En route to a sustainable future: Agenda2030-tool by Eduix, HeadAI and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences

Posted on by Johanna Kiviranta

For Eduix, this year has already seen some interesting software development with limitless potential. One of such is our current project regarding sustainable development in higher education institutions (HEIs), created in co-operation with our AI-partner company HeadAI, and the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

In this project, we have created an analysis tool, which can be used to compare project material – or in this case curriculum descriptions and data – to the UN Sustainable Development Goals from the year 2015. The goal of the tool is to aid the university decision makers in analysing the current situation and to develop their curriculums towards their stated goal to support sustainable development. 

The Agenda 2030 analysis tool is an internationally unique tool that can be used for, for instance:

  1. Education planning: How do we design our curriculums and courses in order to support the students in achieving skills and methods for sustainable development in their working life? 
  2. Project evaluation (i.e. development projects): How well does the project support the achievement of the sustainable development goals? Has sustainability been taken into account in the project plan? 
  3. Funding decisions: Are the SDG:s present in the investment possibilities? Have they been taken into account?

“As a long-term partner of Metropolia, we are happy to take this unprecedented step together towards the 2030s. In this project, Eduix has been the actor responsible for the user experience – i.e. the visualization of the analysis and the user interface”, says Pauliina Halme, Eduix’s Partner Director.  

“This close collaboration between our three organizations has been a rewarding experience, and we look forward to all the opportunities such a tool presents in the future. It is also interesting to see all the future software we will create in the realm of competence identification and data-driven development of education, something which we are already developing together.”  

The founder of HeadAI, Harri Ketamo, highlights that the analysis tool has been created in order to make sustainable development tangible and concrete. “We have created an AI tool to compare the contents of education to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The tool discovers essential information with the use of Big Data to support decision making in education.” 

The tool is a part of a larger development project

The Agenda 2030 tool is a part of a development project aiming to fortify the connection between education and work life. As part of the overall solution, we are building tools to support continuous learning. 

The overall solution is developed to support students, work life and R&I. The goal is to create cost-efficient tools for Metropolia to develop their education services by answering the following questions: 

  1. What skill sets do the teachers in Metropolia have? How do they correspond with the learning goals set for each course? → Appointing teachers to courses according to resources available
  2. What kind of know-how does working life need? How can this be incorporated in what Metropolia is teaching its students? 
  3. Will the students learn skills needed not only now but in the future with regards to global issues needing to be addressed? 

We would be more than happy to discuss this tool and possibilities related to it with you. If interested, please contact Pauliina, p. +358 50 537 1652, pauliina.halme@eduix.fi, and we’ll set up a meeting! 

Glowdom participates in the campaign “Social Innovations for Youth Development and Transformation.”

Posted on by Lais Oliveira Leite

Glowdom has started the campaign “Social Innovations for Youth Development and Transformation” within the Youth Development and Social Innovations in Southern Africa programs designed by the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa (ROSA) and the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC).

In the campaign, Glowdom highlights the role of Formjack and Collecte to support education needs in Namibia.

Read all about it in the Glowdom blog.

Eduditra, exciting times

Posted on by Lais Oliveira Leite

By Altti Lagstedt

There have been situations in history, where individuals or a society has had an opportunity, but there has not been the right momentum. So, the opportunity has been wasted, and the next chance has come much later to someone else. For example, in ancient Alexandra in Roman Egypt, mathematician and engineer Hero developed Aeolipile, a wildly rotating steam ball, which can be considered as the first known radial steam turbine. However, he, or no one else at the time, did not find any practical use for it; it was taken only as a gimmick or a trick for temples. It took over 1700 years for the next opportunity and momentum to come into Great Britannia and James Watt. They seized an opportunity, there was the momentum, and the rest is history. But think if they didn’t, if the momentum has tailed off, what would our world look like today?

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Looking back, so we know where to move forward

Posted on by Lais Oliveira Leite

Despite all challenges and tragedies, some dare to say that the future came earlier during 2020. This “future” is complex, it scares us when we realize that education inequality has increased even more when it was already unacceptable, and school closure set back successes achieved through hard years of effort and investment. However, this same future brings hope when we have witnessed how education stakeholders have moved innovation from the margins to the center of many education systems to overcome the challenges imposed by the lockdown and social isolation.

In the report “Beyond reopening schools: how education can emerge stronger than before Covid-19”, Emiliana Vegas and Rebecca Winthrop propose five actions to guide transformation of education systems:

  1. Leverage public schools, given their essential role in equalizing opportunity across dimensions within society;
  2. Emphasize the instructional core of teaching and learning;
  3. Deploy education technology to power up schools in a long-term manner and for the core benefits of teaching and learning;
  4. Forge stronger and more trusting relationships between parents and teachers;
  5. And implement an iterative approach of understanding the evidence and setting the course of change accordingly.
Continue reading “Looking back, so we know where to move forward”

The Southern Africa Innovation Support needed visionaries to rethink the business ecosystem in the region. We attended their call.

Posted on by Lais Oliveira Leite

In August 2020, the Southern Africa Innovation Support Programme (SAIS) opened a call for “projects to pilot and validate solutions to make Southern African startup ecosystems more resilient and better able to face an uncertain future”. The context of the call was the fact that Covid-19 has revealed flaws in the worldwide innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. They challenged applicants to find these flaws and offer solutions to the innovation business ecosystem in the region, so it would become stronger and more resilient against adversities.

Promptly, Glowdom and Eduix, supported by the EDUDITRA project in cooperation with Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences started the discussion to create a consortium. Over the year, the group had already organized a webinar series to discuss about digitizing education ecosystem in Namibia. The webinar “Education in the world 4.0: bridging the gap between education and the market” counted with the participation of Hasekiel Johannes, the Innovation Officer of Namibia Business Innovation Institute (NBII). The moment we remembered how well aligned the webinar discussions and participation were, that was the start of our project consortium.

Continue reading “The Southern Africa Innovation Support needed visionaries to rethink the business ecosystem in the region. We attended their call.”

A teacher toolkit for developing positive relationship with students

Posted on by Lais Oliveira Leite

When I came to Finland for my Master studies, I wanted to research about a topic that already intrigued me in Brazil when I was working as school psychologist in a rural school of Ceará.

I was interested in understanding how some teachers managed to have such a good relationship with their students, which impacted positively on the students’ learning; while other teachers struggled with it. By good relationship I mean when teachers and students are focused on teaching and learning the content while they are also relaxed. Spontaneous actions such as jokes, laughs, personal reflections, and life stories’ sharing color the interactions and are important parts of the education process. I could observe that the students were more focused on the content when they had such a good relationship with the teachers, than when they did not. I could also see how this impacted on the teachers’ satisfaction regarding their work from the way they talked about it.

Picture resource: Phys.org
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Developing museums’ resilience by digitizing archives and operations

Posted on by Lais Oliveira Leite

Institutions that store and protect cultural heritage, such as museums and archives, are vital resources for mental health, well-being, social cohesion, and cultural learning. Today, more than ever, the importance of culture and creativity for society is clear. During the Covid-19, those with access to the Internet have constantly resorted to online cultural production provided by institutions and private initiatives. Who, during the past months, has not watched a live session with their favourite singers, read an e-book temporarily available during the months of lockdown, or visited a museum “walking” through its digital corridors in a 360-degree view?

Unfortunately, the lockdown measures over this year and the impossibility of physical visiting have caused massive loss of revenue for cultural institutions such as museums and archives. In addition, the digital gap due to lack of Internet accessibility in many regions around the world have increased largely and strongly affected those institutions that cannot resort to such resources, especially the smaller and private initiatives in small cities or rural areas.  

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Scaling up our digital ecosystem in Namibia …

Posted on by Lais Oliveira Leite

… The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as digitalization in general, are putting pressure on the schools’ curricula and education, and it is challenging for them to support the digital leaps in the society.

The digital transformation in schools requires constant and close support, and to be beneficial, local school processes and practices have to be understood and taken into account.

To achieve sustainable solutions, the local edTech solutions and ecosystem supporting them have to be available, and this kind of local ecosystems should be possible to be set and scaled up agilely.

Read more about it in the Glowdom blog! 

When I learned that hard work and free time are not mutually exclusive

Posted on by Lais Oliveira Leite

When I arrived in Finland in 2016 to start my Master degree in Education, I was stressed. I had to carry luggage everywhere, buy and arrange furniture, organize University papers, attend meetings with supervisors… I also had to deal with the fact that I was in a new place, far away from home, my family and friends. But I was where I wanted to be and I was familiar with stress.

Eventually I started to focus on integrating myself in the University life. I had over 30 ECTS to complete and I was excited and ready to work “full-on”, get stressed by deadlines, reduce my social life and increase my Education expertise. After all, I didn’t come to Finland to make friends, I came to study and get a Master diploma. Well, things happened in a different way.

Continue reading “When I learned that hard work and free time are not mutually exclusive”