About me

Carl Heath

Hi!

I‘m Carl Heath. I’m 47 years old and I am a Senior Researcher at RISE. I also engage in issues regarding education and research at the Agency for Psychological Defence. I ended a two year commission as Special Counsel for the Protection of Democratic Dialogue by the Swedish Government in september 2020. Im currently a Mid-Career Fellow at Internet Society as well as a member of a think tank created by the Nordic Council of Ministers, that will take a closer look at the tech giants’ influence on democracy in the Nordic Region and come up with proposals for solutions.

My primary interests range from learning and digitalisation, democracy in a digital age, education, politics, AI, design, games, maker culture and the effects of technology in society in general.

Background and areas of interest

Prior to my current post at RISE I have previously, and in chronological order, worked for the Swedish Armed Forces, National Theatre Company, Sverok (The Swedish Gaming Federation), The National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations (LSU) and Technohuman AB.

Over the last decade I have worked for GR, The Gothenburg Region of Local Authorities, on several posts. I am the founder of GR Experiential Learning (now a part of The GR Pedagogical Centre) and the last two years there, between 2010 and 2012, I was the Director of the Division of Educational Cooperation, as well as the Director of the GR Upper Secondary School Admissions Office.

I have an educational background at the University of Gothenburg, where I have studied Political Science, Social Science, Pedagogy and ICT. My full bio can be found at Linkedin.

Awards:

I have had the opportunity of working on a wide variety of projects and productions either as project manager, creative lead, game designer, teacher, consultant, lecturer, director and producer. Some personal favourites are:

Projects:

  • Skola Hemma. National action to mitigate the negative consequences of Covid-19 on the Swedish educational system.
  • Learning Forum. Swedish conference on research in the field of digitalization of education.
  • IoT Hub Skola. National project in the field of Internet of Things in Education
  • MakerDays. Two day workshop conference on maker culture and learning
  • Innovation in Rehab. Finding novel ways for educating in healthcare
  • Makerspace in Education. How to expand knowledge and engagement in maker culture in education.
  • Väsby Lärlabb – (Väsby Learning Lab) Support in innovation in education in the municipality Upplands Väsby.
  • CBRNE Learning – Research and Development of a user centered mobile learning system for actors working in crisis situations.
  • SIDD – Swedish Initiative on Digital Diplomacy. Design and execution of Design Thinking for Digital Diplomacy.
  • Monki R&D – Research on lead user design together with Monki (H&M)
  • GRO – Research on Border Crossing in Online Role Playing Games (2010-2012)
  • GR Educational Data Mining and Data Analytics (2011-) Project Manager
  • GR Upper Secondary School Admissions system (2010-) Project Manager
  • Mobile Learning Envoronments (2005-2007) Educational Specialist and Game Designer
  • Living Library Projects (2004-2011) Project Manager
  • The Democratic Plaza (2006-2009) Project Manager and Concept designer

Performing Art & Artistic Research:

  • As a member of Scenlaboratoriet production and design of the works Placebo (2013), Human and Machine (2014) and In a Coded Reality (2014).
  • Assessor of digital and participatory art at the Swedish Art Grants Committee

Games:

  • The Roleplaying Game of the Swedish Parliament (for visiting school classes) (2006-) Game Designer
  • “Spread”, “Love, not to Love” and Positive –  Games on sexual and reproductive health and rights (2004-2008) Game Designer
  • Broke – Game for Consumer rights education (2008)a full games bio can be found at Nordic LARP wiki.

Interactive narrative:

  • The Advisors  (2006) (Screenwriter, director, producer)
  • The Advisors 2 (2008) (Screenwriter, director)
  • Human Rights Education Education (2010) (Screenwriter, director, producer)

Courses:

  • Educational Game Design (Higher Vocational Education) (2003-2005) Teacher (2007-2010)
  • Introduction to Games and Learning (University of Malmö) (2008-2009) Teacher (2007-2010)
  • International Project Management (Higher Vocational Education) (2006-2009) Teacher (2007-2010)
  • Pedagogical Project Management (Higher Vocational Education) (2003-2005) Principal

Lectures:

I lecture frequently in Sweden and abroad. Many of my lecture notes can be found on Slideshare. topics vary but have over the past years been in:

  • Project Management
  • Conflict Management
  • Networking
  • Leadership
  • ICT and learning
  • Games and Learning
  • Game Design
  • Trends in Education and technology

Conferences:

  • Game in Action 2007 (Göteborg) (Paper presentation)
  • Skolforum (Stockholm) 2009 (Speaker)
  • Framtidens Lärande (Stockholm) (2010)
  • Mötesplats Skola (Göteborg) (2010)
  • Interactive Storytelling – Third Joint Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2010 (Edinburg) (Keynote)
  • Mötesplats Skola (Göteborg) (2011)
  • Nordiska Skolledarkongressen (Göteborg) (2012) (Speaker)
  • Identity Federation for Swedish Schools (Stockholm) (2012) (Speaker)
  • Story World 2012 (Hollywood) (Speaker)
  • Swedish Internet Days (Stockholm) (2012) (Speaker)
  • Mötesplats Skola (Göteborg) (2012) (Speaker)
  • Kommits (Tylösand) (2012) (Speaker)
  • Scandinavian Developers Conference (Göteborg) (Speaker)
  • Mötesplats Skola (Göteborg) (2013) (Speaker)
  • Visual Forum (Göteborg) (2013) (Speaker)
  • BETT Show (London) (2014) (Speaker)
  • BETT Show (London) (2015)
  • MEG (2015)
  • BETT Show (London) (2016) (Speaker)
  • SETT (Stockholm) (2016) (Speaker)
  • Skolforum (Stockholm) (2016) (Speaker)
  • SETT Syd (Stockholm) (2016) (Speaker)
  • Framtidens Lärande (2017) Stockholm (Speaker)
  • Skolforum (2017) Stockholm (Speaker)
  • Hong Kong University (2018) (Speaker)
  • BETT Show (2018) (Speaker)
  • UR 40 år (2018) (Speaker)
  • GREATER (2018) (Speaker)
  • Bok- och Biblioteksmässan (2018) (Speaker)
  • Konstfack (2019) (Speaker)
  • Svenskt Näringsliv (2019)(Speaker)
  • Riksdagsseminarium (2019)(Speaker)
  • Stora Samhällsgalan (2019)(Speaker)
  • Offentliga Rummet (2020) (Speaker)
  • NORDIC PINE (2022) (nato-excersize) (Speaker)
  • Swedish Armed Forces (2022) (Speaker)

Workshops:

Ive run a number of workshops within the fields of ICT and learning, game design and Project Management in Sweden and abroad. Other countries in which I have held workshops are the UK, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Ukraine, Greece, Uganda, Zambia, Sri Lanka, Kambodia, Thailand, Singapore, and USA.

LARPs:

From 1992 and onwards I have written, designed and produced a large number of LARPS, amongst them being The Testament (1998) and OB7 (2002). For a complete bio on me and games, see the Nordic Larp Wiki.

Advisory work:

  • Jury Advisor of the WIN WIN Award (2022-2023)
  • Board member of the Swedish eHealth Agency (2020-)
  • Member of Chalmers CLS advisory board (2019-)
  • Member of the scientific advisory board of FORES. (2019-2020)
  • Member of the project team of the national plan for the digitalization of education in Sweden. (2018-)
  • External member of the institutional board of Science, communication and learning at Chalmers (2018-)
  • Art critic for digital and participatory art in Konstnärsnämnden (2017-)
  • Expert in digitalization and education at Skolverket (2016-2018)
  • Member of Skolinitativet (2015-)
  • Expert and jury member of TELL US Awards (2014-2016)
  • Member of the national forum for IT Strategy in Education (2014-2015)
  • Founding member of Scenlaboratoriet
  • Member of the advisory group for Skolfederation (2011-2015)
  • Member of the standards committee on educational standards at SIS (2010-2013)
  • Member of the research group on Interaction Design and Children IDAC (2013-)

I have advised a large number of Swedish municipalities, regions, government agencies and private corporations on topics around ICT and learning. I was a member of the working group for IT and culture in the Swedish Governments IT Strategy Group 2004-2006.

Media:

Video through Interactive Institute can be found here, here and here.

Allthough most of my written material is in Swedish, I have written some papers in english. They can be found at Research Gate.

My rants and thoughts in English can be found at Medium.

To contact me, try

Linkedin: Carl Heath | LinkedIn

Mastodon: Mastodon

Mail: carl.heath@ri.se

Opinions and statements expressed on these pages are personal.

Mastodon