education) that we would like to explore more about in the future. On top of that, we also shared some promising tools we discovered at the exhibition. Looking back, everything we've seen and heard at this conference confirms that our team is (still) on the right track!
Want to see more?
Videos of the keynotes and many other inspirational moments have been uploaded (you might even spot some members of the TELT team)! If you’re interested in any of the abstracts or presentations, you can contact us via telt@utwente.nl.
Watch the OEB 2019 after movie here:
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