The aim of the “Learning Ecosystems and Activities of the Future” (LEAF) initiative is to develop and implement a common Nordic strategy for supporting new funding possibilities to promote synergy in research and development in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) across the Nordic countries. The expected outcome of these efforts will result in practical initiatives to support a wide range of TEL related activities of high international quality. Figure 1 describes the key actions areas which we have identified as central themes of the LEAF initiative.
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Fig 1. An overall view of the LEAF key actions areas
Nordic governments have in the last 5 years set out ambitious objectives in the field of TEL by launching various programs regarding the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. There is also a contemporary global trend in trying to envisage and predict how the future of learning would look like in the upcoming 10 years. Clear indications of these efforts can be found for example in reports from the National Science Foundation in the USA, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) in the UK and the Intelligent Nation 2015 program in Singapore. Based on our previous experiences, we have identified the need of developing both; a coherent national and Nordic strategy in order to be able to keep our position as one of the leading world regions in the field of TEL. The LEAF initiative will be coordinated by a selected team of academic experts from the Nordic countries who will be actively involved in order to assist on planning and carrying out training and research strategic actions.
