Invitation

SPACES OF LEARNING: Technology is a key dimension in everyday life, including learning. Technology is reflected in politics, architecture, literature, education, entertainment and more. It is a product of societal patterns, cultural mores, values and models of society.

Technology also shapes society. Yet, only in the past few decades has technology come into broad focus as an area of cross-disciplinary research attention. Increasingly, we speak of digital media and “digitalization” as a core element of culture, political life, knowledge geographies, information flows. The nature of those societies that we seek to model and build, are dependent on material conditions of technology – ever-changing, faster and faster.

So, while the study of technology is catching up and catching on in the social sciences and humanities, the challenge is still there to connect with technologists and explore new means, uses and critiques.

TECHNOLOGY @ WORK: In this year´s version of World Learning Summit  we will try to highlight these themes, while of course keeping an open tab on the workshop- and group-work themes familiar to our conferences. TECHNOLOGY @WORK is the main theme of our Roundtable in Oslo, in June. Digitalization and globalization ushers in a suite of new skills demands. Jobs will disappear. New jobs will emerge. Future innovations will likely be as much about innovative work, workspaces and planning as it will be a question of technology as such. 

Building on our Roundtable in Oslo, June 2018, the keynotes at the Summit in September will start from reflections on “technology @ work: rethinking life-long learning”. In short: As the workplace changes, so does higher education and other training/learning spaces. No one has 2020 vision into the future of work, but a likely debate in years to come is already on the horizon: The speed and efficient networking capability of contemporary information flows more than adequately suggests how the workforce of tomorrow will find alternative ways to develop skills. 

ADAPTIVE LEARNING: The shaping of a new eco system for life-long learning is one of the key impacts of technology developments in recent years. Knowledge and information flows in the digital age are unfolding everywhere, from institutions of education, via multiplayer online games, via Netflix, through social media, and onwards through an expanding universe of information nodes – changing, re-forming, processing and adapting to smart and scaled-up user data. One might ask whether education institutions are keeping pace? How do organizations adapt? How do institutions change, and should they? How is work policy-making adapting to the shapeshifting nature of contemporary media developments? 

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE? One might also ask to what extend we understand, appraise, critique and contextualize the potentials and affordances of learning technologies? One thing is the study of impacts from technologies in use. Another aspect is the luddite critique of “disruptive technology” to begin with. A third aspect is all that space in between, in which new virtual spaces are being explored — visual aspects of communication brought to bear on learning – and the viral aspect of contemporary  information n´being brought to bear on our understanding of what comes next in education, workplace learning, and leisure-based learning. 

Among the keynotes that will address these issues we already confirm Paco Nathan, a well-known international explorer and researcher in the area of artificial intelligence. What is artificial intelligence and what is in store for learning and education? What are potential reaches, uses, and elements of critique? How ought institutions of education to think abut governing artificial intelligence — as an aspect of learning and the maintenance of education freedoms, norms, and standards? To discuss and highlight these issues, WLS 2018 will be inviting Nordic experts and key experts also from the University of Agder tor panel discussions. The panels will be announced in good time. 

NORDIC VOICES: A second theme to be addressed is the challenge that virtual, visual, and viral media represent for higher education; potential uses, pitfalls, management concerns, and impacts from the twin “apps” of digitalization and globalization. Kristin Ingolfsdottir was president of the University of Iceland for a decade, where she both spearheaded change processes at her university and also build a solid base for reflecting on the digital future of nordic higher education in a fast-changing world. In line with previous summits, our goal is to field a Nordic panel debate on the issue, where all the Nordic countries are represented. 

As usual there will be ample time for networking and group work. Our pre-defined list of group themes is up, but there is also the possibility to suggest and organize panels. Go to the calls and registration menu above.