{"id":16648,"date":"2026-11-06T15:03:23","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T13:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oeb.global\/oeb-insights\/?p=16648"},"modified":"2026-11-12T12:29:26","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T10:29:26","slug":"what-120-visions-about-digital-transformation-teach-us-about-systemic-change-in-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oeb.global\/oeb-insights\/what-120-visions-about-digital-transformation-teach-us-about-systemic-change-in-education\/","title":{"rendered":"What 120 Visions About Digital Transformation Teach Us About Systemic Change in Education"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At SURF, asking our members a simple question: what does digital transformation look like in 2040? Hypothetically, we will receive more than 120 different visions. Each one makes sense. Together, they show how many meanings one phrase can carry.


That variety helps to explain why so many education pilots stay small. Innovation islands flourish in our institutions: a learning analytics project, an AI tutor, a hybrid classroom. Each island holds real value. Connecting them into a changed system requires a shared view of the future, and that view takes deliberate work.


Education is a complex adaptive system. Thousands of actors, from students and teachers to boards, ministries and suppliers, respond to one another’s moves, and outcomes emerge from these interactions. Uncertainty is high. AI, demographic change and the labour market will reshape learning in ways that remain open. Strategic foresight offers a way to work with this uncertainty. Leaders should explore several plausible futures, test today’s choices against each of them and look for investments that stay valuable in all of them.


SURF is the collaborative ICT organisation of Dutch education and research. Our members range from vocational colleges to research universities. Based on our activities (e.g. SURF Futures Day and SURF

Foresight practices seminars) members brought four insights:


The first insight: the context is the same for everyone. Participants from VET schools and research universities recognised that they face the same developments and the same uncertainties. Missions, students and funding differ, and the horizon is shared.


The second: a cooperative needs a shared language. 120 visions show how many meanings digital transformation carries. Joint choices need common words. Scenarios help here. Describing alternative futures in 2040 gives people something concrete to discuss.


The third: alignment takes deliberate effort. Currently, strategic decisions are made at various tables. Each serves its members and sets its own agenda. A cooperative that works needs places where leaders compare long-term views and look for common ground. Foresight sessions offer such a place.


The fourth: digital transformation spans the whole system. SURF traditionally speaks with CIOs, and those conversations remain valuable. ICT is everybody’s concern: the library, the dean, the institute director, teachers and students. Each sees a different part of the picture. Bringing these voices into the strategic conversation produces richer choices and wider ownership.


A fifth theme runs through all four: time. Project budgets run for two or three years and political terms for four. Structural change in education takes a decade or more. Short cycles favour visible quick wins. Long-term investment in shared language, shared infrastructure, skills and trusted partnerships builds the foundation for every future pilot. Futures thinking helps leaders make that case, because it shows the long-term consequences of today’s choices. A useful question for any board: which of our choices hold up in every scenario?


This line of thought leads to the session I will host at OEB Global in Berlin, together with my co-speakers. “Education: From Innovation Islands to Systemic Change” is a How To session, a 60-minute workshop for a small group. Participants do the work themselves, with discussion, collaborative exercises and practical tools.


The tools come from futures thinking, systems mapping and participatory design. Futures thinking helps participants explore different possible developments and examine the assumptions behind current choices. Systems mapping shows how an education system functions, where it resists change and where leverage points sit. Participatory design brings the people affected by a decision into the process of shaping it. Everyone is welcome, whatever their background in systems thinking or foresight.


We give special attention to agency and governance. Large-scale transformation can feel overwhelming, especially in highly regulated environments. Together we look for concrete entry points for action at institutional, regional and policy levels. Participants practise recognising patterns in complex systems, spotting tensions between innovation and public values, and separating what should change from what deserves protection.


The session suits professionals from schools, higher education, vocational education and training, workplace learning and lifelong learning. Participants leave with a clearer view of systems change, methods they can adapt to their own context and a renewed sense of agency.


Let us explore together how to achieve change that lasts!


Meet G\u00fcl for her How To session “Education: From Innovation Islands to Systemic Change<\/a>” on Thursday December 3, 12:00-13:00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Written for OEB 2026<\/a> by G\u00fcl Akcaova<\/a>.

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Join G\u00fcl at OEB 2026<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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At SURF, asking our members a simple question: what does digital transformation look like in 2040? Hypothetically, we will receive more than 120 different visions. Each one makes sense. Together, they show how many meanings one phrase can carry. That variety helps to explain why so many education pilots stay small. Innovation islands flourish in […]<\/p>\n

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