A first welcome note by Future Learning Lab to Stanford University November 2015
The Fall 2015 Future Learning Conference is set for Mid November, at Stanford University. This is the 5th annual conference that we do in our Future Learning Lab network. Our goal is to set up an annual conference on Technology and Learning in Silicon Valley aimed particularly at non-US target audiences and participants, and with a declared North- South Globalization framework. In that respect it will be different than existing conferences on Ed Tech. We are hoping to partner up with all the Nordic and Baltic countries to see this happen in 2016, and after that — no one knows.
A parallel to these internationalization efforts, Future Learning Lab also runs an annual conference in Norway which is targeted at Nordic academics and entrepreneurs, and which is also a collaboration between several Nordic countries and the US. We have worked closely with peers at Stanford University and around since 2010. Our particular focus on these conferences has from the start been the digitalization of higher education, learning technology and K12, as well as corporate learning. We try to stay dedicated to all three. We also try to be a mix every time and year between academics doing research and critique, and on the other side entrepreneurs seeking ways and means to build and be innovative in their international networking.
For some insight into our past conferences, please go check out the sidebars on this page, or contact us for information about streamed lectures and discussions. We have set up a new website in 2015, so some of the prior events will take some time to communicate. But they will get here, eventually. The prior four conferences have all been held in Norway, with streamed lectures by world-known scholars.
The main part of the 2015 version of the conference will be our two plenary days, held in the beautiful Paul Brest Hall at the Munger Conference Center on the Stanford campus i Palo Alto. We will advertise broadly, so we expect about 150-250 attendees, giving us the opportunity to both network widely and also pursue conversation and extended theme discussions. Our keynote speakers are selected with this in mind, offering solid grounds for continued project collaboration.
For those interested, after the two days of plenary conference, we will follow up with two days of peer paper presentation in academic mode. This is by invitation only, and invitations will come through our network and partners. It will come on the ECREA network — the European Association for Communication Research, as well as on IAMCR — the International Association for Mass Communication Research.
Beyond 2015: We are now looking to expand the network in order to be able to cope with larger and more complex comparative research issues relating to emergent digital learning landscapes now encapsulating the entire world and challenging us to rethink some basic elements of what we do as educators, students, instructors and individuals just seeking a re-fill. The fact of globalized education ought to seriously reshape our concern for the future of education institutions, as well.
Conference details
To come