“Empowering educators, advancing digital education, and fostering a sense of belonging in art & design education at the Willem de Kooning Academy.”
Our goals
1
Improve Educational Quality
In a world where career landscapes are perpetually evolving, our focus is on empowering teachers and educational teams with pedagogical and didactic methods for art and design education.
2
Enhance Digital Education
Together with our team of digital developers and blended learning specialists we are committed to advancing digital literacy across our organization.
3
Foster a Sense of Belonging
We are dedicated to nurturing a culture of social inclusivity and community within our academy. Our goal is to create an environment where every individual feels welcomed and valued.
The Education Station
The Education Station (ES) serves as the heart of our learning community at WdKA. It is dedicated to fostering innovation in teaching and art education. We gather and share knowledge to inspire new initiatives, recognizing that while talented artists and designers are vital, exceptional art education requires a more comprehensive, holistic approach. Our goal is to cultivate a strong collaborative learning environment that encourages open dialogue and sparks transformative actions. This is how we believe we can achieve education that is inclusive, forward-thinking, and relevant to today’s challenging professional landscape. Our multidisciplinary team—comprising trainers, digital developers, and coaches—blends educational expertise with digital innovation. Together, we enhance the integration of advanced digital tools with pedagogical excellence, driving a more impactful and engaging learning experience at WdKA
Our mission
Our mission is simple: Develop the best tutors, support them with the best digital tools possible, and foster a sense of belonging at WdKA.
Activities
Training
We offer training programs designed to meet the diverse needs of our educational community. Our onboarding sessions ensure a smooth transition for new staff, while our Basic Didactical Certification (BDB) and Basic Examination Skills (BKE) courses provide essential skills, including class management, methodology, didactics and exam assessments. We offer equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) training to foster an inclusive learning environment. Our blended learning courses merge traditional classroom experiences with digital instruction, whilst our language support services offer linguistic assistance to both tutors and students in English and Dutch.
Research
We are invested in the intersection of digitalisation and education. Our research initiatives focus on understanding how emerging technologies can enhance teaching methods and learning outcomes. Topics we have been exploring include learning management systems, cyber security, and artificial intelligence. We aim to inform best practices and pave the way for innovative digital solutions that can enrich the educational experiences.
Events
We believe in the power of community engagement, both formally and informally. Our Education Mornings and Education Days are events that bring together educators and students via workshops, discussions and keynote presentations. These events serve as a platform for knowledge exchange and inspiration in art education. Complementing these are our informal educational lunches, a more casual setting that fosters open dialogue and networking among our faculty and students. These meetings also serve as means to discover teacher needs upon which we can develop training. Whether it’s a formal presentation or an informal meal, each event is designed to support positive change and continuous improvement in our educational community.
Digital Development
We are continuously engaged in developing and improving our online learning environment We place a high priority on privacy and security to ensure a safe digital space for our community. Additionally, WdKA.tv serves as a multimedia platform for creative content, while our Graduation Platform streamlines the final academic journey for our students. The development of our digital resources contribute to an enriched educational experience.
Who we are
Danai Fuengshunut
Head Education Station
Danai’s wants to be the person who goes on adventures with students and staff. His design background is in illustration and his primary role is to coordinate the Education Station team. He provides individual and team training for new employees, tutors, and assessors. He supports online events and is available every working day for all general questions regarding education.
Paul Buchanan
Trainer – Technology Enhanced Learning – specialist
Paul Buchanan from Glasgow, Scotland, is an Artist/Designer and Educator focused on building communities to foster engagement within civic and educational realms. With a rich background in arts education innovation, he’s now the enhanced technology learning specialist at WDKA’s Education Station. There, he collaborates to design and implement authentic learning experiences that elevate Arts and Cultural education
Evita de Roode
Teacher
Curiosity killed the cat, but not this one. Everything Evita does is out of curiosity about the unknown. In addition to her work as a creative entrepreneur in the cultural sector, she rocks the presenter, moderator and facilitator role with elegance and always gets the bottom stone out. Starting off with the right setting and questions.
Sauli Warmenhoven
Developer
Sauli plays with the Hypertext Markup Language to support educational and professional activities in art, design, leisure and education. He has a background as a creative coder and a web developer and is now involved with MyWdKA.
Vicky Nijdam-Nguyen
Developer / Cybersecurity officer
Vicky is a Technical Developer at Education Station. She specializes in developing, programming, and maintaining new and existing applications for multiple websites. Additionally, Vicky manages the websites cybersecurity.wdka.nl and ai.wdka.nl, where she shares her expertise in cybersecurity and AI, offering insights and assistance on the technical aspects of these fields
Martijn van Dijk
DD Coordinator
It is Martijn’s job to develop Mywdka as a team with Vicky and Sauli. As an art teacher who is specialized in Digital Media, he has experience in a lot of tools and many types of media. As a maker he is a musician who combines both acoustic as digital electic instruments. As a developer he is interested in UI design and UX design. You can call him anytime for a conversation about Mywdka, Gordon Matta-Clark or musical instruments.
Our history
In 2016, Education Station (ES) was founded at the Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA) as a center for educational expertise and development. ES was created to address a skills gap among tutors. The mission and vision of the WdKA requires tutors with particular didactical-and pedagogical- capabilities to work in a specific (online) context. Establishing ES was considered the best way to remedy this deficiency because we believe our tutors require specific training for the arts& design context. ES began by developing professionalization activities such as the quickstart(onboarding), basic didactical cerfication (BDB), competency assessment training, and has since expanded it’s training to include language support, inclusivity- and blended learning training.
In 2018 ES expanded by collaborating with our digital development team. With the integration of this team digitalization became linked with our educational practices. This included supporting our online learning environment, research and develop digital learning resources and supporting staff in acquiring digital skills. Through these initiatives, WdKA is building innovative learning communities among tutors, staff, and students, with ES serving as the center for professional development. Together, we strive to elevate the quality of arts education, enhance digital education and foster a sense of belonging for the WdKA. Our story is so good it’s not yet finished.
Our stories
Artificial Intelligence for Higher Art Education Blog
Please visit ai.wdka.nl, the dedicated online hub for the Education Station at WdKA. Our platform is designed to provide comprehensive educational support, offering a rich array of resources and insights to enhance your learning experience. At the core of our mission...
Month of Blended-Learning – March 2024
During the month of Blended Learning at WdKA, the Education Station, in collaboration with Ivo Vrouwe (Lecturer in Blended Learning), initiated a series of exploratory conversations with students. The objective was to investigate how blended learning methodologies...
Equity diversity and inclusion (EDI) Conference
On Thursday 9 and Friday 10 November, the Willem de Kooning Academy organised the EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) Conference. The EDI Conference focused on the critical themes of 'decolonisation of the curriculum' and 'accessibility of education'. The first...
Cyber Security & Education
At WdKA, hybrid working has exploded in recent years. And why not? It's possible. But there is a downside to location-independent and flexible working. Cybercriminals are only too happy to abuse it. Cyber security refers to the protection of internet-connected...
Blended learning
There is something magical about how digital technology is influencing everyone in daily life. The term “blended learning” emerged in the field of education and has gained popularity in recent years. While there is some debate about its precise origin, the term...
Artificial Intelligence: How will AI revolutionize the field of Art Education?
Art and technology have always intersected, but never as profoundly as in the age of Artificial Intelligence. AI is not just about algorithms and data; it’s about understanding and simulating human-like intelligence. How does AI relate to art? In many ways: 1....