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The Telegraph writes about summer holidays as an idea of the past. Comparisons are made to old farming societies and the conclusion is that today’s society is not structured in a way that defends a long summer holiday and schooldays that finishes at 3 pm.

The long summer holiday was a way to get through the harvest season, and sending the kids home at 3 pm was motivated by them being needed for household chores. But today’s society does not function like that. Very few parents are off from work during the entire summer holiday, and even fewer parents are at home when the kids finish at 3 pm. On the contrary, parents and their kids have very different schedules.

The article in The Telegraph therefore suggests another system that is more adapted to the lifestyle of today. A long summer holiday with even longer terms is not ideal. Shorter, continuous holidays are considered a better option. Why not create a system where the kids study for two months, and then have one month off – throughout the year? Why not introduce longer schooldays that includes time for homework, so that all kids are given the same help and chance to develop?

Attention is fundamental

Today, socioeconomic background is the most determining factor as regards a child’s success in school. This means that the activities that the children engage in after school are more determining to their grades, that the hours that they spend in the classroom. Getting the right attention and help can therefore be seen as fundamental for any child’s learning process. This means that a long summer holiday can form a big gap between students that are encouraged by their parents to continue learning, and students that are not.

The article in The Telegraph has some good points. The school system that is standard in the west is not adapted to modern society. But is the real nut to crack concerned with the length of the school day, and the length of the summer holiday? Is it really about time frames and yearly planning?

From our perspective the main question is rather how to stimulate and inspire each student depending on his or her individual character. And how to create a relationship to learning that is not only concerned with performance, but also with the desire to learn.

Digital education for individual feedback

We believe that the major difference between children that grown up under better socioeconomic conditions and those who do not, is the attention and help the child receives.

One way of solving this problem is to introduce school days that run 8-5 pm and thereby provide all children the same amount of time with adults around. Another way of solving this problem is to develop learning methods that are not dependent on the presence of an adult to certify individual feedback and encouragement.

To prolong the school day and cut the summer holiday is a method to create the same conditions for children that learn best through the pedagogy most schools use. But it cannot be considered a serious attempt to create equal conditions for all kids to learn. An initiative with such ambitions must take on a larger perspective and see how different children learn, and create methods that meet these differences.

Digital education has potential to take on such a perspective.

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Many students ask for more flexible teaching methods and Karlstad University is determined to answer their call. Currently, 45 % of the students at Karlstad University are long distance students, but in the future the distinction between long distance studies and on campus studies will likely be arbitrary. The reason why is Blended Learning.

Blended Learning denotes education that is conducted with digital and traditional teaching methods. It attempts to take the best from two worlds and combine the social aspects of classroom teachings with the flexibility that digital methods can offer.

The borders have outlived their purpose

Karlstad University has invested 4 million kr to develop methods for Blended Learning. The ambition is to eliminate the distinction between long distance studies and on campus studies, and that alternative approaches to conducing university studies will evolve as a result of that.
The major benefit with Blended Learning is that the method can be adapted to the subject, instead of the subject being adapted to the method. If all teaching is conducted in the classroom this will result in the subject knowledge being adapted to the conditions of the classroom. With Blended Learning there are great possibilities to adapt the teaching method according to the subject, and thereby create smarter and more interactive methods for teaching.

Teacher’s education taking the lead

The integration of Blended Learning is most apparent at the teacher education. Starting autumn 2012 long distance students and on campus students will study parts of their education together, thus having the benefits of both classroom teaching methods and digital teaching methods.
For most people this idea is hardly groundbreaking. We google information daily and are used to accessing new knowledge via different types of digital media. Integrating Blended Learning can therefore be seen as an initiative to adapt university education to the rest of society. We live in a digitalized world where the ability to navigate the Internet is a condition for almost any job. Then it is only natural that university studies also integrate and actively work with digital methods.

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Apple launches iBook and thereby offers teachers and students of the world to participate in the development of digital teaching material. The reactions have been mostly positive, even though many questions remain unanswered.
Books have long functioned as our primary course material and source of new knowledge. We have read for generations and learnt to trust the written word. But this trust has gradually been replaced by the logic of the Internet, where publishing is happening according to completely different criteria.

Quality versus quantity

A couple of years ago, Internet was evaluated in terms of quality versus quantity. Many teachers agreed that the Internet hosted a lot of knowledge, while they were critical to the varied quality and the difficulties with finding proper sources. The internet was simply not a reliable source. Thusly, books proved superior, because of their clear referencing and the publishers that guaranteed the correctness of the content.
But now the tide has changed. With iBook the same type of quality can be assured, and referencing is as reliable as with any other book. Reliability is therefore not a problem, and quality is approached from other angles. Now we discuss quality in terms of updated information, and quality as regards the pedagogical approach. A regular course book only has text and image, while an iBook contain interactive material.
The interactive dimension leads to a deeper learning experience since numerous senses are activated through the learning process. What is more, iBooks encourages the student’s curiosity and willingness to learn, by making it possible for the student to click his or her way to in-depth information, contrasting information and alternative perspectives.

Digital education is the future

Apple’s launch can be expexted to influence schools and universities across the world, and will thereby shape our way of handling and relating to books, the written word and pedagogy. But that does mean that the iBook is complete. It is rather an important step towards a future where education will be increasingly influenced by digital media.
Our Knowledge Manager Christian Stenevi is already busy testing the publishing tools of iBook.
- The concept is extremely interesting, he says, but not even Apple has made it all the way. And that is for the better! The development with digital education can only benefit from many different companies and organisations engaging in finding the best solutions.

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Niklas Ollikainen is one of those who have been at TicTac since its very start. He is also our most prominent backend developer, which means that he creates the systems that our educations rely on.

Much of his work is focused at creating databases on our courses and their users. These databases function as a basis for long-term strategies, and other initiatives that we engage in with our clients.

Prefers teamwork

Niklas likes his job the most when he gets to find solutions for situations where there is a clear goal, but no set path.
- I really like to work in a team, either with clients or project managers, and follow a project from start to finish. It’s quite special when the process remains intact in that way; we have to deal with obstacles and dilemmas together and find solutions as we go.

The boss, the friends, and the freedom

At the end of the month Niklas is moving on towards new adventures. He is going to work with an old colleague in a smaller company. But it has not been an easy decision to leave TicTac, and he looks back at many great moments.
- My best memories from here are the boss, the friends and the freedom.
And we will miss him too. Andreas Olofsson, who has also been around since the early days of TicTac, talks about Niklas’ working bubble, and how nice it’s been to wake him from it. They have taken breaks to talk about music, and google guitars that they don’t need but would love to have in their collection. Others have mentioned Niklas’ incredible accuracy and his reliability. And the before mentioned boss, Carolina, calls him the Carles Puyol of TicTac.
- Nikals is an exceptionally competent developer and a real asset to the team. He is completely his own, and conveys that in such a way that everyone enjoys being around him, and feels comfortable in his presence. He is like Puyol in FC Barcelona, just as cool.

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Most digital educations that we produce are distributed via Learning Management Systems (LMS). An LMS can have various functions, but commonly administrate e-courses and report results.
Our LMS Online Academy is built to adapt its functions in relation to different projects and client needs. But we still have a long way to go. Lennart Helmbold, responsible for learning at Media Evolution, and author of the chapter “Tools for a learning organization” in the anthology ”Delad kunskap är dubbel kunskap” (Shared Knowledge is Doubled Value) has made some interesting points about “learning organizations” and an approach that may alter our perception of learning forever.

Non-hierarchical structure is essential

Helmbold wants to show how it is possible to create learning organizations, and also argues for the benefits of doing so. The difference between a learning organization and an organization that engages in learning is mostly an issue of culture and structure. Helmbold claims that many offices today are highly influenced by a hierarchical structure that inhibits the type of culture that is crucial in order to develop a learning organization.
A hierarchical structure tends to create a culture where learning is regarded a separate activity. The learning activities may be a couple of courses per year, or conferences that are likely very interesting, but may not be organized to see to the challenges the participants face in their everyday work.

Integrate learning to form an organic organization structure

In a learning organization learning is an integral part of everyday life, which means that all staff are in a continuous learning process. This learning process may be very different, but it will always depart from the individual and thereby open up for an entrepreneurial environment, and also more effective learning.
The problem that has been in the way for achieving an effective learning process of this kind has been the same that has troubled organizers for a long time, namely the difficulty of creating communication channels that enables large organizations to meet individual needs. This is an administrative problem as well as an economic issue.
Lennart Helmbold points at the possibilities of combining digital education with traditional teaching methods (resulting in blended learning) in order to administrate this learning process in a way that makes the economic arguments for maintaining hierarchical structures lose their bearing. And that is when it starts to get really interesting. When the choice to create learning organizations is a reality to all organizations and companies – as long as they have the right motivation and a firm belief in the values that it represents.

And that is where we are. Trying to solve the administrative problem by creating new types of LMS’s, and other solutions too, that answers to the individual without complicating the system the individual takes part of.

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