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Future Learning

June Breivik panelist at OR’18

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June Breivik will be one of our Norwegian panelists at the Oslo Roundtable. June is a long-time associate of the Future Learning Lab and has been on stage many times before, including our 2015 conference at Stanford.

June is now Deputy Director in Kulturtanken — Arts for Young Audiences in Norway. Kulturtanken owns the national responsibility for The Cultural Schoolbag (TCS). Together with county municipalities and municipalities, schools and all fields within arts and culture, Kulturtanken wishes to open doors to the arts, to culture, and to the future for all children in Norway, according to their website. Prior to taking on this challenge, June Breivik was Director of eLearning at the BI Norwegian Business School. She is author of the book Læring i en Digital Tid, a former K12 Principal and member of numerous national committees in the area of education and new media technologies. One of these was the so-called MOOC Commission, mandated by the Norwegian government. She is currently a commission member in the Norwegian Board of Technology (Norges Teknologiråd), through her specialty in life-long-learning.

Prior to joining our Advisory board in her new job capacity, June Breivik was a team member in the Future Learning Lab, where among other tasks she co-chaired the 2016 World Learning Summit and chaired panels at both the 2015 and 2016 summits. She participates regularly in our workshops, and she has played a major role in  connecting our various Nordic and international networks.

Welcome Phil Komarny, to OR’18

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On various websites, one reads the following about Phil Komarny who will be one of the main speakers at the Oslo Roundtable 2018: Highly social, entrepreneurial, award winning senior executive with a 25-plus year track record of delivering innovative, high value solutions by aligning existing problems with emerging technologies. Experienced as a C-level executive within higher education that has leveraged entrepreneurial instincts, a broad technical skill set, and a very strong reputation for developing and motivating teams at all levels to integrate new technologies that create value for the organization. Experienced and comfortable serving as the voice of the business and building a strong rapport with management, colleagues, vendors, stakeholders and technical specialists.

We are happy to announce the presence of Phil Komarny at our small roundtable in Oslo, June 13th. Phil recently joined Salesforce as their Vice President for Innovations. We had the pleasure of meeting in Silicon Valley in January 2018 at a workshop and dinner hosted by the Future Learning Lab and Open Innovation Lab of Norway.

Phil has a background form the University of Texas, in Austin. From his home in Colorado Springs, he has helped build and initiate the company Robots and Pencils, making apps for mobile devices. At the Oslo Roundtable he will be speaking about one of his passions: The emergent uses of Blockchain for learning and education. If you are smart, come and listen to this. Here is a link to his LinkedIn profile. 

Oslo Roundtable ’18 welcomes Michael Shanks

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We are happy to announce the OR ’18 participation of Michael Shanks. In 2016, Mike keynoted our World Learning Summit, together with among others Google’s chief scientist Peter Norvig. That was a great conference. In our 2015 conference at Stanford, Mike took the audience by surprise in a spontaneous one-man stand-up academic performance not so many would be able to copy. Mike is also a former street theater guy. An archeologist by training and as a professor at Stanford University, Mike has a long-standing interest in the “digital humanities“ – how digital media may be used to shape and expand on teaching and learning in the humanities.

Michael Shanks has since 2011 been CoDirector of The Revs Program at Stanford – connecting the past, present, and future of the automobile – a project in the archaeology of the contemporary past. He was Visiting Professor of Archaeology at Durham University (UK) in 2010, and Visiting Professor of Humanities, Humanities Institute of Ireland, University College Dublin, 2010 – 2013.  In the period 2004 – 2009 Mike was CoDirector of Stanford Humanities Lab – with colleagues Jeffrey Schnapp and Henry Lowood.

Other positions include: 1998 – 2005 Professor by Courtesy, Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Stanford University. The appointment was terminated by the department in 2005. The reason given was “bureaucratic hygiene” (really!), though I didn’t cost them anything. I suspect it was more to do with my interdisciplinary interest in cyborg culture. 1998 – present Professor of Classics, Stanford University. Where he became founding faculty for Stanford Archaeology Center New interdisciplinary moves into (digital) media with my Metamedia Lab. 1996 – 1998 Reader in Archaeology, Head of Department, University of Wales Lampeter.
1993 – 1996 Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Wales Lampeter. A lot of teaching and building new programs and initiatives, in a glorious rural setting. 1991 – 1992 Research Fellow, Centre d’Archéologie Classique, Paris 1 (Sorbonne), Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

A welcome to Donna Kidwell for the Oslo Roundtable

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Donna Kidwell, co-chair of the Future Learning Lab, is joining us for the Oslo Roundtable. Here is a brief cut from another blogpost presenting here: Donna Kidwell is President of Webstudent International, a software company located in Norway and the US. A key member of the Future Learning Lab team, Donna has visited our conferences in Norway and Europe, sharing our interest in North-South issues and through that building working relations with universities in the Global South.

Professor Kidwell received her doctorate at the Ecole de Management in Grenoble, France, and her Master’s in Science and Technology Commercialization at The University of Texas at Austin. She led the development of The Innovation Readiness Series™, an online course developed to help global innovators.

Her research interests include innovation and commercialization. She has worked globally to encourage economic development through science and innovations. She is the driver behind several successful MOOCs at UT, Austin.

Prior to her work with UT Austin, Donna was a software consultant, and developed custom database applications and eLearning environments for companies such as Exxon, Agilent, and Keller Williams Realty International.

Janet Walkow to the Oslo Roundtable

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We are fortunate to have Dr. Janet C. Walkow with us for the 2018 Oslo Roundtable. Janet has been with us before in Kristiansand but this time our context will be a bit different:  Janet is an accomplished executive with proven expertise and experience in both the scientific and business arenas. She has done extensive work in drug development combined with experience in business operations with an aim to improve the performance of teams, systems and organizations in both the R&D and work-life environments.

Janet received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Health Promotion Council of Pennsylvania and the Harvard Kennedy School Women’s Leadership Board. In August 2008, Janet joined the Drug Dynamics Institute at The University of Texas. Leading this collaborative research center, she brought together scientists and investigators to work on novel solutions for disease and healthcare issues. The Institute partners with University, industry and community leaders to foster collaborations.

A leader in efforts to empower women – locally and around the world, Janet is a also a co-founder of the Leading Women Project, designed to help women of all ages and professions learn to lead – both themselves and others.  She works with a variety of organizations and continues to seek out opportunities to identify ways to provide goods and services that support and empower women around the world.  She combines her passion for women and high impact communications, creating Women in Science programs and serving as a coach and mentor helping women develop leadership skills. As a Same Sky Ambassador, Janet works to educate people about the efforts to empower African women through Same Sky’s work programs. She mentors women around the world for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and serves on the Vital Voices Artisan/Enterprise Advisory Committee.