The Swedish Learning Space

Knowledge Foundation

The Knowledge Foundation works to make Sweden more competitive by supporting research at the new higher education institutions and measures to enhance skills in the business sector. The Foundation also supports ICT development in Swedish schools and works to raise the quality of care and the efficiency of healthcare services by means of ICT.

The foundation wants to initiate a dialogue around future challenges within technology supported learning and training. The conference offers an excellent opportunity to present and discuss ideas for the future, together with a broad international expertise in this type of education. At the same time there are opportunities to form new international contacts that can be invaluable for continued work.

Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company

UR, The Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company, is a public service corporation primarily financed through TV licence fees. UR is owned by a non-profit foundation which also owns SR (Swedish Radio) and SVT (Swedish Television). UR’s TV and radio programmes range from pre-school to higher education. All UR programmes are broadcast on SVT and SR, within defined UR time slots. In 2004, UR and SVT launched a digital TV channel, Kunskapskanalen (The Knowledge Channel) to strengthen educational and general educational programmes for adults within public service broadcasting.

Websites, text-TV pages, books, exercise books and teachers’ handbooks are available as part of an educational package in connection with most UR programmes. Information about radio and TV-programmes, websites and other products is available to the general public via UR’s web-based Media Bank. The programmes are accessible for public viewing and listening on the Internet during six months after broadcast. Schools, universities, and adult education can access programmes without time limit in closed-circuit networks and can also borrow them from the country’s many Media Centres, to which 90% of all schools are affiliated.
UR produces 59% of all TV programmes and 98% of all radio programmes in-house. The company also participates in co-productions with the other Nordic public broadcasters as well as acquiring programmes from a number of European countries. UR is active in international co-production ventures and is represented at a number of major festivals and trade conventions.

Swedish Agency for Flexible Learning

The Swedish Agency for Flexible Learning is working to make lifelong learning possible for everyone by enhancing and stimulating the development of flexible learning in municipal adult education, folk high schools, study associations and at the work place.

We wish to contribute to increasing knowledge of flexible forms of learning and assist developments in the field.

Swedish Agency for Networks and Cooperation in Higher Education

The aim of the Agency is to support learning in higher education in Sweden. We see ICT and distance education as means to increase quality and flexibility in learning. At Online Educa we want to have a dialogue around the pedagogical challenges in online education today and in the future.

Students tend to be more at home in virtual realities than their teachers - what does this mean for the learning process? Virtual worlds and online games are beginning to be used in education. How can we assess courses/learning in online education? Will the teachers’ role change? In which ways will higher education change in the future?

Swedish Institute

The Swedish Institute (SI) is a public agency that promotes interest in Sweden abroad. SI seeks to establish cooperation and lasting relations with other countries through active communication and cultural, educational and scientific exchanges. The SI operates closely with Swedish and foreign partners, as well as with Swedish embassies and consulates around the world.

The institute’s overarching goal is to create mutual relationships with other countries around the world, whether the issue is culture, politics, trade, or development cooperation. However, in order to achieve this goal, awareness of an interest in Sweden must first increase. Relationships and exchanges contribute to development both in Sweden and in our collaborative partners around the world. Through increased contacts and new networks, knowledge and innovative ideas can be shared and applied in the future to all areas, not least to trade, culture and politics.