Photo: From our summit in 2017
Background
Future Learning Lab is based on a networking idea, seeking to extend a campus-based research center at the University of Agder with members and communities at other universities. We seek an international context, which also means that our main events like our summits and roundtables are carried out in English, with premier speakers every time. Our speaker alumni includes foreign affairs ministers, MOOC pioneers, key scholars in a range of fields, policy-makers and innovators who have made their mark.
Our summits began modestly in 2010 and 2011 with quite modest events, expanding as of 2012 and from 2013 set in much the same format as we still adhere to: Three days, combinations of break-out tracks and plenary talks, always centered around one distinct theme of relevance to research as well as innovation and policy.
Our event in 2015 marked a change, as we moved to Stanford University in Silicon Valley and there set up a conference in collaboration with the HStar Institute at Stanford and the world-known online learning platform EdCast. All of our events since then have had this collaborative link to HStar, and some also to EdCast. Top officials from both have been present at our Nordic events.
In 2018, 2019 and 2021 we deepened this relation by also staging events in Oslo, as well as inviting speakers from new institutions and arenas to join us. More info on this can be found in other postings on this site. In 2020 we “closed down” but engaged in a truly brilliant exchange with colleagues from the Middle-East and as far away as Oceania. The logistical challenge is quite demanding, but we had speakers and attendees from ten different time-zones in 2021.
In 2022 we are again exploring campus-based interactions, but in order to not loose newly found friends and peers, we will do what we can to set up a meaningful interactive event space that combines physical presence with virtual interactions. Other posts will elaborate on this.
World learning Summit is one of three pillars at Future Learning Lab. Aside from these summits, we are shaping a student lab for future learning, and we explore new learning designs in a designated space for interaction and building, which you can learn more about on this link. Our “collaboration lab” is a members only space, with an annual fee, as it there are costs associated with providing those more elaborate services. If you are interested, please use the contact form in the “contact” menu at the top of this page. We are happy to include new members in this collaboration.
How can you engage?
First of all, please check out our separate summit website, for all the details and an overview of past WLS events. Secondly, take a look below at the four different ways in which we incite you to engage:
Keynote speaking
Our keynote speakers are all world class and we have speakers asking to come. Quite a few return to our summits later as attendees. Keynote assignments are reviewed by our board. Generally, we are open to both speakers and ideas. We try to offer keynotes that are timely, conceptually relevant and that engages within and beyond the research community. We are not a standard research conference, although we do pursue peer review publication. Our main goal is to service an engaged community with speakers that also speak to innovation, to policy, and to cross-disciplinary interests.
Workshop an panel hosting
Our summits are meant to foster dialogs. If you have an idea for a workshop, we ask that you outline it and also provide the panel speakers that you want to engage. Again, please check out the WLS homesite.
Publication options
As of 2022, WLS offers an indexed and double blind peer review process of accepting papers, from researchers and not the last from PhD candidates and students across the world. Our plans for 2022 are modest. Our plans moving forward echo our 2017 WLS where we published proceedings on a noted publishing platform. You can check out that publication here.
General attendance
WLS offers a wealth of opportunities to engage. Why should you choose WLS over other options? Our ambition is simple: We want to offer a limited space for researchers and innovators that s small enough to enable solid and meaningful networking, while on the other hand being big enough to matter. We are not reaching for the thousands. Other venues do that. We are reaching for those who seek a community in which to engage over time, forge friendships and explore that which is not so easily explored in more discipline-oriented events.
Join to to listen, join in to meet people, join in to cultivate your own ideas. We are concerned with EdTech but do not showcase commercial companies. We are concerned with research, but do not compete with neither journals nor world-level research conferences. We are concerned with exploring what is new and emergent, and we are all dedicated scholars, with absolutely no commercially vested interests.
That makes us unique, because we have our world community. General attendance simply means tapping in to this event that we have spent a decade setting up. And you are welcome. Just look us up in the WLS homesite and we will answer all other questions from there.