Helsinki trip Day 1, PLC and xEdu
Visit to the Playful Learning Center inside Helisinki university, which is effectively a live Kindergarten inside the university campus. Great research done here on how children learn through play. Not only how they learn, but also where they learn, so the importance of the environment design, both colours and shapes.
We had a great 2 hour seminar talk from Professor Kristiina Kumpulainen, Professor of Education at Department of Teacher education, Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki. Some very exciting things now happening in Finland where accademia and commercail enterprises are collaborating in many areas.... what this space.
Edutech start-ups working in the xEdu accelerator program, great things happening here with some very interesting and innovative solutions from the companies. The xEdu accelerator program, although still in its infancy, is proving to be a great success in moving forward the postive growth of the edutech start-ups. This is a model that could be replicated in Asia, something to look out for on 2016 !!.
The xEdu accelerator is a an old building located on the campus of the Helsinki university, next to the teacher training faculty. The building looks like something out of Harry Potter, both on the outside and the inside, and like Harry Potter, magic happens inside !!!