In addition, Isaacs added, the adolescent's self-assurance exists in a "VUCA World", a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. "However, in many African languages, 'vuca' means wake up". With Dr. Mark David Milliron, Sir Michael Barber, and Michael Grigsby, the organizers had invited three keynote speaker whose personal and professional backgrounds - and views on the future of learning - could hardly have been more different.

Marc David Milliron is director of the Texas-based, nonprofit Western Governors University, at which students can do a degree online and in mixed online and offline classes. The education reformer Michael Barber is Chief Education Advisor at Pearson, the publishing group with the world's highest turnover. He previously worked with McKinsey, and in Tony Blair's government he was responsible for, among other things, the implementation of education policy. Michael Grigsby, the English filmmaker of socially critical documentaries, has made almost thirty films in sixty years. In 2003 he founded the Abingdon Film Unit (AFU) at the Abingdon School in which students aged thirteen to eighteen can make their own documentaries with the help of professional instructors.

"Gaming is a serious matter"

Milliron, fortunately, took "VUCA" very literally and did a lot to wake up the audience. He invited the participants to raise, lower, and join hands and to exchange their smartphones with their neighbor. Milliron's thesis is that to mix things up always feels strange, but it is important to do just this. Learning in educational institutions on the one hand and learning to use technology on the other should not be understood as mutually exclusive, but need to be connected. In a world in which there are now more mobile phones than people with mobile access to the Internet, a new infrastructure has emerged. Education and training need to adapt to and to become more dynamic.

Milliron placed particular emphasis on the similarities between computer games and learning: "Gaming is a serious matter because people learn through play, and this has been the case for thousands of years." If we consider the level structure of a computer game, achieving a new level is basically nothing more than the achievement of a learning goal. And, interestingly, people focus to achieve a new level - even those young people who it is said don't have the ability to do so. In terms of data, the saying "more is better" applies - for example, a lot of feedback. The computer-games industry understood long ago that players have to receive feedback for their actions every thirty seconds in order to maintain their attention. The same is true in educational software.

The "education temple" known as the "university" will become a ruin

In contrast, Sir Michael Barber appeared not to have come to spread good vibrations. He interpreted the call to wake up rather in the manner of the prophets of doom, who speak in morbid images. He observed that globalized competition doesn't even stop at the cemetery gate, with people in Europe ordering inexpensive gravestones made in India via the internet. Historical change is comparable to a landslide: From outside, the hollowed-out mountain appears solid, but appearances are deceiving. It is no longer a question of whether, but only when the avalanche will start.


In his PowerPoint presentation, Barber impressively - and apparently taking a certain pleasure at the destruction - described the collapse of the venerable education temple called the university - pillar by pillar. Almost everything that today still constitutes a university is subject to competition from the Internet.

For economic reasons, universities as we know them will not exist much longer. Despite the global economic crisis, the costs of higher education are rising year after year. Prestigious university rankings mainly measure the acquisition of funding, which is why universities see it necessary to increase tuition fees so as not to lose their "market value" - and more and more students are forced to go into debt. And this is happening at a time when the unemployment rate among academics in the UK is 25% - still above that of school-leavers.

Incidentally, Barber introduced himself with the comment that he was neither a digital native nor a digital immigrant, but rather a digital asylum seeker. It seemed, though, that Barber has had a permanent resident permit for quite awhile.

"We are losing the ability to feel"

Michael Grigsby appears never even to have submitted an application for asylum in the Internet world. At Online Educa, his slightly pessimistic warnings sounded somewhat offline. Grigsby explained how he made his first film at fourteen. With the words, "I want to make a film about schools," he introduced himself to the director. "The director gave me £25 and said, 'Make your movie.'" He believed in me, and as a result I came to believe in myself - and the film was a success."

Especially important for him was to have space to think and fantasize. Grigsby forcefully warned that technology can be a danger if it takes this space from people. In the media, we have lost confidence in the audience, but also in the people being reported about. If a statement is presented as a ten-second sound byte, no one is going to think beyond the headline.

"We are now on a mission to explain everything in a nutshell, but we are losing the ability to feel. And when we constantly need confirmation via instant messenger that we are loved, we are also losing the courage to believe in ourselves."

Focus: Video Educa

At the Opening Plenary, Grigsby presented a special focus of this year's OEB: Video Educa. Videos play an increasingly important role in eLearning. The quality of the films, however, often leaves a lot to be desired, so several experts offered courses on various aspects of filmmaking at the Conference. Grigsby himself offered courses with a limited number of participants on storytelling.

Using excerpts from his own films, he showed how storytelling functions in the medium of cinema. Young people also have no problems with long presentations when an emotionally rich story is told. But this requires spending time with people and understanding locations.

In an excerpt from his 1998 film "Lockerbie, A Night Remembered" on the village of Lockerbie after the plane crash, a relative of one of the victims talked about three consecutive minutes. As a filmmaker today, you have to fight for this. An excerpt from a film about football-fan songs demonstrated that storytelling in film is also possible without any language whatsoever. Using music, sound, and a clear dramaturgy that repeatedly switches between moments of tension and relaxation, Grigsby portrayed a football match as quasi-religious cult - and without showing even a single player.

The chance to express themselves



Grigsby seeks to convey the idea of storytelling to his students. He discussed again and again why they decide to film something in one way and not another. Grigsby is on a moral and educational mission, both in relation to his students and the people he shows in his films. He wants to give a voice to those who have none.

Thus, the opening event of OEB, having just reached maturity and with its natural affinity for technology, came to a close with a plea from the mouth of a dedicated online skeptic who understands the word education as being primarily the development of individuals who possess the ability to think independently. After each speaker, Shafika Isaacs referred to the lively discussion on Twitter. The three keynote speakers illustrated how to present something to a live audience in a lively, evocative, and memorable way, thereby also making the information an educational inspiration.