LIFE 2017 is a unique combination of school visits, top class speakers and exotic environment.

The key purpose of this event is to see in person how learning takes place in Finnish kindergartens and schools. You can visit those educational institutions (age groups) that interest you most. If you want to know more about pre-primary education, note that it takes place normally in kindergartens. During the visits you can observe the teachers, the children, and ask them about their daily teaching practises. After each visit there is time for a group session, where you can talk with the director of that unit and reflect with your colleagues how you can use this experience to improve your daily work.

If you are interested in seeing one essential part of the teacher training in Finland, you can join the special group (max 20 participants) that visits the teacher training school in Rovaniemi. This school is part of the University of Rovaniemi and during the visit you will see how future teachers are performing in the classroom as part of their studies.

During the Friday afternoon, the University of Lapland is organizing an optional workshop for LIFE 2017 participants. This very special training session is available only for 20 persons, so early reservation is strongly advised. 

The preliminary program for LIFE2017 – Please note that changes are possible.

Wed 18^th
17:00 – 18:00 Registration
18:00 – 19:30 Opening LIFE2017
20:00 – 21:30 City Reception

Thu 19^th
9:00 – 12:30 Keynote Speakers
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:30 Transport to education centres
14:30 – 15:30 Visiting centres
15:30 – 16:30 Coffee, snack and discussion with staff
16:30 – 17:00 Group discussions
17:00 – 18:00 Transport to hotels
19:00 – 21:00 Conference dinner

Fri 20^th
9:00 – 10:00 Transport to education centres
10:00 – 11:00 Visiting centres
11:00 – 12:00 Lunch/snack and discussion with staff
12:00 – 12:30 Group discussions
12:30 – 13:30 Transport to hotels
15:00 – 18:00 Workshop (optional)
15:00 – Winter activity program (optional)

Sat 21^st
9:00 – 12: 30 Visiting Santa and his village in small groups *
12:30 Closing Life 2017 – time to explore Lapland

* It is impossible even for Santa to meet many persons at the same time. Consequently, the visits are organized in small groups, each group having approximately 30 min to meet Santa in person and then another 60 min getting to know his village and having a closer look at souvenirs and giftware options.

KIRSTI LONKA

Keynote Speech Title: Recent developments in Finnish schools. How to promote creativity, motivation and engagement?

Kirsti Lonka is Professor of Educational Psychology at University of Helsinki, Finland (2005-). She is a founding member of the Teachers’ Academy of University of Helsinki since 2013 and also the first President (2013-2014). She is the Director of Research Group of Educational Psychology and also the Principal Investigator of the Project “Mind the Gap – between digital natives and educational practices”. Professor Lonka is a popular keynote speaker around the world. She has published numerous refereed articles, conference papers, text books and popular writings. Kirsti Lonka has been a visiting professor in several countries. Starting from June 1, 2016, she is an Extraordinary Professor, Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University, South Africa.

COLES WILKINSON

Keynote Speech Title: The Blended Classroom

Coles Wilkinson is Commercial Director of International Schools Unit at itslearning. He is a passionate thought leader in online-educational technologies.  Mr. Wilkinson is in his 7th year delivering enterprise eLearning solutions to thousands of students and teachers around the globe. Mr. Wilkinson holds a BS in Communications from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia & an MBA from The Mason School of Business at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

JOUNI VÄLIJÄRVI

Keynote Speech Title: An analysis of the latest Pisa results and how Finland and its educators will use this.

Jouni Välijärvi is Director of the Finnish Institute for Educational Research and a Professor of educational research and development at the University of Jyväskylä. He represents Finland in the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement and is the National Project Manager of the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in Finland. Prof. Välijärvi he has headed a series of national research projects on curriculum, school assessment, teacher education and wellbeing of students, served in national and international expert groups for OECD and EU and published widely in his field. He has served as an expert and keynote speaker in international conferences in many different countries such as the UK, USA, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Japan and Russia.

HELI RUOKAMO

Keynote Speech Title: Towards transversal competences. How to promote 21st century learning and working skills with playful learning?

Heli Ruokamo is a Professor of education, specialty media education, at University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland. She is a Vice Dean of the Faculty of Education and a director of the Centre for Media Pedagogy. Professor Ruokamo has 15 years of experience in research and development of pedagogical models for network-based education and educational use of ICT’s. Her research has focused on mobile and meaningful learning, playful, game-based, VR, and simulation-based learning environments. She has published approx. 100 scientific publications with referee practice, more than 2/3 of them are international.

SANTERI KOIVISTO

Keynote Speech Title: The concept of gaming and how to infuse them into education.

Santeri Koivisto is CEO of TeacherGaming LLC, the company created MinecraftEdu and one of the first real breakthroughs in games in education with 15,000 schools using it in 40+ countries. He’s also a teacher by background and a game enthusiast. After recent acquisition by Microsoft Santeri is currently working on new projects including completely new games and learning analytics to help teacher use games in their classrooms.

OTHER SPEAKERS

KRISTIINA VOLMARI

Opening LIFE 2017 Speech Title: Key points to understand the Finnish perspective of education.

Kristiina Volmari works as Counsellor of Education and Head of Statistics and International Affairs at the Finnish National Board of Education. She has also worked as a teacher for 20 years at most levels of education and in vocational teacher education.

Kristiina’s  areas of special interest and expertise are comparative international education data, teachers and trainers in vocational education and training and leadership. She has a thorough knowledge and understanding of European and global education and training issues having worked closely with European networks and working groups as well as participating in OECD studies and data collection.

RIIKKA LINDROOS

Riikka Lindroos is the President of Finnish Association of Principals. Association’s task is to promote its membership’s professional development, to participate in developing the principals’ working and pay conditions and the drafting and realization of national and international educational policy. Lindroos has been a principal last 18 years and she has a wide knowledge of pedagogical issues and teaching.

Want to learn new pedagogical skills in an innovative way? Join this special training program uniquely designed for LIFE 2017 participants.

PLAYFUL LEARNING ADVENTURE
Date and time: Friday 20^th, 15:00 – 18:00
Place: The Arctic Circle
Group size: 10 – 20 persons
Price: € 233 /participant
Includes: Transportation from the hotels, workshop, snacks and a handmade souvenir from Lapland.
Trainers: Marjaana Kangas and Pirkko Hyvönen
Booking: as part of the LIFE 2017 online registration process

Introduction
Teachers and educators are increasingly interested in the power of playful learning in education. What is playful learning and how the pedagogy of playful learning can support 21st century learning; academic achievements and key competencies? How to imply the theoretical foundations of playful learning into educational practices?

Playful Learning Lapland is an innovative and engaging training program organized in exotic and beautiful Finnish Lapland. In the Life 2017 conference, the participants have an excellent opportunity to take part in the exceptional journey in the Arctic Circle, and learn how playful learning can be approached in a multifaceted way. Recent research has shown that emotional and pedagogical engagement are prerequisites for educators for using innovatively playful learning and related environments. Are you willing for engaging in playful learning, both emotionally and pedagogically?

MARJAANA KANGAS

Marjaana Kangas (Ph.D) is a university lecturer and a researcher at University of Lapland. She is a forerunner of the research on playful learning in pre and primary education in Finland, and a co-developer of a “playful learning environment”, an innovative play and game-based learning environment designed for 21st century learning (e.g. Kangas, 2010; Kangas & Ruokamo, 2012). Her doctoral dissertation “The School of the Future: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches for Creative and Playful Learning Environments”, was rewarded by Lea Pulkkinen Award in 2012. Since 2003, she has worked as a researcher in many innovative research projects (Let’s Play, PlayIT, InnoPlay, InnoSchool, Omnischool), and participated in the development work of playful learning environments, and focused on the research on the best practices in the future school. Home page: www.marjaanakangas.net  Twitter: twitter.com/marjaanakangas 

PIRKKO HYVÖNEN

Pirkko Hyvönen (PhD, Docent) works in the University of Lapland as an Associate Professor. Her expertise is in technology-enhanced playful learning and teaching in different age groups. She is the first academic exploring pedagogical modelling of playful learning and teaching, and affordances of playful learning environment in her doctoral dissertation. She has developed teaching and learning processes, where playfulness and creative collaboration are employed and studied within different age generations, both in formal and informal contexts. Earlier, she worked as a leader of the LET Master’s Degree Programme and a principal investigator (PI) in the field of learning and educational technology at the Learning and Educational Technology Research Unit (LET) at the Department of Educational Sciences and Teacher Education in the University of Oulu. Home page: pirkkohyvonen.wordpress.com

Pedagogical Leadership – Empowering School Community 

Date and time: Friday 20th, 15:00 – 18:00
Place: Hotel Scandic, meeting room Kaira (address: Koskikatu 23)
Group size: no limits
Price: free of charge
Includes: Refreshments and workshop material
Trainers: Elina Harju and Juha Lahtinen
Booking: as part of the LIFE 2017 online registration 

Introduction
What is pedagogical leadership and how to implement it? How to promote sustainable, interactive and shared leadership? How does the school work as a learning community?

The workshop is activating, interactive and inspiring, not a lecture. 

Learning Scoop trainers are experienced and internationally respected experts in the field of Finnish education and school leadership. The trainers have over 25 years of experience in leadership training in Finland and abroad. This experience has developed an academically based, yet truly practical, approach to developing leadership skills.

ELINA HARJU

Elina Harju is the Director of partnerships and a Partner at Learning Scoop. Her key competences comprise pedagogical development, teacher training programs and international seminars with an experience of over 20 years. Elina is a passionate defender of curiosity, joy of learning, and open, real life learning environments. For her, co-operation and learning communities are other important building blocks of learning and education. As a trainer, she is experienced and inspiring.

JUHA LAHTINEN

Juha Lahtinen is the Development Director at Learning Scoop. He has also served as a project manager in the education development projects of National Board of Education in Finland. He keeps getting excellent feedback on his knowledge of curriculum development, the concept of change, team work and activating methods. “Learning is not information processing – learning is doing.”

www.learningscoop.fi

WINTER ACTIVITIES

During the event you will be able to get the real feeling of winter in Lapland by participating in the amazing arctic experiences.

To get inspired you can have a look at www.visitrovaniemi.fi. For our LIFE 2017 guests we have organized an exclusive winter activity program:

itslearning is our exclusive partner for LIFE2017. itslearing is a top learning platform for K-12 schools which is widely used in Finland as in many other countries.

Built for teachers by teachers
itslearning began life as a computer engineering project at Bergen University College in 1998. A group of students was puzzled by the fact that digital tools and the internet were rarely used in teaching, so for their final-year project, they created a computer program that would help connect teachers and students.
The goal was to create a place online where teachers could share resources and files, and students could complete and hand-in assignments. The result was the first version of the itslearning platform.
The group got a ‘Pass’ for the assignment (it could only be graded as ‘Pass’ or ‘Fail’), but more importantly, the system was an instant hit. In fact, Bergen University College liked it so much, they became itslearning’s first customer!

Our goal
Our goal is to offer the best learning platform and related services worldwide and to be the most innovative organization within the education sector.

Designed for teachers
We pride ourselves on understanding the needs of education. More than 20% of our staff have worked as teachers and our learning platform is designed specifically for the education sector.

itslearning helps educators create innovative digital learning environments, to improve retention rates and reduce the cost of instruction.

More than 15 years of experience
With more than 15 years of experience serving K-12 schools, community colleges, universities and professional development organizations across Europe and North America, we focus on empowering teachers to deliver a personalized education experience for all of their students.

Established in 1999, we have our headquarters in Bergen, Norway and offices in Atlanta, Boston, London, Warsaw, Berlin, Paris, Mulhouse, Malmö, Enschede, Helsinki and Copenhagen.

Facts and figures
We currently serve over 3 million active users
Large average yearly increase in active users
itslearning inc is a wholly owned subsidiary of itslearning AS, based in Bergen

See more at: http://www.itslearning.net/our-story#sthash.fSeRJUh1.dpuf

Twitter
Handle: @itslearning
URL: https://twitter.com/itslearning

Facebook
Name: itslearning
When searching on Facebook use: @itslearning
URL: https://www.facebook.com/itslearning/

LinkedIn
Name: itslearning AS
URL https://www.linkedin.com/company/itslearning-as?trk=biz-companies-cym