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Nils Kerssens

Assistant Professor in Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University researching digital autonomy and platformization in European education.

Jun 28, 2026

15:17
Uh, what other valuable approaches have you come across in your own project?
15:21
I think co-design is one of the most promising developments we see across Europe.
15:25
In my Reclaim Edu project, we're mapping what we call digital autonomy innovators, and so co-design efforts involving schools, researchers, public organizations that are trying to put education rather than tech companies, uh, back in the driving seat.
15:38
At the same time, I, I should say we should be careful not to assume that co-design automatically leads to better educational technology.
15:44
So co-design is a real strength when it gives teachers and students the chance to actually step back and ask, "What kind of learning do we actually want to support in our technologies?" And so another great example is the European Smart Schools project, and the acronym is SMASH, where educators in Germany and Belgium work together with researchers to rethink digital education in their classrooms so as to make technology more pedagogically meaningful and more socially responsible.
16:11
And I think that's also a great direction for many co-design initiatives, uh, across Europe, uh, to develop towards.
18:16
What's the relevance of developing a European digital autonomy in the educational sector?
18:21
sector?It's important to realize that digital autonomy isn't mainly a technical issue, right? So it's really a democratic and an educational one.

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