WCI and IVETA organised a learning festival called “Futureland” which took place from March 6 to 7, 2023 in Dublin, Ireland. Being the host organisation, WCI pulled out all the stops to create a memorable event that was hosted at the historic Trinity College, Dublin.
Garnering support from Failté Ireland and MeetinIreland, the event was part-funded by the Erasmus+ projects of Adaptive Expertise and INCLUSION2. The theme was to talk about the future of education, in light of the challenges brought forth by COVID-19 and the socially-distanced lives we led during the period.
A wonderful line-up of international speakers graced the event. On the first day, the festival took place at the historic Regent House. The event was opened by Warnborough CEO, Dr Julian Ng (also IVETA President) who laid out the issues the audience needed to discuss. This was followed by Andrew Brownlee, CEO of SOLAS Ireland, who spoke about the transformation of TVET in Ireland.
Dr Cloud Bai-Yun, head of ENIC-NARIC, spoke about qualifications and how they are transforming the world and being transformed themselves. WCI partner, Skillman, was represented by its CEO, Dr Giovanni Crisoná, who presented the forward-looking (and digital) way of ensuring transferable credential before our Dr Urs Hauenstein challenged us all to transform our teaching for sustainable learning.
Other notable speakers included Dr Frank de Jong of Aeres University and Rik Vanderhauwaert of DHOS Brugg who both spoke about professional learning communities and the unique method of knowledge co-creation, Dr Julie Furst-Bowe who talked about Hyflex Teaching and Learning, Gigi Pontejos-Morris (Philippines) who talked about family farm schools as a sustainable form of education in rural areas.
Participants were then invited to the fabulous 400-year old Dining Hall, replete with large portraits of important people, for the Gala Dinner. Amid the delicious food and awe-inspiring ambience, nominees for the Women Educational Leaders awards were introduced and the winners were presented with their trophies. The wine flowed as did the conversations, and a very happy night was had by all despite the stormy weather outside.
Day 2 took place in the Robert Emmet Theatre in the Conference Centre, with two classrooms utilised for workshops. Antonio Fernandez Perez got the ball rolling with an interesting take on using Augmented Reality to train potentially dangerous and expensive skills such as welding. Kirsten Cuppen delivered a masterclass on teaching to develop talent, Markus Feichter of our partner WOB in Italy talked about enhancing education using a green and social approach, while Dr Simona Brickers and Dr Pamela Hatton talked about the senses in education.
Workshops included topics such as adaptive expertise, formative assessment, learning leadership, instructional design, and mental health resilience in the classroom.
All in all, the event covered a myriad range of areas with diverse speakers from around the world. Many new friendships were forged, and existing ones strengthened.
The future is us, and we are here to stay.
