SURFNET just published a new report (in Dutch) on location based services and higher education, of which I am co-author. The report identifies trends in the field of location based services and assesses how these trends could be used to improve higher education (colleges and universities). The Dutch summary of the report can be found below:

Location based services: een verkenning

Matthijs Leendertse & Gerard Dummer

Redactie: Margreet van den Berg

Dit rapport brengt trends op het gebied van location based services in kaart die nu, of in de nabije toekomst ingezet kunnen worden om het leren van studenten in het (hoger) onderwijs te verbeteren. Omdat sommige diensten – voor zover bekend – nog niet worden ingezet in het onderwijs maar wel educatieve waarde lijken te hebben, zijn ook voorbeelden opgenomen van buiten het onderwijs. Onderstaand schema laat zien welke leeractiviteiten kunnen worden ondernomen met de verschillende typen Location Based Services diensten die we hebben onderscheiden.

Alhoewel de toegevoegde waarde van locatie-afhankelijk leren voor het onderwijs nog niet door wetenschappelijk onderzoek aangetoond kan worden, lijkt er voor het onderwijs wel winst te behalen in het gebruik van deze diensten. Binnen het onderwijs wordt op dit moment echter nog maar beperkt gebruik gemaakt van locatieafhankelijke diensten. De mogelijkheden voor onderwijs lijken dan ook nog lang niet ten volle benut. De ontwikkeling van locatieafhankelijke diensten is van vrij recente datum en er zijn dan ook nog niet veel diensten ontwikkeld voor het onderwijs. Er dus nog veel werk aan de winkel.

Het rapport is hier te downloaden.

After 6 great years at TNO, I have started my own company ELM Concepts. ELM – short for E-Learning & Media – helps organizations innovate their media and education propositions. We do this by conducting research, concepting new propositions and by developing and giving educational courses and workshops. I must say that this is really an adventure for me, and love the thrill of spotting new business opportunities and creating new products and services. Currently I am working for Rabobank on an educational Facebook game. The goal of the game is to teach young people in the Netherlands the value of cooperative entrepreneurship within the context of the world food problem. The game plays into the UN’s decision to name 2012 the international year of the cooperatives. To practice what we preach, we are co-creating this game every step of the way with groups of students throughout the Netherlands in both offline MindSessions and on our Facebook platform.

Furthermore, we also just launched our iPad based co-creation & education tool MindSessions. We worked long and hard on developing this tool, and are very proud of the outcome. MindSessions are social iPad-based workshops, where participants work together to create new insights and solutions. For this, we have created a game flow in which we use several didactical principles to increase both motivation and learning results. Have a look at the MindSessions website (in Dutch for now) and tell us what you think.

More information about the report:

This report aims to identify, understand and visualise major changes to learning in the future. It developed a descriptive vision of the future, based on existing trends and drivers, and a normative vision outlining how future learning opportunities should be developed to contribute to social cohesion, socio-economic inclusion and economic growth.

The overall vision is that personalisation, collaboration and informalisation (informal learning) are at the core of learning in the future. These terms are not new in education and training but will have to become the central guiding principle for organising learning and teaching in the future. The central learning paradigm is thereby characterised by lifelong and life-wide learning, shaped by the ubiquity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). At the same time, due to fast advances in technology and structural changes to European labour markets that are related to demographic change, globalisation and immigration, generic and transversal skills become more important, which support citizens in becoming lifelong learners who flexibly respond to change, are able to pro-actively develop their competences and thrive in collaborative learning and working environments.

Many of the changes depicted have been foreseen for some time but they now come together in such a way that is becomes urgent and pressing for policymakers to consider them and to propose and implement a fundamental shift in the learning paradigm for the 21st century digital world and economy. To reach the goals of personalised, collaborative and informalised learning, holistic changes need to be made (curricula, pedagogies, assessment, leadership, teacher training, etc.) and mechanisms need to be put in place which make flexible and targeted lifelong learning a reality and support the recognition of informally acquired skills.

The report itself can be downloaded here.

On the first day, I gave a presentation on the Future of Learning that was followed by a discussion with Andrea Saveri and Adora Svitak, who at age 13 is a published writer. The presentation is embedded below, and talks about the reluctance of educational institutions and content providers to embrace the digital world, the trends going forward based on a study for the European Commission, and gives specific recommendations for public service broadcasters.

What are we going to do?
In South Sudan Conn@ct.Now successfully uses ICT and Media as a bridge to connect the generations. Working together, children make their own videos which tell their stories and perspectives on their own actions and those of their parents. It has proven to be much easier for children to discuss the issues that are important to them with their parents or caretakers via videos than face-to-face. By working as a group and undertaking joint actions children also gain strength from each other.
The South Sudan program is now looking to build upon this work … with YOUR help. We are looking for new and creative ways to encourage children and parents to talk to each other and solve problems together. We want you to share your thoughts with us and welcome any ideas about how you think ICT and Media can help to encourage the necessary dialogue between generations and help children work together.
Do you know other projects which use ICT and Media successfully? Let us know! Also your ideas which don’t involve ICT and Media technologies are welcome.

How can you let us know?
We have developed a Conn@ct.Now Facebook page , just for this purpose:

So log on to Facebook, search for Conn@ct.Now and ‘Like’ us.
Over the next few weeks, we will be asking you to:

* Share your thoughts about ICT and Media:
* Provide inspiration;
* Review and create solutions; and
* Recommend us to your friends who are interested in ICT and Media in development programmes.

We are really looking forward to hearing your suggestions, so please join us! Also, please share this with your network!

Thanks for your help!
Matthijs

In english: I recently conducted a study for Kennisnet on business models of digital educational content. For now the final report is only available in Dutch.

De aanleiding voor het interview was de naderende publicatie van de essaybundel ‘Dappere Nieuwe Wereld’ door denktank Prospect, waarin zeventien jonge auteurs de grote vragen en antwoorden van het Nederland van morgen uiteenzetten. Ik ben gevraagd om het essay rond onderwijs voor mijn rekening te nemen. De bundel wordt waarschijnlijk medio juni 2011 gepubliceerd.

English: this post is in Dutch as it elaborates on a recent interview that I did for a Dutch magazine for primary school administrators on the new generation of employees that often work outside ‘the system’ and the state of innovation in education.