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As part of the nextgeneration initiative, digitalswitzerland is supporting the first Campus event for teachers in Zurich in September 2018.
(Blog content provided by Cristina Riesen, We Are Play Lab)
The world outside schools is changing faster than ever. The less educators understand and embrace these changes, the more difficult it is to be excited and optimistic about the future.
The mission of Campus Seminars, launched by hundrED in Finland in 2011, is to inspire teachers and to get them excited about change by bringing together experts from different fields and showcasing best practice from innovative schools locally and around the world.
“Teachers play a key role in explaining the world to their students and preparing them for their role in society. Change must become a key theme in schools so that teachers and students can embrace it with excitement and see it as an empowering opportunity.”
Saku Tuominen, founder of hundrED and Campus Seminar
Focusing on Perspectives of Digital Transformation, the very first Campus Seminar Zurich will explore how digital transformation is impacting education, beyond the hype. In an informal and inspirational learning and networking environment, the event will bring together a vibrant community of teachers to support gaining a deeper understanding of behaviours, motivations and aspirations that can help unlock more adoption of digital innovation in the classroom.
“We aim to inspire and to equip Swiss teachers with in-depth knowledge of the digital transformation happening inside and outside the classroom, so that schools can embrace change in a rapidly changing world.”
Besides best practice presentations from innovative fellow teachers, attendees will also be inspired by leading academics and ambitious entrepreneurs. Among the speakers at Campus Seminar Zurich on September 19th, 2018 are:
Nadja Schnetzler, co-founder at Republik, who has managed over 600 innovation projects for companies of all sizes and all industries.
Melanie Kovacs, founder of Master21, recently named Forbes 30 under 30.
Francesco Mondada, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at EPFL, creator of the educational robot Thymio.
Manu Kapur, Professor and Chair of Learning Sciences and Higher Education at ETH Zurich, who conceptualised the notion of Productive Failure.
Visit www.campusseminar.ch for the full list of speakers and more information. The event will be livestreamed on the website on September 19th, 2018 starting at 1.30pm.
Campus Seminar Zurich is an event initiated and organised by We Are Play Lab with Schweizer Schulpreis. Part of digitalswitzerland Next Generation initiatives, it is supported by the Gebert Rüf Stiftung and Stiftung Mercator Schweiz. Outreach and communication partners of the event are the Zurich University of Teachers Education PHZ, Impact Hub Zurich, Swiss EdTech Collider and hundrED.
Campus video trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EQpSd1Vx-g
digitalswitzerland is pleased to say that the event is full, weeks before the date! Keep up to date with our news by subscribing to our newsletter here.
Lots of new skills, ideas and friends during the Codillion summer camps for kids
digitalswitzerland’s nextgeneration digital platform for summer camps is drawing ever more interest. One of the camps, Codillion, looks back on the summer and shares the experience.
(Blog content supplied by Marloes Caduff, Codillion)
During the past summer holidays, Codillion organised camps for children in Zurich, St. Gallen, Bern, Zug and Glattfelden. Codillion is part of digitalswitzerland nextgeneration. With the opening of our own “Codillion Coding & Robots Studio” in June 2018, we were able to conduct courses in our own four walls for the very first time. Although the temperatures were high and we all were tempted to go swimming as early as possible, the camps were a complete success. Despite the heat, the children were very enthusiastic about their newly learned skills and ideas were streaming out of them, just like sweat. The children played computational thinking games, made their own paper laptops including RAM and ROM, and programmed robots to dance simultaneously, race a track and make lots of funny noises.
Little Codillions visited the mint&pepper camp
Some Codillions stayed with us during lunch and afternoon and had an exciting programme. They visited the Hello, Robot exhibition in Winterthur and also visited our friends from the mint&pepper camp in Dübendorf.
First time this summer: programming games in Python
Having already run over 30 holiday camps, we had a première during the last week of the summer holidays. The first group of 5th graders and above transitioned from block programming (such as Scratch) to Python. This course was such a success, we are adding Python camps to all our holiday camps located in Zurich.
Parents are astonished how quickly and easily kids learned their new skills
What computational thinking is and how children, from a very early age, can master these skills, are open questions many parents have. To address these questions, we are opening our doors in Zurich on Wednesday 5. September for all kids and parents to learn more about these 21st century skills. Just come by and question us, the children can test our robots and laptops.
Our Zurich summer camps 2019 are already online!
Our camps are open during all main school holidays, and the summer camps 2019 are already open for registration. We are looking forward to the next holiday camps full of fun, learning, exploring and making friends!
Remember to sign up to the digitalswitzerland newsletter to keep abreast of all our news and activities.
In wealthy countries, the rule has till now been simple: get formal education at an early stage in life and for the rest of your career you are all set. With technological change accelerating, things are getting more complicated. Even employers don’t know what skillsets their employees will need in the future. What is clear is that learning and education are central to this change process and need to be rethought. All of us have to stay up to date with latest technological developments and never stop learning.
digitalswitzerland wants to take responsibility and be part of the conversation on how to shape education and lifelong learning in Switzerland. This is why together with the SVEB/FSEA (Swiss Federation for Adult Learning), the Swiss national umbrella organisation for adult education, we have created an event called digital#lifelonglearning, a programme that aims to present new technologies in adult learning. Participants will understand the evolving stakes in lifelong learning, the changes that are being effected in learning technologies, and the advances in lifelong learning approaches that these technologies offer.
digital#lifelong learning
On November 27, 2018, digitalswitzerland and the SVEB/FSEA are organising an afternoon event dedicated to digital#lifelong learning at the Paul Klee Museum in Bern. This first edition of the course targets C-suite, Human Resource (HR) and Learning&Development (L&D) professionals. The event will be a mix of plenary and hands-on sessions with exciting new technologies.
Still a gap in 35-65 year olds’ lifelong education
Formal education covers education and training in national and private schools, universities and colleges. Non-formal education and training includes all taught learning activities which are not part of a formal education programme. Switzerland is singularly well endowed with its apprenticeship and federal vocational exam system. Currently 62% of the population aged 15-75 have attended at least one lifelong learning course. 71% of paid employees followed a course of some kind. However, it is the 25-34 year olds which are the most motivated, with a participation rate of 76%. This means that the 35-65 year olds still have a long way to go and lifelong learning has to move up on the Swiss education agenda.
The Swiss Confederation published its updated plan for Education, Research and Innovation (ERI) in July this year, which states that Switzerland wishes to maintain its leadership in international ERI rankings. “The actors in the field of education, research and innovation must take the measure of their role as digital agents, strengthen their position, raise awareness in society at large and the economy, promote digitalisation and make them able to exploit the dynamic of innovation that digitalisation enables” (Federal Council International ERI Strategy, July 2018). We all have a part to play in pushing this agenda forward.
Save the date
The programme is limited to 120 people. Please save the date now to make sure you can attend! For more information and the programme, please see here. To remain informed on what digitalswitzerland does, remember to sign up to our newsletter!
The 2018 digitalswitzerland video competition is open: Prepare your smartphones and ideas!
Smartphones are often the first entry into the digital world, providing entertainment, communication and information. Whereas the written word dominated much of the twentieth century, images are now the main force. Take a look round wherever you are and you will see people on their phones – talking, listening, watching. At the same time, phones allow unbelievable digital creativity, using different apps.
Films prompt reality
Apple’s smartphone made headlines for the critically praised feature-length film, Tangerine, filmed entirely with the mobile device. In turn, director Steven Spielberg consulted with a team of futurists including computer scientists, philosophers, artists and architects to create the high-tech world in the year 2054 for sci-fi blockbuster Minority Report. The movie, released in 2002, creatively portrayed and accurately predicted several technologies, including multi-touch interfaces, retina scanners and crime prediction software. The movie inspired many entrepreneurs to develop new technologies based on the film’s vision. Such is the power of film!
This is why in 2017 digitalswitzerland, in partnership with LerNetz, launched a video competition for the national Digital Day. Last year, it was largely successful in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, with celebrities like Bastian Baker and Fabian Cancellara involved in the prize-giving. Schools in Sargans, Küsnacht and St Gallen were among the winners.
What does a playground 4.0 look like?
In 2018, we are running the competition again and are aiming for more schools in more regions of Switzerland. The theme this year is centred on what a digitalised playground (“playground 4.0”) looks like. Children and teenagers in primary, secondary I and secondary II can enter the competition alone or with their class. The idea is to produce a 90-second film, using a smartphone, with a vision of what a playground 4.0 may look like. Will it be completely connected? Will children spend all their time on SnapChat and Whats App? Will future playgrounds be no wifi zones? A jury composed of teachers, teachers’ representatives and business executives will judge the films.
Pedagogic prizes
The first prize for all levels will be a CHF 2’000 cash prize. Other prizes include a workshop on computational thinking, and different guided visits such as to the Museum of Digital Arts in Zurich. The competition will close on September 30th and prizes will be attributed on Digital Day, October 25th.
Digital Day October 25th
Under the claim “Experiencing digital together”, the second edition of the national event will be the day to learn, try out and think of how new technologies are used today. Education, robotics, virtual reality, cybersecurity, eHealth and other hot topics will be presented and discussed in various locations throughout Switzerland. A great opportunity to understand that digitalisation is not a “Minority Report”.
Stay tuned for more news on our website and sign up to the digitalswitzerland newsletter here.
Among others, the institutions of higher education SUPSI, EPFL and ETH are all involved in the digitalswitzerland nextgeneration summer camps, providing a guarantee of quality and solid science. A concerted effort is being made to include girls and boys in equal numbers. This week’s blog focuses on the EPFL robotics camp, one of many camps that the institution provides for young people.
How to build and code robots for Girls and Boys
(content provided by Farnaz Moser, EPFL)
The goal of this 5-day camp for the children aged 11 to 13 is to introduce young girls and boys to coding and robotics and arouse their interest for the fields of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and engineering. This camp is a part of a wide programme developed at EPFL to get youngsters aged 7 to 16 interested in science and technology and inspire them to go further in these fields. You can see more here.
EPFL Summer camps to acquire skills in the field of ICT
During this camp, the participants learn to design, build, and programme robots to carry out their projects. Participants will use the Lego Mindstorms educational platform to build and programme robots, which will then move in mazes, avoid collisions, dance, play music and perform some of the missions of the FIRST LEGO League competition (see http://www.firstlegoleague.org/).
Participants acquire different skills in the areas of design, coding, problem solving, collaborative work, and presentation of results. The appropriate pedagogical approach is chosen so that girls and boys are equally encouraged and inspired, are fascinated and have fun. At the end of the week, they present their projects to their parents during a ceremony where they also receive their EPFL participation certificate.
Dates and registration
The camp will take place two times this year, in French, on the EPFL campus from 13 to 17 August 2018 and 15 to 19 October 2018. We aim to have an equal number of boys and girls attending. For more information and to sign up: Mon robot est malin
You can also see a short Video of a previous camp.
And don’t forget to keep informed about digitalswitzerland‘s activities, by signing up to our newsletter.
At the school level
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), annual public spending on education in Switzerland is among the highest of OECD countries, spending $17 per student compared with the OECD average of $10 per student. Switzerland is the sixth most literate country in the world, just after the Nordic countries. 95% of the Swiss population obtains a certification at the end of the Secondary II level (e.g. maturité fédérale or cantonale, CFC etc). Compared to the rest of the world, Switzerland has extremely educated school leavers. The Swiss education system is characterised in particular the ability to move between the different educational levels or structures. There are many ways to enter or transfer to a training programme or school or to attend a catch-up training programme. We are lucky to be in such a system. However, does learning stop after school or higher education?
Changing workplace and workforce
In the attempt to leave no one behind, qualifying or requalifying on the job, learning and further training are an inevitable part of today’s world. It has been written that Generation Y will change professions at least five times in their lives; what about the post-millennials? The so-called “slasher” generation holds more than one job, or holds full-time jobs but pursues other activities on the side. It is clear that these developments are already changing the workplace.
So the question is how do ecosystems adapt to these changing market forces? Management is changing. We have seen flat organisations, flatter organisations and flatarchies. The latest buzzword is “holacracy”. The basic goal with this structure is to allow for distributed decision-making while giving everyone the opportunity to work on what they do best. This means that a whole new set of skills and competencies are required, and that is why education is core…. And must change to adapt to what the labour market’s future needs will be.
A lifelong need to learn and train
Baby boomers and the Generation X may feel that they are close to retirement or experienced enough and don’t need to invest in further learning. This is a fallacy. To remain competitive on the job market, everyone should anticipate the changes that artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and robotics might bring to the workplace. All of us must continue to train, learn and stay up to date. There are opportunities to learn in many sectors and many different ways. digitalswitzerland’s platform educationdigital has a wide range of courses on offer; take a look and see what you can sign up for.
Digital natives can mentor digital immigrants. In my daily job I learn from my younger colleagues and enjoy their showing me how to do things. It is a voyage of discovery that has opened up new possibilities. Learning can be formal and informal; the main thing is to learn continuously. We are lucky in Switzerland to have a wide and varied offer. Take advantage of it and have a look at our platform educationdigital. And sign up to our newsletter to keep informed!
A few YouTubers go from having a hobby to creating their dream paid job. By being entrepreneurial, working hard in teams and running the numbers.
To foster digital education and prepare young people best for a changing world, digitalswitzerland launched the «nextgeneration» platform. Within «nextgeneration», six high quality initiatives are offering learning opportunities around building digital competencies and skills. We asked the people behind those initiatives why the talents of tomorrow need new skills, what the benefits of these will be, and if there are inspirational stories, from which we can learn. The first insight comes from Nina Reinhart, founder of Ginger.
(content provided by Nina Reinhart, founder of Ginger)
My daughter recently asked me how come YouTubers have a great life and “do nothing”. She showed me Brandon Amato’s video “Following my dreams changed my life” where he enters a plane heading to sunny California. We started examining the anatomy of the YouTuber and discovered some business wisdom worth learning as young as possible.
I am too old to figure out all secrets of YouTubers. As an entrepreneur, I can say this: if you don’t have the wealth to pay for your lifestyle, you must figure out how to make your hobby pay you. My daughter and I drafted a list of key success factors:
Many other skills and knowledge are needed to be a great entrepreneur. Ginger’s Summer Day Camps in at EPFL Lausanne and Universität Zürich are meant to inspire teenagers aged 12 to 15 or 15-19 years old to discover their potential and the fascinating world of technology and entrepreneurship, whether it’s to launch a business or to make the world a better place. Students work in small teams to discover a business idea and work 5 days to develop a business plan with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and its key marketing and financial elements. They present their work with pride and passion at the end of the week to their friends and family. Read here how previous teams have developed innovative school services, Uber like apps for more parking spaces in towns and hearing devices to filter undesirable noises in public transportation and many more!
digitalswitzerland nextgeneration is connecting six high quality education initiatives in Switzerland, all offering camps with a unique learning program in the areas of robotics, entrepreneurship, gaming, programming and computational thinking. The summer camps are open for kids aged 6 to 19 and are taking place in all Swiss regions. In a playful way, the children and youngsters acquire digital competencies and entrepreneurial skills, which prepare them for the world of tomorrow. Stay tuned and subscribe to our Newsletter!
Nina Reinhart is founder of Ginger, a non-profit organisation based in Switzerland which provides High Tech Entrepreneurship camps to 11-19 years old students in Europe. Its mission is to inspire young people to discover their potential and the fascinating world of technology and entrepreneurship. Ginger is part of the digitalswitzerland nextgeneration initiative.
65% of children starting primary school today will later work in jobs and functions which do not yet exist. To prepare best future talents for the world of tomorrow and to incite passion and curiosity, digitalswitzerland created the «nextgeneration» platform, with a wide offer of different summer camps, where kids and teenagers can deep dive into topics such as coding, computational thinking or entrepreneurship. This is the second of the camps portrayed in a series of blogs on the nextgeneration summer camps 2018 season.
A whole new world – a creative approach to programming
(content provided by Marloes Caduff, founder of Codillion)
“I want to continue programming!” Yanis (7 years) is enthusiastic about the programming course he attended at Codillion.org. When children are given the opportunity to programme, a new world opens up to them. They discover that they can do more with computers than just watch videos and play games. The children experience that they can be active and creative themselves. Creating and controlling their own figures and worlds – there are no limits to their creativity and imagination when programming.
Not geeks or freaks, just kids having fun and learning
Codillion.org, an award-winning Swiss start-up, offers various programming courses in which children are introduced playfully to the basic problem-solving models of computer science (computational thinking). The children learn to give instructions to robots, make their own computer with paper and cardboard and programme simple games. Marloes Caduff, CEO of Codillion.org and mother of two girls, does not want to breed little computer freaks: “The children should enjoy trying out and solving problems”.
One mother, whose two boys took part in one of Codillion’s programming courses, was very impressed by its didactic approach: “I was speechless at how complex processes were explained to the children in a playful way.” She added that her children were so motivated and excited that they got up early in the morning for the course without complaining even though it was still dark outside.
Maintaining the momentum
Many children are so enthusiastic about Codillion’s courses that they want to attend more courses or continue programming at home. That’s why Codillion.org came up with the idea of coding and robotics boxes. With a subscription to the Codillion Coding Box, children receive different robots, accessories and ideas for programming delivered at home four times a year. “This allows us to reach children who have no time or opportunity to attend a course,” says Marloes Caduff.
For “nextgeneration” of digitalswitzerland, Codillion.org organises various summer camps for 6-14-year-old children. The camps last five half days (Monday to Friday). For Zurich early dropoff or late-pickup can be booked separately.
About digitalswitzerland|«nextgeneration»:
digitalswitzerland nextgeneration is connecting six high quality education initiatives in Switzerland, all offering camps with a unique learning program in the areas of robotics, entrepreneurship, gaming, programming and computational thinking. The summer camps are open for kids aged 6 to 19 and are taking place in all Swiss regions. In a playful way, the children and youngsters acquire digital competencies and entrepreneurial skills, which prepare them for the world of tomorrow. Stay tuned and subscribe to our Newsletter!
For the first time in 2018, the Italian part of Switzerland is represented on the “nextgeneration” platform. The nextgeneration initiative aims to stimulate the talents of tomorrow by offering a varied learning palette across Switzerland, around the approach and practice of coding as well as computational thinking, problem-solving skills, teamwork, entrepreneurship and innovation. TEENformatiCAMP is the first of the camps portrayed in a series of blogs on the nextgeneration summer camps 2018 season.
Boys and girls approach information technology
(content provided by Michela Papandrea, co-founder of TEENformatiCAMP)
The aim of the Ticino camp is to introduce young people to the world of information technology in a simple and fun way. Third and fourth graders are the target for TEENformatiCAMP, a summer camp for girls and boys in Italian-speaking Switzerland. For a full week, each day activities take place from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., including lunch with the instructors.
Understanding computers and technology beyond daily use
TEENformatiCAMP is not a simple course on how to use your computer and various programmes (Word, Excel, Power Point, …). Rather, our goal is to go into detail about how computers work and begin to understand how a computer scientist thinks and works. In fact, the activities proposed are intended to provide children with an introduction to the various areas of computer science.
Among the possible topics covered during the week:
Avoiding traps and respecting simple rules of privacy on the Internet
Computers are so much part of our lives today that we do not necessarily think about issues such as privacy, cyberbullying and data protection. Children should be exposed early to basic rules about how to protect oneself on the Internet. Should you chat online with strangers? Should you give out your phone number and email address? How should you react if someone starts to bully you online? There are some basic rules to observe which we teach the participants.
Sign your children up!
This year the TEENformatiCAMP will be from 27 to 31 August in Manno (TI). Enrolments open on May 14th.
To subscribe, go to the link: http://teenformaticamp
An added bonus: At the end of each summer camp, participants will receive a SUPSI ‘Certificate of Participation’.
Hanging out with friends is often a holiday solution for teens – at home, in town, at the pool. Parents often look for fun activities to keep their children busy and stimulated. So what’s the attraction of digital and entrepreneurship summer camps? Are these just more screen-based activities? Not at all! Summer camps provide student-student interaction, parent-child activities, new meetings, new knowledge and skill acquisition. Above all, they are fun!
Both published studies and anecdotal evidence show that the influence of school and family is high when it comes to encouraging scientific and digital interests. The summer camps that digitalswitzerland/nextgeneration showcases provide skills and knowledge to prompt young people’s interest in computational thinking, robotics, coding, game design and entrepreneurship. Summer camps are a way for digitalswitzerland to support and promote current and future talent in Switzerland. Last year the nextgeneration camps were hugely successful; we hope this year will be even better. There are now camps in all regions of Switzerland.
Entrepreneurship
The startup scene is fun, attractive, innovative and exciting, and offers another approach to professional aspirations: creating one’s own jobs! How can design thinking help teens create a cool product in the digital age? How do they find out what users want, do a great marketing and sell it for the right price? Ginger’s camps in Lausanne and Zurich give students a fun and pragmatic way to learn how entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs innovate, converting their ideas into consumer products, apps or services users love.
Gaming, coding and computing
Youth are often more digitally versatile than their parents, even though they have frequently not had formal education on digital skills. Basic understanding of how computers work, what coding means and how to acquire computational thinking are working their way slowly onto the national education agenda. In the meantime, summer camps are a way to introduce the subjects easily.
Codillion is focusing on game design this year in Basel, Bern, St Gallen, Wetzikon, Zurich and Zug.
Mint&Pepper, created by ETH, are running “Mission Rosetta” camps in Zurich, a voyage of discovery during which children and young people are gradually introduced to robotics and learn how a robot perceives its environment, how it finds its way around and how it moves around. With the help of current technology, participants learn how different technologies can be used meaningfully and how they influence our society. EPFL in Lausanne offers a wide range of camps, including a robotics camp based on Lego Mindstorms.
ICT-Scouts&Campus, active in schools throughout the year, runs summer camps to encourage teens actively to engage in ICT professions. In the Italian part of Switzerland and created by SUPSI, TEENinformatiCAMP is focused on coding and digitalisation. In other words, throughout Switzerland there are opportunities for children and teens to learn new skills while having great fun.
Sign up and spread the word
How many times do friends wonder aloud how to keep their children busy? If you have children aged 6-19, if you live near one the camps or if you have friends who might be interested in these camps, please sign your children up now or share this blog post with your friends. We will keep you posted about new camps added to our nextgeneration initiative. Stay tuned and subscribe to our Newsletter!
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