Description

The aim of this event is to address the challenges and opportunities confronting educational leaders in the face of an increasingly unscripted world. The session will discuss some of the global megatrends on the horizon and explore some of the implications for leaders and educational institutions.  The underlying assumption is that leadership and investment in talent and leadership development throughout institutions have never been more important to steer a path through such turbulent and rapidly changing times.  But this assumption raises the question of what type of educational leadership is required today to proactively envision, transform institutions, and implement future-focused teaching and learning strategies for tomorrow’s world. The discussion will draw on key lessons from the leadership literature, focusing on the importance of a holistic approach to placing digital education in the wider ecosystem in which institutions operate.  Several leaders will share critical insights with firsthand knowledge on this topic and experiences of the messy and complex nature of educational leadership. The discussion will culminate with key priorities and leader actions that institutions need to consider in their own context to build a transformative culture of leadership to help achieve the goal of a high-performing digital education ecosystem. 

European Digital Education Hub

The European Digital Education Hub (EDEH) is an initiative of the European Commission, funded by the Erasmus+ programme (2021-2027) and operated by a consortium of eleven organisations, under a service contract with the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).

EDEN Digital Learning Europe Knowledge Building team is actively contributing to this Hub.

Monthly innovative events are organised to discover and debate which are the current and future challenges of the digital transformation of education.

Moderator

Mark Brown, EDEN Digital Learning Europe Vice President of Strategy and Communication

Mark Brown is a Vice-President and Senior Fellow of EDEN Digital Learning Europe. He is Ireland’s first Chair of Digital Learning and Professor and Director of the National Observatory for Digital Education (NODE) at Dublin City University. Mark has a long-time interest in leadership and management in the area of Educational Technology and has served in central university leadership roles for the last 17 years of his career. Mark is originally from New Zealand and has extensive professional networks across both hemispheres. In 2019, Mark was Chair of the ICDE World Conference on Online Learning and was recognised in 2017 by the Commonwealth of Learning as a world leader in the fields of Open, Distance and Digital Education. He has published extensively in these areas, including a recent book chapter on Leading in Changing Times.

Speakers

Albert Sangrà, Director of the UNESCO Chair in Education and Technology for Social Change at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

Albert Sangrà is the director of the UNESCO Chair in Education and Technology for Social Change at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). He is a researcher of the Edul@b research group and full professor at the Psychology and Education Department of this university. Currently, he is also the director of the Industrial Doctorate Program of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government) and Vice-Chair of the EDEN Digital Europe Fellows Council. He is a member of the founding team of the UOC. Ph.D. in Education, his main areas of research are the uses of ICT in education and training and in particular, policies, organisation, management and leadership in the implementation of online education (e-learning). He has participated in many international research projects and published over 100 academic articles and books. He has been awarded the 2015 Award for Excellence in e-Learning by the World Education Congress and has also been recognised as an EDEN Senior Fellow for the EDEN  One of his latest publications is: Improving online teaching. Practical Guide for Quality Online Education (2022).

Sandra Kučina Softić, EDEN Digital Learning Europe Vice President for Open Professional Collaboration

Sandra Kučina Softić, Board member of EDEN Digital Learning Europe, Assistant Director at the University of Zagreb University Computing Centre (Croatia) and Head of the E-learning Centre. She has 25 years of experience working in higher education. Her work is focused on monitoring and fostering e-learning in Croatian higher education and providing support and advice to institutions, teachers and students in implementation of new technologies in learning and teaching. She was appointed Croatian representative in ET2020 Working group on Digital Skills and Technologies (2016-2018) and in ET2020 Working group on Digital Education: learning, teaching and Assessment (2018-2020). In 2018, she was appointed member of European Education and Training Expert Panel. In 2022 she was elected as Assistant Professor. She has been a member of EDEN Executive Committee since 2013; in 2014 she received the EDEN Fellow Title, and in 2022 she was awarded the title of the EDEN Senior Fellow. From 2019-2022 she was president of EDEN UK and is founding member of EDEN Digital Learning Europe.

Deborah Arnold, Chair of EDEN Digital Learning Europe Fellows Council 

Deborah Arnold is currently Public Sector Solutions Project Leader at NTT DATA and a research collaborator at Edul@b, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). She has over three decades of experience in the field of education and training in Europe and obtained an international PhD from UOC in 2022, for which she was awarded the special prize on the Education and ICT programme. Her research focuses on Digital Education Leadership in Higher Education. From 2012 to 2018, she was Head of the Learning Technology and Distance Education Unit at Université de Bourgogne and was appointed as a digital strategy advisor. Deborah has also served on the governing bodies of international associations in the field as Executive Committee member (2010-2016) and Vice-President (2015-2016) of EDEN and Secretary to the Board of the Media and Learning Association (2021-2023). She is an EDEN Senior Fellow and currently serves as Chair on the EDEN Fellows Council Board, contributing to setting up the EDEN mentoring programme and the EDEN Digital Education Leadership Academy (DELA). 

Gerry Gallagher, e-Learning Development Coordinator in the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Dundalk Institute for Technology

Gerry Gallagher has worked as e-Learning Development Coordinator in the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland, for the past 10 years.  With over 35 years of teaching experience at secondary and higher education levels, Gerry also lectures and supervises educator colleagues on CELT’s Masters in Learning and Teaching. He has recently completed a doctoral study which explores the experiences of educational technology leaders in Irish higher education and their efforts to lead change from the “middle” of their institutions. This research reminds us that leadership is not confined to those in senior positions of responsibility and must be distributed throughout an organisation.

Óscar Martín Centeno, Director of the Santo Domingo Public Center for Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education 

Óscar Martín Centeno of the Santo Domingo Public Center for Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education, in Algete. President of the Board of Directors of Madrid. Master in Direction and Management of Educational Centers. Graduate in History and Sciences of Music and Diploma in Musical Teaching. He has published several books for which he has received various awards. He has various publications in national and international journals and has given conferences for numerous European and American universities, foundations and companies. He has designed educational projects and video art pieces for entities such as the Reina Sofía Museum or the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, among others. He has coordinated and tutored several courses of the Ministry of Education through the INTEF. He had designed and created several online courses for the Regional Center for Innovation and Teacher Training in Madrid, as well as for different academic organisations.

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