OEB Videos
The Event
Plenaries
The OEB Plenary Debate
This House Believes All Learning Experiences Should Be Fun is the motion for this year’s OEB Global Debate. As ‘enriched’ experiences, such as gamification and virtual reality, play increasingly important roles in education and, as traditional methods of teaching come under increasing attack, this year's OEB debate is your chance to have your say on the role of 'fun' in learning. Should all learning experiences be fun, as the proposers of the motion will argue? Or are hard work, discipline and the old-fashioned ways still as important as ever? Always one of the highlights of OEB, the annual Plenary Debate is an opportunity for you to discuss one of the most important issues for the future of education with our expert speakers. The parliamentary-style format is sure to encourage a lively exchange of views - and there’ll be plenty of time for audience participation.
Chairperson: Harold Elletson
Speaker: Alex Beard, Elliott Masie, Benjamin Doxtdator and Patti Shank
Plenary: (Getting to) The Heart of Education
Will there be a new golden age for higher education? How will technology change our approach to learning? How will it help to place education at the heart of life? How will it inspire a new generation? How will we change the nature of education? How will we learn to love learning?
Chairperson: Sara de Freitas
Speakers: Anders Flödstrom, Esther Wojcicki and Ben Williamson
Opening Plenary
Technology is changing society. The way we live and the jobs we do will never be the same again. In twenty years, the world of work will be unlike anything we have ever known. The development of artificial intelligence will allow machines to replace workers in many industries on an unprecedented scale. Humankind will face some fundamental, existential questions. Why are we here? What are we doing? How are we different from the machines?
Education will shape our response to the immense challenge of this new age. But education and training will have to change too. So will the nature of employment. Learning will no longer be a brief phase in life. It will become a central part of our existence. In an era of constant and increasing change, we will discover a new appreciation of learning and an understanding of its place in the future. We will learn to love learning.
Chairperson: Donald H.Taylor
Speakers: Bryan Caplan, Anita Schjøll Brede, Geoff Mulgan
Learning Changes! - with Elliott Masie
Learners, content formats, learning technologies, business expectations and more are changing! In this very first open-to-all Spotlight Stage session, Elliott Masie will provide an edgy, humorous and global challenge to learning and development colleagues. From leveraging a learning blockchain to the end of memorisation - we have challenges and opportunities.
Speaker: Elliott Masie
Spotlight Stage
Spotlight Stage: Why the World Needs Open Source & Open Education to Survive
On our Spotlight Stage, the founder of Moodle will explain how open technologies in education are critical to making progress towards the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
Chairperson: Ildikó Mázár
Speaker: Martin Dougiamas
Spotlight Stage: We Are Engines - with Jef Staes
The world switches from a flat 2D world to a chaotic 3D world. In this world of information luxury, change and disruption we must reinvent learning and working. We must embrace the power of our own human potential and become "Engines of Innovation". An "Engine of Innovation" has the power to set its own course in this turbulent world, has a fantastic learning power that harvests the ever-increasing mass of information and is able to use all kind of resources to bring his learnings into practice. After this session your mindset about personal development will be disrupted. You will understand the real meaning of passionate love for learning when you become addicted to your talents.
Speaker: Jef Staes
Spotlight Stage: The Learning Research Quiz Show - with Will Thalheimer
In this rollicking, roller coaster ride of a session, research translator and provocateur, Will Thalheimer will engage the audience in a rapid-fire series of questions, challenging them on their knowledge of myths, misconceptions, and science-of-learning fundamentals. This is a great way to fine-tune your knowledge, ensure you’re not advocating myths, and have a grand old time.
Speaker: Will Thalheimer
Spotlight Stage: Playful Machine Learning - with Andreas Refsgaard
In his talk on the Spotlight Stage, interaction designer, artist and teacher Andreas Refsgaard describes how machine learning has become an integrated part of his personal practise and curriculum for teaching designers and artists about digital interactions. By enabling people to decide upon and train their own unique controls for a system, the creative power shifts from the designer of the system to the person interacting with it.
Using machine learning to make unconventional connections between inputs and outputs Andreas and his students have made projects where games are controlled by making silly sounds, music is composed by drawing instruments on paper and algorithms are trained to decide what is funny, funky or boring.
Speaker: Andreas Refsgaard
Spotlight Stage: Learn to Teach Best! - with Theo Bastiaens
Theo Bastiaens, Vice-President for Digitalisation at the Fernuniversität in Hagen, explains why and how educators and trainers need to update their teaching methods and knowledge a.s.a.p. In the interest of learners he stresses the importance of an "e-teaching certificate" for teachers.
Speaker: Theo Bastiaens
Spotlight Stage: Fighting "Post-Truth" with Critical Literacy Education - with Alec Couros
Dr. Alec Couros will discuss the urgent need to reimagine information literacy curricula as a tool for surviving the current epidemic of fake news, catfishing, and dis/misinformation.
Speaker: Alec Couros
Spotlight Stage: Effectiveness of Games for Learning and Training - with Sara de Freitas
Join Prof Sara de Freitas at this Spotlight Stage session on the effectiveness of games, game design, game play and gamification for learning and training. How can you make the most of new insights into human behaviour and advances in research on the topic? Further your understanding on their impact, on what works (and what doesn’t) and be inspired to integrate the latest principles and methods for engagement in your courses too.
Speaker: Sara de Freitas
Sessions
Panel: Taking OER from Commitment to Action
Panel speakers from different sectors will share examples showing the potential of Open Educational Resources. Audience members will be invited to join in a general discussion on the future of OER.
Speaker: Jan Pawlowski, Ebba Ossiannilsson, Knut Inge Skifjeld, Cecilie Isaksen Eftedal and Markus Bick
Panel: Learning and Training with Bots - Why Not?
Bots can be useful, bots can be nefarious. In the digital world, they are almost ubiquitous. In learning, they are ready to take off. This Panel examines the innovative use of bots in different sectors and areas. For people new to the topic, it will present an ‘everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask’ opportunity. Those already familiar will be introduced to compelling new concepts for the application of bots in learning and training.
Chairperson: Miho Tanaka Gumpp
Speaker: Donald Clark, Silvia Prieto Preboste, Lars Satow
Panel: Higher Education is a Waste of Time and Money and EdTech Won’t Fix That
Join this panel for a lively discussion of one of this year’s OEB themes, "Will there be a new golden age for higher education? In his book “The Case Against Education,” Bryan Caplan argues that the added value of higher education to society is so small that it does not represent a sufficient Return On Investment to justify its current existence. His proposed solution is a radical one: we need less (spending on) higher education and more vocational education. Both sceptics and supporters of the view that learning technologies can successfully address the problems of higher education will consider if and how learning technologies can be used to address the shortcomings of higher education both from within and outside the system, as well as the relative merits of higher education versus vocational education. You are invited to contribute to our exchange on this controversial subject!
Chairperson: Brian Mulligan
Speaker: Donald Clark, Willem van Valkenburg, Nina Huntermann, Mike Feerick
Panel: As Professions Change, How Can Curricula Keep Up?
This Panel - including an educator, an industry professional and a student - will explore the edge where curriculum meets business meets technology. This is the edge where entrepreneurs live. Join them to hear about how their activities are impacting the future of design education – and take part in a dialogue on the need for more multidisciplinary curricula. We promise you will leave with an understanding of what it means to be a designer today as well as with ideas for your learners to help them understand business strategies better and thus get a clearer picture of the value of what they can bring to the world of work once their formal education ends.
Speakers: Claudia Roeschmann, Alvaro Soto and Teresa Wittenbach Wingfield