Hyper Island, Stockholm:Is this the visionary school for what many colleges and universities will look like in the future? I had the fortune to visit Hyper Island outside of Stockholm, Sweden. This is the school’s main campus and is composed of a little over 100 students.
The term “hyper” is an appropriate one as these students are full of energy and ideas; the passion is palpable. All the students within these walls are digitally focused. There are no accounting or biology majors here. Rather there are experts in creating digital monsters, videos with Adobe After Effects, iPhone applications, etc.
There are also no professors here either. Rather there are rows of modern long white tables with Macs a plenty loaded with the latest software. When students are not editing video or creating avatars these Macs are usually displaying one of the major social media sites.
Hyper Island Uniqueness
- Lectures are replaced by collaboration and weekly team readouts of problems each team is experiencing and attempting to resolve
- Coaches instead of professors
- No books: learning is achieved via “hands-on” practicums with Fortune 1000 companies
Will the modern student get their first computer before they can walk?
This approach appears to be working for Hyper Island and its students. These students are gobbled up for jobs and internships by the Crispin Porters, DDB Needhams and Great Works of the world. The modern worker may greatly resemble one student that I spoke with who received his first computer when he was 3 ½ years old.
9 responses so far ↓
Terri Karp // November 2, 2009 at 6:57 pm |
Maybe the university so wired, “that student” is actually a walking 3d avatar
equalman // November 2, 2009 at 10:20 pm |
Wow, walking Avatar students, now that would be wired!
Nicolas // October 23, 2009 at 2:26 pm |
“Is this the visionary school for what many colleges and universities will look like in the future?
[...]
There are no accounting or biology majors here.”
I think you guess the question: can you generalize this method of work for study of Political science, finance or Economics for example? Without book moreover it seems a little bit complicated, but with ebooks maybe.
Oscar Del Santo // October 22, 2009 at 7:44 pm |
I absolutely agree that this is a refreshing and much-needed approach, far from the authoritarian and deferential educational ethos of yesteryear.
Sebastian Leinehed // October 22, 2009 at 10:27 am |
I’m a student at Hyper Island in Stockholm and I’m not sure what the blonde girl has to do with Hyper Island… but I’m sure she generates a lot of traffic, haha.
Oh, and some of us actually work on PC’s. We all bring our own computers.
Tyler Hurst // October 22, 2009 at 6:51 am |
Yeah, she looks like a student.
N // October 21, 2009 at 2:49 am |
Here’s their site:
http://www.hyperisland.se/
And their blog:
http://hyperisland.blogspot.com/
Looks insanely cool. I might have to buy my ticket to Stockholm.
equalman // October 21, 2009 at 6:47 pm |
Thanks for posting – it is insanely cool. Go State!
Brian Breslin // October 20, 2009 at 8:18 pm |
Eric,
How bout a link to HyperIsland? Or to where to find that student..?