LEA in Halmstad

The Second consortium meeting & internal Capacity Building Seminar of LEA - Learntech Accelerator was held in Halmstad, Sweden. Or in particular @Tylosand, the home of Roxette, by the beautiful west coast of Sweden.

 This time we meant serious business: Capacity Building for internal Procurers and Needs analysis for a new PPI.

What is a PPI, you might ask? The simple answer would be "Public Procurement of Innovation".

I try to make it 'earth language for you': It's when many municipalities/cities/schools all over Europe come together and say: We need to BUY this similar thing. This is what we need. Provide us with something that's better than what we've got! Of course the benefit is that banding several countries and organisations together - you should be able to get a better service deal. Let alone a better price. So it's worth it, right? Joined procurement? What do you think?

So these are the topics we used two days to discuss: On Learning Technologies - what do we actually want?

Needs.. So easy... or HARD to express.

It's easy to say 'this is my need' if you first ask: Show me your money!

But our tactic was to work with scenarios.

To build upon what we had learned in IMAILE project and moved on from there - to imagine what would be the ideal Personalised Learning Environment for our countries... for our schools.

It is fairly simple right. If your school, organisation, municipality or city is looking into buying new learntech in the near future: LEA can help you.

Not only do we provide you with the understanding of what goes on in Europe, but we also can interlink you into our network.

This will teach you how to apply for European Commision funds to make your school's dreams come true!

How about if you could be in the driver's seat for the new technology?

if Learntech was actually helpful for the teachers?

That's what LEA project can do for you.

All you need to do is go to: https://www.learntechaccelerator.eu/followlea/  And fill the form!

We are not asking you much. We ask that you would listen on opportunities that are out there for you. That's it.

Plus we are super cool consortium as you can see from these pictures.

Everyone looks like a Rockstar!

How about you hang out with us next?

LEA is preparing a cross-border procurement of Innovation in the field of Learntech. 

But enough with marketing talk...

Learntech Accelerator coordinator, finally relaxed after two-day meeting below...

What I like about this consortium is that it brings together people from different backgrounds: New, Experienced, Procurement, Industry, Learntech specialists, teachers... You name it.

Our host Halmstad made a great job in organizing this meeting.

It rained. Hard.We enjoyed. We were in the Jacuzzi at the end of the meeting. 

The food was all around divine.

As what you might expect from Sweden...:)

 I managed to get a shot of the IMAILE/LEA boys:)

Consortium meetings can be tough on coordinators... But I think there was certainly a reward in the end of this one.

I honestly think we all went home much more knowledgeable than before. Part of the work is understanding the topic: Learntech procurement. Part of the work is understanding each other.

We are a young consortium. Still, some tricks to learn. And how about the coordinator? Getting there.

/Juhannuksen alusviikolla olin Halmstadissa keskustelemassa oppimisteknologioiden hankinnoista jälleen koordinoimani 'LEA' Learntech Accelerator -projektin kokouksessa. Tarkoituksena oli rakentaa tietoa kuntien, kaupunkien ja koulujen ymmärtämykseen siitä millaisia mahdollisuuksia heillä on mikäli heitä huvittaa hankkia oppimisteknologioita yhdessä esim. muiden vastaavien EU:n sisäisten organisatioiden kanssa. Oletko hankkimassa oppimisympäristöä koulullesi ja sinua ei huvita maksaa koko laskua itse? EU voi auttaa... Ja projektimme LEA voi kertoa sinulle, että miten... (+kirjoitella hakemuksenkin puolestasi) eli aika hyvä diili vai mitä... otappa yhteyttä: +358505631805

Learntech Accelerator goes ITK 2018

/How to make educated purchases in the Learnech jungle of procurement? This is the question that LEA - Learntech Accelerator project is tackling. We went to ITK Days, which is the largest Learntech conference in Finland and of course most of the virtual learning environment providers were present. Not to mention the schools! About 3000 teachers, learntech solution providers and educational experts visit the ITK every year. This conference takes place in Hämeenlinna, Finland. This is a great event to meet all the players of this field as everyone is here. I have attended the ITK for years now - some stories also in the blog:

ITK 2017 (with IMAILE)
ITK 2015 (with Open Discovery Space)
ITK 2013 (with Open Science Resources)
 
Conferences like this one are great for analyzing what is hot or not in Learntech? Based on this year's experiences, the hottest topics in Learntech currently are:
1. Holo glasses - VR, AR, MR - this has been a breakthrough - we could see so many people hovering around the corridors - however, many teachers are asking: What is the actual added value to us? Is this another 'smart board' which will come now and be forgotten in 5 years... How does it make the students learn better? What is the pedagogical approach. It was motivating to see pilots from Northern Central Finland however, where they had clearly been doing some excellent demonstations...
2. AI - although no one know where learning analytics end and AI begins. Specifically not the Learntech sellers... So this is an interesting topic to study: How complicated must the algorithm be that it can be called AI...
3. Learning Analytics - part of most state-of-the-art learning environments right now. Although mostly used for measuring user behavior, not learning behavior and mostly used to recommend more content, not actually social help... This is a relief as we can honestly say that there is still an innovation GAP which was identified in the IMAILE project originally 4 years ago and there still plenty of work to be done in LEA.  
4. Pokemon Go-style learning materials where students walk around and complete tasks in the real physical environments - The question becomes however, who has time to make these materials... Surely they are rather time consuming... And if the students make the materials, the school does not get the rights to them as security laws come and say 'no'. This means a lot of the time excellent student produced materials cannot be re-used...
5. GDPR - The Security regulation and law coming up from EU where personal or personal like data belongs to the person and companies are going to have to pay big time if they allow data breech to confidental data... Some American companies are drawing from the European market due to this... and it's coming up only a month from now!

LEA project had a poster presentation in ITK and we also started our state-of-the-art analysis by interviewing the PLE providers that were present: Mobie eSmart, Blackboard, It's Learning, Peda.net, Qridi, Microsoft, Dicentum, Claned... Intensive work but great gains. 

Are you a personalised learning environment provider? Are you a Learning technology buyer/procurer? Please contact us for more information: 

coordinator@learntechaccelerator.eu 
https://www.learntechaccelerator.eu/ 
 

  Oppimisteknologioiden hankintaprosessi on usein hankkijaorganisaatiolle hankala tehtävä, sillä teknologian ostopäätöksen tekijä on lähes aina eri henkilö kuin sen tuleva loppukäyttäjä. Usein kunnat tai koulut tulevat hankkineeksi vaikeakäyttöisiä ohjelmistoja tai monimutkaisia laitteita, jotka jäävät pölyyntymään luokan nurkkaan. 
Moni asia voi hankkimisproessissa siis mennä vikaan. Learntech Accelerator -projekti tukee oppimsiteknologioiden hankintaprosesseja ja niinpä olimme mukana tänä vuonna ITK-päivillä Hämeenlinnan Aulangolla. 

 ITK-päivien konkarikävijänä tiedän, että näistä kekkereistä parhaiten saa irti, kun tekee etukäteen suunnitelman, miten hyödyntää paikallaolevia opettajia ja tietysti näytteilleasettajayrityksiä. 
Tänä vuonna meillä oli LEA:n tiimin kanssa tiukka tavoite haastatella kaikki paikalla olleet oppimisympäristöjen tarjoajat.

ITK:ssa oli noin kymmenen palveluntarjoajaa, jotka menivät meidän tutkimuksen "scouppiin"... Oli markkinajohtajaa It's Learningiä, joka on Sanoma Pron matriaalien alusta... Oli Qridiä, joka on itsearviointityökalu analytiikalla...
  Oli Microsoft ja Blackboard - amerikkalaiset jättitoimittajat... Oli australian markkinaa valloittava Claned ja kiinan markkinoille tähtäävä Mobie... Oli Disendum, joka on Optima-alustansa jälkeen nyt julkaisemassa uuden, omien sanojensa mukaan "toisen sukupolven oppimisympäristöä", mikä tarkoittaa, että oppilas on keskiössä, ei opettaja... jne.

Tällainen aineistonkeruutapa on kohtuullisen raskas toteuttaa back-to-back haastatteluina parin päivän sisään, mutta kuitenkin saavutettu edistyminen tässä työtehtävässä on niin paljon nopeampaa kuin etähaastattelujen tekeminen skypellä. Uskallan sanoa, että kahdessa päivässä tehtiin kahden viikon työt. Hyvä me!

 ITK päivillä on vuosittain kolmisen tuhatta kävijää.

 Meidän tutkimusryhmälläkin oli edustusta paikalla myös STIMEY-projektin esityksen muodossa.

 Tiina esitteli oppilaitosten tarveanalyysiä...

 Messujen käytäväkuvaan olivat ilmestyneet ns. hololasit, joiden avulla saattoi päästä esim. Roomaan... AR/VR ovat tänä vuonna kuuminta hottia teknologiatrendeissä ja Suomi on edelläkävijänä näissä asioissa. Muita kuumia trendejä sanoisin olevan oppimisen analytiikka, teköäly, 3D-printtaus (tosin tämä on mielestäni jo vähän passee... Tai odottelee vielä tilannetta, jossa olisi kuluttajahintaisia laitteita saatavilla... ) Mutta kaikenkaikkiaan kiinnostavinta lienee se, että oli teknologia mikä hyvänsä, tulisi löytää todellinen lisäarvo pedagogiikassa, jotta opettajat suostuisivat ottamaan näitä pidempiaikaiseen käyttöön luokkahuoneisiinsa... Tämä on aina kynnys uusien teknologioiden kanssa.

Oppimisteknologioiden hankkijaorganisaatiot ja palvelujen tarjoajaorganisaatiot saavat mielellään liittyä verkostoomme seuraamaan innovatiivisuuden kehittymistä tällä alalla osoitteessa:

https://www.learntechaccelerator.eu/