{"id":6593,"date":"2019-12-19T13:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T13:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hfdwhdev.15.phee.host\/blog\/my-learning-journey-part-2-educational-experts-2019-in-berlin\/"},"modified":"2019-12-19T13:00:42","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T13:00:42","slug":"my-learning-journey-part-2-educational-experts-2019-in-berlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hfd.phee.dev\/en\/blog\/my-learning-journey-part-2-educational-experts-2019-in-berlin\/","title":{"rendered":"My Learning Journey Part 2 \u2013 Educational Experts 2019 in Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the second part of our learning journey, we (17 German and eight American leaders in higher education) met in Berlin from 8\u201313 December 2019 for another five days of talks, visits and discussions. Read part one of the learning story from the educational experts seminar taking place in the U.S. earlier this year here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Since some of us arrived in Berlin on the weekend before the seminar, we started with a bit of joint sightseeing. And happily mixed Christmas shopping with history, cultural exchanges with discussions on digitalization, the future with a silent disco, and rain with Gl\u00fchwein. And it all worked fantastically amongst people that have known each other for four days only!<\/p>\n

Sunday, December 8<\/h2>\n

We started by checking-in over dinner with everyone and sharing some success stories \u2013 some of us have already put some of their learnings into practice! Like a podcast, for example.<\/p>\n

Monday, December 9 – Educational Experts<\/h2>\n

\"\"On the way to the offices of the Impact Hub Berlin we walked past Checkpoint Charlie.<\/p>\n

At the Impact Hub<\/a>, we were welcomed officially to Part 2 of our Educational Experts Seminar by Fulbright Germany<\/a> and the Stifterverband. Dr. Gordon B\u00f6lling from the German Rector\u2019s Conference (HRK) gave a short introduction into the German higher education system, the role of the HRK and some of the current policy issues. I was not able to hide completely my slightly different viewpoint on some of the topics raised \u2013 Students as a challenge? Seriously?!<\/p>\n

Then, Oliver Janoschka (HFD) and Alexander Knoth (DAAD) spoke about “International Higher Education Mobility and Collaboration in Times of Digital Transformation”. It was a little like preaching to the converted, of course.<\/p>\n

The rest of the day, we spent at the conference Strategies Beyond Borders<\/a>. My fist session was “Driving Innovation Together: Edubadges for Microcredentialing” with Janina van Hees from SURF<\/a>. This is a Dutch  initiative for a nationwide approach to badges in higher education. The idea is that these badges are then easily transferable between institutions. In the current pilot, 17 higher education institutions are working on this together \u2013 impressive! I will definitely be following this development.<\/p>\n

So, I also joined their next session “Towards a More Flexible Higher Educations System”. Making education more flexible is part of the Dutch \u201cAcceleration Plan for Educational Innovation with ICT\u201d. <\/p>\n

What struck me from both sessions was the clear student perspective:<\/strong> Both the edubadges and the flexibilization efforts respond to the requirements of the students rather than those of the teachers.<\/p>\n

\"\"My key learning of the day:<\/p>\n

Both in the US and in Netherlands, the importance of taking the students\u2019 perspective on teaching and learning has been recognized at least at the institutional level. And in both, this is also one of the drivers for digitalization. In Germany, not so much yet.<\/p>\n

Next stop for us was the christmas market at Potsdamer Platz (taking control of our own cultural learning as best as we could).<\/p>\n

Back at the conference, we watched together the summary of part one of our learning journey<\/a>:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n