HOW DID WE GET HERE?
2016 - A creative start
The movement took its first steps in 2016, with our very own Miikka ‘Manta Ray’ Lehtonen, as he took charge of a challenge based learning course called Creative Teamwork.
Find out more about the IDBM Program
This course was a part of Aalto University’s multidisciplinary International Design Business Management (IDBM) Master’s program. The program, which started in 1995, now spans across all of Aalto's six major schools, delivering world-class multidisciplinary and systemic education.
This challenge course kicked off the Master’s program through an intensive 3 week journey. It brought together students from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds, and provided a perfect setting for combining theory with practice.
In its first iteration, running the challenge course was a bit of a …challenge.
This was because the students had to come together and create and run a one day pop-up restaurant with the goal of rethinking and redesigning the restaurant experience.
All this with a zero net budget. However, in true Nordic Rebels spirit, and with Miikka to inspire them, they got it done and set in motion the series of events that would lead to Nordic Rebels as we know it today.
2017
Welcoming more rebellious unicorns
With the Creative Teamwork course now evolving into the IDBM Challenge, it was time for the movement to grow. This led to the entry of our fellow rebel, Katharina, to the team. During a conference she attended on blended learning in Copenhagen, a chance meeting, that can only be deemed destiny, led to the start of our collaboration with our Danish Rebels from Student and Innovation House!
For our Danish friends, their journey began in 2013, with the idea for Student and Innovation House with the modest ambition of changing the future through student engagement. They believe students need to be equipped with the ambition, values and tools to face these challenges to work towards creating a better and more sustainable world. Back then they were also working on transforming an old police station to be their new base of operations.
What started as one course in one location was now a course spanning two countries and two teams of Rebels bringing together over sixty students to go through a radical new educational experience.
In keeping with the radical theme, the team wondered what could be the topic that would challenge students from across the world residing in two of the most vibrant Nordic cities. It needed to be something that could provide both an endless exploration and a place for radical solutions that was also fun. In the end, the answer was out there, as the theme of the challenge was titled “A Space Odyssey” with students having to take on topics related to life in space in both a near and distant future, ranging from the year 2029 to 2059.
Fun Fact: 2017 was also the year that, unknown to anyone (not even themselves), two more of the Nordic Rebels entered the scene. Both Jia ‘Jellyfish’ and Adithya ‘Armadillo’ were part of the 2017 iteration of the course, as students!
2018
nordic rebels grows
2018 - Nordic Rebels grows
What started then as a challenge based course in 2016 expanded to a full fledged blended minor studies program worth 25 ECTS which includes the Challenge and a longer guided Project course. Given the pressing needs all around us, this iteration of the Challenge was designed with the UN initiated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in mind. Teams were to deliver a challenge that tackles the planet's biggest problems from the Nordic context.
This was also the time that Nordic Rebels really took shape as a common identity that can inspire a movement. Thanks to fantastic original artwork by created by Parvati Pillai, to an audiovisual identity that we have LPs for. The Nordic Rebels as you know it today fully blossomed at this time.
2019
A Year of Recognition
With glowing course feedback and student testimonials, we knew we were doing something right. However, 2019 confirmed that beyond doubt as Nordic Rebels was catapulted to much wider recognition.
Our pitch for SXSW-EDU was that we had a blended approach to fix higher education. Using our 2018 Challenge course and our collaboration with Slush as templates, we wanted to show how we could transform learning. Our panel idea was selected through their voting system and we had the opportunity to travel to Austin and share Nordic Rebels with the world!
Our excitement from SXSW had barely started to fade, when on 13 May 2019 we were awarded the highly coveted Danish Design Award in the Better Learning category. This award is one of the most prestigious recognitions in the field of design in the Nordic region, and as such highlighted the influential work we’d been doing in revolutionizing higher education.
Read what the the jury had to say here.
2021
pathway through a pandemic
As it was for everyone, the pandemic was a challenging time to navigate and find a path and a future for Nordic Rebels through. We experimented with a template on how to adapt learning to the new realities of the time, and as things began to settle, resumed our work with more projects.
Vopd project with the nordic council of ministers
In spring 2021, we were contacted by the Healthcare and care through distance-spanning solutions project (In Swedish; Vård och Omsorg På Distans – VOPD) to help them visualize a vision for holistic healthcare in the Nordic region in 2030. VOPD was funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, and as such it brought together stakeholders from all the Nordic countries as well as Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland.
Our initial brief was to “visualize a vision for healthcare and care in the Nordic region in 2030”. In one of the initial co-creation workshops, we identified six values with the client as the foundations for the final outputs. These values were
independence
trust
Transparency
individual empowerment
Simplicity (Accessibility)
Quality of Life
As part of the project, we delivered a short film showing five different scenarios that might unfold in the healthcare and social care system. Additionally, the first Nordic Rebels game was launched. The aim of the “Building Blocks for Holistic Care” game is to enable the players to collaboratively envision a customer-centric future for the care sector in the jungle of different technological solutions.
The game, designed with input from students of Aalto University and Umeå Institute of Design and manufactured from the sustainable ‘It’s Roasted’ date-based material by our partners at DATEFORM, was launched at the Expo 2020 Dubai. You can read more about this project on the iHAC website and in our blog on the VOPD project.
