Linus Torvalds, the Finnish software engineer and creator of Linux, famously captured the essence of his hometown with this quote:
“Helsinki isn’t all that bad. It’s a very nice city, and it’s cold really only in wintertime.”
I was in Helsinki in February 2025 when a workshop was held to see what potential there was for NRENs to collaborate and work together to deliver on the potential of student mobility.
I was not in Helsinki this week for TNC 2026. For a variety of reasons not attending TNC this year, which is taking place in Helsinki in Finland. One of the side meetings is the inaugural meeting of the new GÉANT Education Digital Infrastructure and Interoperability Coordination Group which is essentially an evolution of the NRENS4Education group. I was, though, able to join remotely. I had also recorded a video in case the remote connection failed.
One gadget I had back around 2010 was the Edirol R-09HR 24bit 96kHz Wave/MP3 Recorder which was an audio recorder, which was great for recording audio files direct to an SD card. You could use it to record mp3 and WAV files. This is now a retired product, I am not sure what products are out there that would fulfil the use cases that the Edirol did. Not sure if the iPhone is an adequate replacement, but it’s being a while since I looked at audio stuff.
Watched the WWDC keynote from Apple about their work on Apple Intelligence. I realise that in the world of AI, I am way behind in this space and this was one thing I was doing as part of my personal development to update my understanding.
Spent much of the rest of the week supporting staff.
Friday I made my way to the Bristol office. Nice to have a change in pace, location and routine.
This week I was in Finland for a workshop regarding NRENs for Education. NRENs are the National Research and Education Networks that most countries have for connecting their universities and research institutes. In the UK Jisc is the NREN.
This workshop was bringing together a group of like-minded NRENs to work together on essentially student mobility across Europe. The group has written a series of use cases on a prospective student journey. This takes the student through the recruitment process, transferring easily between institutions, and ensuring that they are accredited and recognised for what they have been studying.
Now of course we know that the UK is no longer part of the EU, however there are potentially good core reasons why the UK should be involved in this. First the situation in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland ensuring students can move freely between institutions. Secondly, there has been discussions about free movement for young people, streamlining and aligning education would enable young people in the UK to study at universities in the EU, and for EU students to come to the UK.
This can happen now, but it’s a complex and often manual process. It also favours the institution rather than the student.
I have been to Finland before, I was there for a conference in July 2006, nearly twenty years ago. Back then I was presenting at the EU e-Learning Conference in Espoo. It was a quick trip in 2006, flying out on Monday and then back home on the Wednesday. I flew from Bristol Airport and then there was a bit of a mad rush at Schiphol where I had to change to a flight to Helsinki. Schiphol is one huge airport… Having arrived at Helsinki, I needed to get to Espoo and travelled by shared taxi to the hotel. I spent part of the evening walking around the area, before ending up in the hotel restaurant. It was lovely and sunny, and as being so far north, the sun never really set. I had spent the Tuesday at the conference. I had some time the following day before my flight to have a really quick look around Helsinki. I caught a bus to the centre and back. I had always planned to return, so nineteen years later I was back.
This time I flew direct to Helsinki from Heathrow. I arrived late afternoon, this time I took a train from the airport to the centre. I then walked to my hotel, so after checking in I did explore the area around the hotel.
The following morning, I was up early so I went for a walk around the city centre. I then headed off to Espoo for my workshop, using the Metro to get there. The workshop was over two days. I had an evening flight the following day. I woke up to 4cm of snow, so after working at the hotel, after checking out I took a walk down to the harbour to catch a ferry to Suomenlinna. Suomenlinna is an island fort that has a long history and some amazing architecture and a few museums.
Helsinki is an amazing city, and there is some incredible architecture and buildings. I was impressed with the public transport, there were trains, buses, trams, a metro, and even a ferry. I used the HSL app extensively for tickets. It was nice to return to Helsinki and having a little more time to see something of the place, whereas back in 2006 it was very rushed.
I had a fair few meetings in my calendar for Friday, when planning my trip, and originally going by train, I had intended to head to the London office on Fetter Lane and have my meetings there. With potential issues with the trains the preceding Sunday, I had decided to drive to Heathrow. That didn’t preclude going to the London office, but I thought, as I had the car, I would travel to our relatively new offices in Milton Park near Didcot. These replaced our old offices in Harwell. However with my body clock still on Helsinki time, having woken up early I had the time to make the trip back to Bristol and still do my meetings, so I did that.
I was off to London again this week. I was attending an 1EdTech Event in London, Innovate your way out of the funding crisis. This was my first engagement with the standards community for some time. Before I joined Jisc and when I was working in Further Education I did a lot of work looking at standards in relation to moving student data around so it could be imported into the VLE. Then there were standards for learning objects and ensuring that they would work on the VLE, both importing and exporting the right data. I also being very impressed with LTI and what it would enable in allowing students to use a WordPress installation for blogging. Blogging, what was that, and is it still around?
We are starting work on a collaborative project with UUK on collaboration. Part of that is reviewing the original terms of reference and bringing in a consultant to undertake some of the work as well.
I have been spending time researching, planning and writing initial draft for a higher education state of activity report.
In February Jisc has one of its regular meetings with the OfS and I have been preparing some notes for that meeting.
Spent time on the planning and logistics for a workshop I am attending in Helsinki in February. The workshop is about NRENs for Education. NRENs are the National Research and Education Networks that most countries have for connecting their universities and research institutes. In the UK Jisc is the NREN. This workshop is bringing together a group of like-minded NRENs to work together on essentially student mobility.
I am anticipating that Helsinki will be cold. I have been before, for an EU e-Learning Conference which took place in July 2006 in Finland. I reminisced about that conference back in a weeknote in July 2019.
I also signed up for TNC in Brighton in June. It’s the first TNC I go to, and it’s in the UK. Reminds me when I got funding to go to the international conference mLearn, and the year I went, it was in Dudley.
news and views on e-learning, TEL and learning stuff in general…
