OEB 2016: owning learning - Business Blog

We are now living in the era of acceleration. We are on the fast track to the future, as technology advances faster than the average organization seems to be able to keep up with. This digital revolution greatly impacts all aspects of our lives, including how we learn.

Digital education and training is the cornerstone of every contemporary individual’s qualification efforts, so the learning of the future is all about putting more power in the hands of the learner; in other words, it’s all about learning ownership.

Shaping the future of learning: OEB 2016

OEB — Online Educa Berlin — is a global, cross-sector conference on technology supported education and training. For the 22nd time, this conference gathered together in Berlin thousands of stakeholders from business, education, government, research and NGOs to explore many important areas of learning and technology.

Every year, OEB pushed boundaries, challenges preconceptions, and catalyzes new ideas, and this year’s edition made no exception.

Owning learning has been the central theme of this year’s edition of OEB:

With every month that passes, more and more learners are being given the means to take control of their own learning. Developments in technology mean that this trend will only continue and, within ten years, we will be astonished by the scale of the transformation. [...] Our OEB community is at the front of this process of change. Our common concern is how technology can be used to improve, enhance, and extend learning.

Rebecca Stromeyer, Managing Director of ICWE GmbH and Organizer of the OEB Conference

The three days of the event were packed-full with more than 100 sessions in various formats:

• Pre-conference workshops, that provided insights into particular themes or projects and encouraged knowledge sharing;
• Plenary sessions, that brought together expert speakers to share their take on topics like owning learning, the role of artificial intelligence in education, or making time for learning;
• Interactive break-out sessions, that focused on peer-learning activities in formats such as round table learning cafes, debates, escape room games, ignite sessions, and more;
• Discovery demos, where attendees could test numerous new tools, solutions, and pre-release products;
• Spotlight stages, panel talks, tech labs, networking sessions, and many many more.

Some of these sessions focused entirely on business organizations: how digital technologies are shaping workplace learning and training, as well as the skill set required of the people leading learning innovations within their teams.

Needless to say, there was a lot of learning going on simultaneously in each of these sessions.

CYPHER Learning at OEB 2016

The CYPHER Learning team proudly took part to this year’s edition of Online Educa Berlin, where we met with numerous educational and training professionals. It was lovely to make new connections, and exchange ideas with people from around the globe.

We thank everyone who reached out to us on our social media accounts during the conference and look forward to nurture our new professional relationships.