Yes, we can. – 7 Thoughts and Impulses from the Garden of EDEN

At the latest annual conference of EDEN, the European Digital Education Network, the theme was "Yes, we can" - Digital Education for a Better Future. Johannes Schleiss was there to share with us seven insights that will have a lasting impact on our understanding of education. Let's get inspired and dream about the future of education.

“Yes, we can” was this year’s theme of the annual conference of EDEN, the European Digital Education Network. With 324 participants from 35 countries and over 200 submissions, it provided  a broad mix of  insights into the current state of digital education and its future developments. I want to share with you seven impulses from some of the thought leaders of the field or interesting discussions I had along. Some fresh ideas, questions we should all ask ourselves and some ripe fruits from the garden of EDEN.

1.  Let’s move the discussion about education away from fulfilling needs to hopeful dreams.

This sentence summarizes what Rikke Toft Nørgård from the Danish School of Education at Aarhus University describes as “Hopepunk philosophy for education”.

Following Alexandra Rowland, the idea of Hopepunk says that  “genuinely and sincerely caring about something, anything, requires bravery and strength. Hopepunk isn’t ever about submission or acceptance: It’s about standing up and fighting for what you believe in. It’s about standing up for other people. It’s about DEMANDING a better, kinder world, and truly believing that we can get there if we care about each other as hard as we possibly can, with every drop of power in our little hearts.”

Bringing it to education, we can ask the question of why we have education and what its value is. In her work, Rikke Toft Nørgård inspires to bring people in the space to collectively think, speculate and dream about the future of education. A method that educational philosophers call using speculative education fiction in critical education studies. Speculative education fiction emphases radical imagination, hope and fresh ideas around the transformation of universities and the education system. Let’s take some time and space to dream!

2.  Change needs to be an intentional and systematic approach.

A wonderful visual metaphor from Alexandra Mihai from Maastricht Universities:

“Universities are ecosystems: Knowledge is flowing, things are growing, things are moving. Everything is interconnected. But as with every ecosystem, we need support to keep it in balance and the support is often complex and complicated.”

When we want to change a university, we face silos of disciplines, different barriers (systems, habits, flexibility) and cultures. To implement sustainable change processes, it requires an intentional and systematic approach to change. By having cross-functional people working on projects together, finding common ground, learning from each other and creating networks of change, we can overcome these obstacles and foster a transformative environment within the university.

3.  Integration of technology such as AI is a great opportunity to redefine the gears of education and reposition the role of a university in society.

The complexity of the world is on the rise. Scientific and technological progress accelerates. At this fast pace, Angels Fito, president of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, shared her vision for repositioning the role of universities in society. In her words: “We have to make the classroom count and turn universities into places of action, creation and impact.“

That quickly brings you to some deeper questions: What challenges does this pose for universities? How should they shift to maximize their contribution? How can universities provide value for society, e.g., towards increasing employability and lifelong learning? How can we take into account the flexibility of lifelong learning?

With respect to technology, Angels Fito made the point that the integration of technology such as AI is a great opportunity to redefine the gears of education. Shifting from linear pathways to open-loop portfolios would enable greater mobility and flexibility. This vision needs to take into recognition of previous work, traceability and complementarity between programs and modules. In summary, we need to make transitions easy and possible.

To make it all happen, three key elements are essential: We need technology to improve the educational proposal, we need a research ecosystem for understanding and changing the world and we need alliances to consolidate a systematic approach.

4. Think about the full spectrum and value all the different elements!

Often, we get caught up in trends, buzzwords and shallow talk without understanding the underlying nuances to a topic. Maren Deepwell, CEO of the Association of Learning Technology (ALT), shared insights from the ALT2023 Survey. Among the biggest challenges around digital transformation are dedicated time, strategy and leadership and culture of higher education institutions with assessment, collaboration and blended learning being top priorities.

One interesting, but not surprising finding was the importance of context. This shows that translating and transferring a solution that worked in one institution or one particular context to another context needs dedicated time, effort and understanding of nuances.

Last, another interesting and timely aspect to look into is the ALT Framework of Ethical Learning Technology, a community-developed self-reflection framework.

5.  We need to put more emphasis on systematic evidence synthesis.

Getting to know Melissa Bond from University College London and hearing her perspectives on education was another highlight for me. One key sentence for me was:

“When studying education, we should not look at any study in isolation but look at the body of evidence and incorporate the context in which the work was produced.”

This distills the evidence of certain educational inventions and measures serving as an important building block in developing a better educational future. We often talk about building more evidence-based education but we should also put in the work in truly looking at multiple studies and synthesizing evidence. Melissa’s work on systematic evidence synthesis is truly inspiring, check out some of it here.

6.  Change is the new normal. We need more vulnerability and collaboration.

The load for educators remains high, being faced with big challenges such as new demands on flexibility and learning experiences from students, exponentially increasing technology advancements and an increasing digital divide. So how to decrease the load on the shoulders of educators and keep everyone at balance?

A fair and difficult question with no easy answer. Some ideas discussed in the panel were: team-teaching, development of peer assessment, collaboration (and co-creation) with students and building of complementary teams.

One thing that also fits well in this line is vulnerability and creating a safe space to explore ambiguity and uncertainty. What is the  role of  an educator? What are the different aspects of the  role? How might the role change in the future? Being a teacher in higher education doesn’t mean that you need to know it all and have it all. We are in this together. Try out new stuff together with your students and colleagues, be open and honest about where you stand and learn together. The knowledge is out there, the teacher becomes the leader who leads through the path of uncertainty and novelty.

7.  We need to create space and time to talk about the futures we want to create.

When was the last time you discussed your team’s vision or your organization’s vision? Far too often, we go about our daily, weekly and monthly operations. New semester, new class, projects and research. The talks and the discussions at the conference showed how important it is to take a step back from time to time, reorient the north star of a bright future and focus on creating a future of higher education that we truly inspire. The format for this might vary.

We have had positive experiences using a Co-Creation approach to help teams align and develop alternate futures. As part of the conference theme, we presented our work with two cohorts of the HFDvisions project, where we collaborated with 11 institutions in Germany. Our research focused on investigating the impact of providing external methodological support for co-creating visions with a multi-stakeholder approach, with a particular emphasis on the perceived benefits and challenges, key success factors, and student participation.

From our experiences, we found that several key factors contribute to the successful implementation of co-creation processes. These factors include the well-structured program, the availability of methodological support, and the establishment of a strong network for knowledge exchange and collaboration.

Participation emerges as a critical aspect in creating better visions for the future of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). By involving diverse stakeholders, including students, in the co-creation process, institutions can develop more inclusive and relevant visions. We observed how the co-creation process facilitated team building, fostered alignment and engagement among stakeholders, and instilled a sense of ownership in the vision-building process.

Overall, our case study provides valuable insights into the potential of co-creation in envisioning better futures for HEIs. Furthermore, it offers practical guidance for institutions seeking to implement this approach effectively. By adopting a co-creation strategy, HEIs can work towards creating a brighter and more purposeful future for their communities.

What can we learn from all of it?

Now is a good time to create a shared vision about education and our institutions of the future. This creation should be inspired by hope and opportunity rather than limited by fear and pessimism. At the same time, change needs to be intentional and systematic and we need to create the space and time to talk and think about the futures we need to create. We need to build stronger evidence on certain educational structures and approaches and need to include the full-spectrum of ideas and opinions.

So, I urge each of you to take action now. Embrace the hopepunk philosophy for education, be intentional and systematic in driving change, integrate technology wisely, prioritize evidence synthesis, value all elements, foster collaboration, and create the space to envision and build the future we dream of for education.

Together, "Yes, we can" shape the future of education and pave the way for a kinder, more inclusive, and transformative world. Let us stand up, fight for what we believe in, and demand a better, brighter future for education. The time to act is now.