Fred de Vries

I am currently active as Chief Mobile Learning Officer at Jesuit Worldwide Learning, Geneva. My focus is the innovation of its education and especially the implementation of its integration of online and offline education and flexible programmes for students. Since 5 years I am working as a consultant on the innovation of learning for different organisations including the UNESCO, UNDP and the IRC. Before that I was a policy advisor on Education and Research (Academic Affairs) advising the management-team of the Open University. Until January 2014 I worked for 6 years as an educational technologist and consultant at the Centre for Learning Sciences and Technology combining projects with a part-time job as a policy advisor of the Executive Board focusing on international collaboration and innovation agenda. I was responsible for innovation projects on the use of TEL and more specifically mobile learning and social media. For the Executive Board, I was strengthening relationships with universities and institutes in Europe and beyond, aiming at collaborating in innovation and strengthening the Open University’s Educational agenda. Current initiatives include joint Masters programmes, joint PhD programmes, exchange of learning resources (OER), research linked to the UNESCO, the creation of an international student support network, collaboration within the ICDE and EADTU and policy development in relation to the Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+ programme (EC) In 2006 and 2007 I was appointed as an Instructional Technologist for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland, designing and implementing distributed learning environments relying on the use of ICT supporting its staff development. He developed strategies on the use of instructional technology (shareable learning materials in repositories, Learning Communities in hybrid learning programmes for staff in duty stations all over the world. He was involved in setting up components of an ERP system that support HR processes on Performance management and the organizing of Training and Learning (Peoplesoft)