I had the great pleasure and honor to contribute and to speak at BILTEVT'2025 "UNIVERSAL DESIGN IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES" -INTERNATIONAL BARRIER-FREE INFORMATION 2025 CONGRESS BILTEVT'2025 " October 15-17, 2025, Manisa. The Opening Ceremony and all sessions of the congress were held in the Akide Sultan Hall, which was broadcast live on the Barrier-Free Informatics YouTube Channel. Sign language interpretation was available during the sessions.
My session was on Leadership and learning in the age of AI: Towards inclusive, ethical, and human-centered transformation, as program below. The presentation can be downloaded here at Slideshare Ossiannilsson.
My very first message was that education and leadership must evolve for a world shaped by AI, uncertainty, and complexity.
I argued further that Leadership through uncertainty in higher education institutions involves navigating rapid change, disruption, and ambiguity with resilience, adaptability, and ethical responsibility. It requires balancing institutional stability and innovation while fostering a culture that supports care, curiosity, and challenge. Such leadership empowers staff and students to view uncertainty not as a threat but as an opportunity for growth, transformation, and inclusion. It emphasizes transparent communication, trust-building, and courageous decision-making even in the absence of complete clarity. By aligning values with a long-term vision, leaders in HEIs can ensure sustainability, equity, and scalability, positioning their institutions to thrive in complex and unpredictable educational environments. I also argued that a Culture of Care, a Culture of Curiosity, and a Culture of Challenge are leading to Inclusive, Scalable, and Sustainable education for the individuals and the planet, so-called planetism. Furthermore, AI must serve humanity — not the reverse. “AI for Good” means AI that is open, inclusive, and transparent, and should be guided by the UNESCO and the EU frameworks, which have humans/people at the centre.
As my topic was Leadership and learning in the age of AI, I also focused on the ecosystem of lifelong learning in this era, emphasizing that learning is lifelong, lifewide, and lifedeep. There is a need for collaboration between academia, policy, and civil society, and flexible pathways, micro-credentials, and recognition of informal learning
I also took the opportunity to introduce the newly started NordPlus project, A Lifetime of Learning: The Mapping Methods of Competence Development in the Workplace NPAD-Y2025-10300, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The project brings together partners from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden to document learning methods developed and implemented in the workplace. We will focus on the healthcare and technology sectors. These sectors are broad to allow for the selection of target groups during the initial stages of the project. Coordinator is the Flexible Education Norway #letstalkaboutnordplus
Finally, I called for actions and that Education and leadership must evolve for a world shaped by AI, uncertainty, and complexity. I concluded with three calls to action:
• Leadership in the age of AI is not about technology — it is about humanity.
• Lead with vision, care, and courage.
• Shape education for inclusion, sustainability, and ethical transformation.
The OER Advocacy Committee (OERAC)participated and hosted a Symposium on the mandate and work by the ICDE OER advocacy committee (Panel), at the ICDE LLLS2019 in Lillehammer, Norway. The Symposium was held 12 February 2019. see the slides here.
The theme for the ICDE and INN Lifelong Learning Summit 2019 #lifelonglearning2019 was Lifelong learning for lifelong employability. The conference which was held in Lillehammer, Norway 11-13 February 2019, gathered some 350 + delegates from 37 countries.
Background: The speed of digitalization is constantly challenging and affecting the ways we work. These challenges require new skills and competencies which again has led to an increasing focus on and demand for lifelong learning by society. While digitalization throws up new challenges, it is also the solution to address these. Through enabling accessibility and flexible delivery of new competency training, lifelong learning can be made available to all.
Presentations and highlights are available here, and more to come. The ICDE LLLS2019 Roadmap will soon be presented elaborated during the conference and in collaboration with the delegates. Prime Minister Erna Solberg; Norway was the keynote speaker. She stressed the importance of lifelong learning for all the urgent needs for transformation change especially higher education have to take related to their role as capacity building in societies and to be an even more active stakeholder in the 21stcentury related to their offers, services and mandate for lifelong learning for all. This has been argued before in several of my earlier Blog posts
Ebba Ossiannilsson, (Chair) and Jean_Marc Meunier participated and hosted a Symposium entitled, OER and OEP for access, equity, equality, quality, inclusiveness, and empowering lifelong learning. The overall topic for the Symposium was The mandate and work by the ICDE OER advocacy committee (Panel)
ebba.ossiannilsson