Edtech in Denmark 🇩🇰
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Learn more about the danish Edtech ecosystem
Denmark was the first stop of the Edtech Europe Tour. I was thrilled to see that technology adoption in school is the highest in OECD countries there. (see this 2015 OECD report)
This could be explained by the fact that the government made Education Technology one of the key priorities by funding the industry with an 67 million € investment back in the fall of 2012. Thanks to this funding, half of the price of K-12 Edtech products got refunded by the state. This subsidy ends at the end of 2017. Because of the growing interest in Edtech and the market opportunities, a lot of Edtech initiatives started and I had the chance to meet some very inspiring and driven entrepreneurs as well as teachers and school leaders. One thing that came out of my various conversations is that the danish education system is very much based on trust. Because it is so important, no big device roll-out happened in Denmark, instead all students bring their own devices to school, and especially at high school level it is unthinkable for a student to come to school without his computer.
Denmark is part of the Nordic Edtech Network, a project funded by Nordic Innovation that is mapping the Nordic EdTech landscape and creating a Nordic community.
✨ Fun fact: In Denmark students actually get paid by the government to study. No wonder why Denmark regularly tops polls of the happiest nation in the world.
What teachers say
I had the chance to meet with Pernille Palme & Pia Bailum Esbensen two passionate, tech savvy teachers that told me more about the Danish education system and the reforms that changed the educational landscape in the last couple of years.
Pernille is expert in the constructive use of iPads in pre-school and is training other teachers to use them, Pia has been responsible for media literacy classes in her school, a skill that is of foremost importance for the 21st century learners and integrated in the danish curriculum. It encompasses 21st century skills, digital work ethics and digital literacy.
They told me about the teacher lock-out that happened in 2013, when a new big school reform got through in Denmark, schools time got extended, extra-curricular activities that usually happened in the afternoon could not happen anymore as schools days stopped at 4 pm. Teachers had to work more for less money and had to accept those terms in order to come back to school. Teachers call it ‘public-bullying’ and were under chock.
The startups
I wrote this post about 5 danish startups you should be aware of: have a look!
The schools
I picked 3 danish schools, who can be considered as schools of the future: have a look!
Learn more about Edtech & Education Innovation on this Medium blog, our website & on twitter!
