Animated Learning Conference
September 29th 2022
At VIA University College Campus Viborg
Poul Gernes Salen

Creativity and critical thinking in a digital age
Animated Learning Conference is a yearly event, focusing on film and media literacy in education.
This year’s theme is creativity and critical thinking in a digital age and thus we will be focusing on how to work both creatively and critically with and within the digital age.
During the conference, there will be talks and workshops that centers around the following questions:
What does it mean to be a critical thinker in a digital age?
Which responsibilities does pedagogues, teachers and visual professionals have when working in a digital age?
Programme
The programme for the conference.
8:30 – 9:00 | checking-in and coffee |
9:00 – 9:15 | Welcome Laura Søndergaard Isaksen, Animated Learning Lab – The Animation Workshop/VIA |
9:15 – 10:15 | Critical creativity Jeppe Bundsgaard, professor of Language Arts Didactics at Danish School of Education, Aarhus University. |
10:15 – 10:30 | Coffee break |
10:30 – 11:15 | Fact-checking visual manipulations Nikolaj Rodkjær Kristensen – Tjekdet |
11:15 – 12:00 | Lunch |
12:00 – 16:00 | workshops including breaks, cakes and coffee. |
Speakers
Check out the speakers at the conference
Jeppe Bundsgaard
Critical Creativity
In his talk, Jeppe Bundsgaard will outline the potentials, pitfalls, and challenges meeting children online, and discuss what schools can do to support their students in developing critical awareness when surfing and communicating online. He will argue that an active, productive learning practice can help students understand the power of online communication.
Jeppe Bundsgaard is professor of Language Arts Didactics at Danish School of Education, Aarhus University. His main research interests are scenario didactics and progressive education, critical language awareness, and test and evaluation. He is National Research Coordinator in International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS), and local head of research in a number of projects on game-based learning, playful learning, and emergent litearacy.
Nikolaj Rodkjær Kristensen
Fact-checking visual manipulations
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis – and lately in the wake of the war in Ukraine – the fact-checking organisation TjekDet has seen an increase in manipulated and misleading visual material being spread online. In this speak, Nikolaj, a fact-checking journalist at TjekDet, will take you through TjekDet’s daily work of debunking such content through a couple of real-life examples. You will be introduced to tools used by fact-checkers in their work and learn about different types of fake news and misleading visual material.
Nikolaj works as a fact-checking journalist at TjekDet – a non-profit organisation dedicated to fact-checking claims in the public debate. As part of the TjekDet team, he has been combatting misinformation since 2018, lately with special focus on debunking visual manipulations online.
Workshops
Choose between the following workshops
Philosofilm
– Philosophical thinking and creative filmmaking
In this workshop the participants will be working both philosophically and creative. It is based on one or more phenomenas that we recognize from our everyday life and which simultaneously have been object for philosophical wondering through history, for example happiness, evil, freedom, friendship and courage. Through various philosophical exercises, aesthetic-creative processes and conversations rooms, the participants will look into which perspectives and dilemmas that are combined to the phenomena. It can be questions about what happiness is, are humans born evil, is freedom a goal for life, is friendship something you can choose and is courage better than fear. In film production the participants will show how the philosophical questions and dilemmas appears in concrete and recognizable everyday situations.
The entire workshop is organized so that it can be used with children in different age groups afterwards. With Lho Høiris and Louise Nabe-Nielsen from Rum for Undren and animator Tina Klemmensen.

Lho Høiris and Louise Nabe-Nielsen
Rum for Undren’s vision is to create a space for children and young people’s wondering and philosophical thoughts in schools and institutions. We develop teaching materials and hold courses for teachers and pedagogues with focus on philosophy with childrens and youngsters. Rum for Undren consist of architect and artist Lho Høiris and philosophical practitioner and cand.pæd. Louise Nabe-Nielsen.

Tina Klemmensen
Tina Klemmensen is educated as a puppet animator in England. She has held many, many animation- and modelling workshops for children, youngsters and grown-ups since 2012. She has been given an international TEDx talk about how she uses animation as a way of communicating and recently she has been a student at Jim Parkyn, artist, conveyer and modeler from England.
www.tina-klemmensen.dk
www.facebook.com/tina-klemmensendk
www.instagram.com/tinaklemmensen
STOP. THINK. CHECK IT!
(This workshop will be held in Danish.)
This workshop is split in two parts. From 12.00-14.00 with Nikolaj Rodkjær Kristensen from Tjek Det and from 14.00-16.00, Rebecca Sørensen and Munib Kardasevic from Enigma .
In this workshop we’ll investigate how to teach and engage students in critical thinking and fact checking. You’ll get hands on experience with the Danish learning platform: STOP. THINK. CHECK IT! which you can use in your own practice. The learning platform engages students through podcasts, videos and hands on activities. The aim is to strengthen their digital literacy by providing them with tools to identify mis-, des- and malinformation. Short explainer videoes introduces the themes and the podcast series, ’Digital Detective’ follows a danish fact checker from Tjek Det in his investigation of real life cases through 7 episodes. The hands on activities focuses on the use of fact checking tools. The students produce their own fake information based on criterias typically found in mis-, des- and malinformation. Finally they fact check each others productions with the tools that Tjek Det also uses professionally. In this workshop you’ll experience the activities first hand as you are put in the role of the students. Target group: Teachers of students age 14-18 years old.
The learning platform is developed by:
- ENIGMA – Museum of communication
- Tjek Det – a danish fact checking media/organization
- The danish media council – For children and young people (Medierådet)
- The Association of teachers in social science (FALS)

Nikolaj Rodkjær Kristensen
Nikolaj works as a fact-checking journalist at TjekDet – a non-profit organisation dedicated to fact-checking claims in the public debate. As part of the TjekDet team, he has been combatting misinformation since 2018, lately with special focus on debunking visual manipulations online.

Rebecca Sørensen and Munib Kardasevic
Rebecca Sørensen and Munib Kardasevic are educators at ENIGMA – Museum of communication. They teach schools visiting the museum about digital literacy and communication history. They are both educated teachers (bachelors of education) with a special focus on teaching technology, digital and media literacy. They are currently doing their masters at Aaborg University studying It, learning and organizational change.
Digital play and stop motion animation in daycare
There will also be the opportunity to try out different types of iPad stands if you would like to invest in these aids, and there will be time to share experiences with both participants and the presenter. After the workshop, you will be able to implement digital play and animation production activities in your institution on your own.
Bring an iPad and make sure you can install the apps or download the apps in advance.

Camil Hesse
As a trained designer and with many years of experience in the educational field, Camil Hesse focuses on creative play with digital media. As the owner of the company Leg med Medier, he conducts many workshops in groups of children, especially in kindergarten and primary school, every year. He gives presentations and courses for educational staff in many different municipalities and participates in various projects. He has also been teaching at the UCC/KP teacher training college in Copenhagen.
TinkerQube moviemaking playground
Feel free to jump in and out of the story and make exactly what part you want.
The TinkerQube is open from all sides and all ideas. Join us!

Karsten Juncher
Karsten founded UPFIND.dk on a mountain of used school milk cartons, which became the funniest cube building set. Later, plastic bottles, tennis balls and a host of other global standard materials were added to the construction game with children, young people and families around the world. Out of all those funny experiences The TinkerQube emerged, to hold ideas in the proces.
Mama Lighthouse
– With Martin Spenner and Sia Søndergaard
The Animation Workshop/VIA UC and the Danish production company Lommefilm (Pocketfilm) has co-worked in development of the material Mama Lighthouse. The target group for the material are students age 7 – 10 years old. With a mixture of professional animation film and the students own produced films, Mama Lighthouse reminds us that we are all connected and obliged in relation to each other. The workshop is a hands-on workshop and teaches all participants how to use the Mama Lighthouse material on their own.

Sia Søndergaard
Sia Søndergaard is Project Manager, The Animation Workshop/Via UC – Center for Animation, Visualisation and Graphic Storytelling. Master in Child and Youth Cultures, Aesthetic Learning Processes and Multimedia from University of Southern Denmark.

Martin Spenner
Martin Spenner, partner in Lommefilm.
Lommefilm (Pocketfilm) involves children in relevant social issues through film and filmworkshops both in Denmark and abroad working together with organizations, foundations, ministries and municipalities. Besides hosting workshops, Lommefilm develops teaching materials, run relevant communication campaigns and produces documentaries and short films. See www.lommefilm.dk for more.
Problem-solving Characters
– With Leo Antolini
In this workshop, we will discuss how character design can become a powerful tool to address social and cultural issues. Using examples from previous experiences with Armenian, French, and Ukrainian students, you will learn how to use basic character-building techniques to connect with students’ backgrounds and showcase individual voices and concerns. Core design concepts like shape, contrast and personality will be reviewed. Finally, you will try your hand at creating your own personal character, connected to a specific topic. By the end of the workshop, you will be able to apply this know-how with your own students, in a variety of projects.

Leo Antolini
Leo Antolini is a designer and director with 17 years of professional experience. A graduate of the Academy of Art University, in San Francisco, USA, he has worked as a character designer for various animation studios, as well as produced and directed animated videos for Latin Grammy-winning musician Mister G and Good Country Index creator Simon Anholt. He has also illustrated children’s books for publishers like Little Tiger Press, Hachette and Oxford University Press. Leo is currently Head of Art at Skidos, an ed tech company.
Critical thinking in film and media literacy
This workshop track consists of a speak from The Danish Film Institute and a number of short presentations from partners in film literacy who will present their daily work or specific projects. There will also be time for a common discussion focusing on the responsibilities and ethics working with film and media literacy in a digital age. We will raise the question what do we need to be aware of to make sure that children and youth will gain the right sense of judgement in the digital age?
Together with Mads Møller Tommerup Andersen, we will collect the answers and after the conference make them into an article to share with the participants and we will encourage the participants to keep the discussion alive by inviting them into a think tank in film and media literacy.
Facilitators: Laura Søndergaard Isaksen and Mads Møller Tommerup Andersen.

Laura Søndergaard Isaksen
Laura Søndergaard Isaksen is educated Master of Arts (Education) in Philosophy of Education and she is project manager in Animated Learning Lab under The Animation Workshop/VIA – Research and Development. Laura will be facilitating this workshop.

Mads Møller Tommerup Andersen
Mads Møller Tommerup Andersen is an Assistant Professor at Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen. In his work, he researches media industries, creative processes, streaming and much more. He teaches at both the BA and MA in Film and Media Studies at KU. In October 2022, he will be launching his book Researching Creativity in Media Industries. Mads will observe and collect the words of wisdom from the common discussion.
Speak from The Danish Film Institute
The Danish Film Institute will open this track with a talk and discussion Film and critical thinking. Different projects and partners will present their work, and there will be time for a common discussion about the responsibilities and ethics working with film and media literacy in a digital age. How can cinematic edification contribute to critical edification? Kari Eggert Rysgaard and Martin Schantz Faurholt will present ideas of critical thinking in a cinematic perspective. They will show concrete examples from Filmcentralen and FILM-X, including the activism material ‘To the fight for the climate’ and ‘The Occupation on Film’, where the students will work with authentic film propaganda. In continuation of the presentation, there is an opportunity for discussion.

Martin Faurholt
Martin Faurholt is the teaching editor at Filmcentralen at the Film Institute and has developed the material ‘Film and social media’.
He is particularly interested in the film’s relationship with reality and how film can strengthen critical sense in a visual world.

Kari Eggert Rysgaard
Kari Eggert Rysgaard is responsible for teaching and development at Skoletjenesten FILM-X – The Cinematheque’s film studios. She works with development of creative learning activities that can give students the tools to participate in the democratic dialogue with the film as a common form of expression.
Short Presentations
Cobostories
– Silas Andersen
Can digital storytelling be used in the classroom to foster creative learning? And can we build a training ground for digital behaviour amongst children? In this talk Silas Andersen will talk about CoboStories approach to creative learning through stop-motion production, their learning process, and the potential benefits from this. He will also talk about a social network they created to try and foster good online behaviour amongst children.

Silas Andersen
Silas works as the didactic and digital project developer for Copenhagen Bombay Learning – a company with a vision to motivate children’s curiosity so that their competencies are strengthened towards creativity. A big part of Copenhagen Bombay Learning is CoboStories – an interactive learning universe with a focus on storytelling, stop motion and creativity.
Animated Learning Japan
– Hiromi Ito
In co-working with research collaborators Yukio Hiruma and Chie Arai, Animated Learning Lab in Japan (ALLjp) now focus on 3 major projects:
- Demonstrating that animated learning can be used in school studies and social activities through our original activities. Create a Japanese-style teaching and learning method based on the results of those activities.
- Lead diligent teachers and social activists to to use animated learning in their activities.
- Develop online guidance for teachers and “Semiotics of visual language/animation” to Animated Learning and Special World.

Hiromi Ito
Hiromi Ito started Office H in 1999 and she is involved in distribution and rights management of animation, and introduction of global media situations. After established Animated Learning Lab in Japan (ALLjp) in 2018, Hiromi and Noriko Namikoshi are promoting Animated Learning in collaboration with TAW/Animated Learning Lab for a common goal to instill Animation and Visual Image as humanity shared global language.
Filmefterskolen i Ebeltoft
– Eva Klinting
How do we teach teenagers to develop an artistic voice of their own, even when they are learners and not trained filmmakers or animators? And how can we foster courage to take part in society?

Eva Klinting
Eva Klinting is the chairman of the board behind Filmefterskolen in Ebeltoft, an emerging school in the tradition of Danish “efterskoler”, that plans to open in 2024. She will tell about the process of developing a film didactic for this special kind of school.
The importance of film language
– Martin Spenner, Lommefilm og Sia Søndergaard TAW
To be active citizens, we must be able to communicate. Today, communication takes place to a large extent through moving images and sound. Children and young people should therefore master the audiovisual language to a much greater extent. Lommefilm and The Animation Workshop have collaborated for many years to implement film language in schools in Denmark and in other partner countries. In our short speech, we will give an insight into our work.

Martin Spenner
Martin Spenner, partner in Lommefilm
Lommefilm (Pocketfilm) involves children in relevant social issues through film and filmworkshops both in Denmark and abroad working together with organizations, foundations, ministries and municipalities. Besides hosting workshops, Lommefilm develops teaching materials, run relevant communication campaigns and produces documentaries and short films. See www.lommefilm.dk for more.

Sia Søndergaard
Sia Søndergaard is Project Manager at The Animation Workshop/Via UC – Center for Animation, Visualisation and Graphic Storytelling. Master in Child and Youth Cultures, Aesthetic Learning Processes and Multimedia from University of Southern Denmark.
Filmfabrikken
For more than a decade, Filmfabrikken/The Film Factory has offered film workshops for students in primary school at the municipality of Vordingborg. Through various workshops designed for pre-school, third, sixth and eighth grade, they aim to develope students competencies in experiencing, understanding and creating moving images. With a focus on production, they support a creative collaboration using film as a communication tool. Jeppe Jungersen, the leader of Filmfabrikken/The Film Factory, will explain the thoughts and aims behind the workshops, and elaborate why they believe film production is a powerful learning tool in primary school.

Jeppe Jungersen
Jeppe Jungersen has a background in the film- and television business after attending The National Film and Television School in England. After 15 years of making film and tv in Denmark and abroad, he became a teacher from Professionshøjskolen Absalon before finally merging his two careers into film didactics. Jeppe has been teaching at the European Film College, Copenhagen Film- and Photo School as well as Filmfabrikken/The Film Factory.
IRIS
In 2023 The Aarhus Librarys will open a media literacy lab in the main public library in Aarhus, Dokk1. The lab is designed to give school children and other user groups the opportunity to work productively with media technology that lies behind the mediaproducts, they use and consume. Fx: VR, AR, VP, XR.
IRIS is combined with a web-based, digital toolbox, “POV Filmskolen for lærere og elever”, that enables Schools and students to work with media production locally in the schools. The activities build on the same teaching-method as in IRIS, and they are linked to the activities in the media literacy lab.
A new media landscape requires new teaching methods that correspond, and we need to enable teachers and students to work productively with film and media in a way, they can handle. This is in short the thoughts behind the POV method and IRIS.
Erik and Casper from the IRIS team will give examples of the activities in IRIS and tell about the didactic thoughts behind IRIS and POV.

Erik Bjerre
Erik Bjerre, project leader, POV, Dokk1.
“One of the biggest challenges in our society is to help young people to understand- and to participate in a world, that to a large extent is defined by digital media.”
Erik has More than 25 years of experience with teaching film- and media production. He is the main developer of the POV method and a part of the IRIS group.

Casper Munkgaard
Casper Munkgaard, teaching consultant, POV, IRIS, Dokk1.
Casper has worked in the Danish school system for more than 25 years as teacher, headmaster and digital specialist. He divides his time between being a teacher in Frederiksbjerg Skole and being teaching consultant in the IRIS development group. Casper has also been played an important role in the making of the digital toolbox, POV Filmskolen for elever og lærere.
All children and young people should learn the language of moving images
Film i Skåne works actively to ensure that children and young people from southern Sweden are given the chance to watch, create and discuss film and moving images. This area of work includes providing schools and municipalities with information about school cinema and facilitating individual creativity in moving images, providing advice concerning Skapande skola (creative classes), supplying film educators for classroom work and developing staff skills.
Film i Skåne also runs film educational networks that manage film educators and pilot projects, organises theme days and develops educational activity in places like Ystad Studios Visitor Center (ysvc.se).
Film i Skåne’s work takes place in close collaboration with the 33 municipalities in the region of Skåne.

Carolina Falk
Carolina Falk, is Commissioner for Children and Young People at Film i Skåne (filmiskane.se). She is the convenor for the 19 Regional Film Resource Centres working group for Children and Young People (filmregionerna.se), which works closely with the Swedish Film Institute. She is also part of the corresponding working group for “South of Sweden Regions in Collaboration” (regionsamverkan.se) whom are visiting our conference with 32 delegates from Sweden.
“Why we left critical thinking”
Critical thinking is good. Since the Enlightenment, it has been a central driving force for the development of science and socity. But critical thinking is not good for everything. Critical thinking can lead to a general distrust of the senses and the intuition. That´s problematic, not least in the work with practice-based film education, where we find that critical thinking is too dominant. In the past few years, Station Next has worked purposefully to develop teaching methods that speak to the body, imagination and intuitive thinking. We have named it artistic film education.
This work started with the development of an accredited diploma program for film teachers and the creation of an artistic research program in film education. In the process, we have moved further and further away from critical thinking as a method and foundation and towards recognizing the value of the senses and intuition.

Ulrik Krapper
Ulrik Krapper is managing director of Station Next
– Denmark’s largest youth film school and resource center for artistic film education for young people.

Thomas Nygaard
Thomas Nygaard is head of artistic education and development at Station Next.



