Barbara Wasson, director of the Centre for the Science of Learning and Technology (SLATE) invited participants and interested parties to an open information meeting 23.11.15.

A National University-wide Project

Jarle Eid, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology, underlined some important aspects of the project. First, that SLATE is a national project. It is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research (KD). Second, SLATE is a University of Bergen (UiB) project; all 6 Faculties at UiB have signed-on to support it. In addition, because all the Departments at the Faculty of Psychology are involved, SLATE will be placed administratively directly under the Faculty.

Expectations are high!

All the major universities in Norway competed to host a learning competency research centre, but KD awarded it UiB because its application was the best. KD’s aims in funding such a research infrastructure are ambitious and include: creating an outreach centre for Norwegian education; conducting cutting-edge research for 21 Century learning; providing competence building; establishing the basis for a learning science community.

SLATE will focus on learning across the whole population spectrum from schools and education institutions to life-long learning and workforce training and re-training. SLATE projects will have a learning analysis focus, including addressing how to optimally incorporate technology advances for learning. They will define and address the needs of 21 Century learning.