Interview with Advisory Board member Esther van der Linde: 'I would like all teachers to be able to apply IX without having to become experts'

The Advisory Board of CIIIC consists of 21 carefully selected members who provide solicited and unsolicited advice to our program team on substantive main lines. As representatives of the IX community and ambassadors of IX in the Netherlands, they are crucial for the connection with the industry. But who are these members, what do they do, and – above all – how do they view IX?

In part 12, Esther van der Linde from the fellow National Growth Fund program Npuls, which is building the future of further education (vocational schools, colleges, and universities) in the Netherlands.

Who are you, what do you do?

‘I am Esther van der Linde, pioneer of the XR theme within the National Growth Fund program Npuls. Post-secondary education, 105 MBO, HBO, and WO institutions, are collaborating within Npuls so that learners can learn without barriers and continuously receive the best education. Immersive technologies can contribute to this. My role is to ensure that we launch national initiatives that help institutions allow IX to genuinely contribute to education. Because each institution is working hard on it, but they also face the same challenges.

Additionally, I am an XR Adviser at SURF, the ICT cooperative of Dutch educational and research institutions.’

Why ‘immersive’, what do you have with new content/technology?

‘To be honest, I stumbled upon immersive, or immersive stumbled upon me. During the Corona lockdowns, I was looking for ways to shape skill education when you can't physically come together, and VR emerged as a possibility, so I started exploring it.

I found it a fascinating world because the possibilities seem endless. What I find beautiful is that with IX, you can engage all senses, which does a lot for learning. It's so real, even though you know it's not real. And that's amazing when you want to teach someone something. I am always focused on making education as good as possible and less interested in the technology itself, but IX truly offers beautiful opportunities for education. That's why every educational institution is already experimenting.’

Why did you want to join the Advisory Board, what specifically appealed to you in/about the program?

‘I saw the connection with our Npuls program and I am very eager to connect our programs as effectively as possible so that we can achieve maximum impact with minimal public resources. With my IX hat on, it would be a missed opportunity not to collaborate.’

What is your IX dream/mission?

‘It might sound strange, but my IX dream is actually that it will soon no longer be a special technology, but that it becomes as natural for learners and education professionals to use it for learning as a PowerPoint presentation or a book. That all teachers know what the added value is and how they should develop education to leverage that extra value. And that all the barriers that still exist now are gone. Once we have achieved that, my task will be complete.

More specifically, the goal in my work is to ensure that we can provide the best possible education to learners and that teachers who have this task are as relieved as possible and can therefore do what they are really good at. IX is complex, and I want all teachers to be able to apply this in their teaching (where it has added value) without having to become IX experts.’

Which developments in the field do you see that you find important to strengthen and why? Or: what is, in your eyes, the most important development in the IX field (as part of the creative industry)?

‘IX offers fantastic technologies, and now it's a matter of it being widely applied and making an impact. I think we still have a lot to do; the creators, researchers, and users together need to achieve real impact. So, I don't see a new development, but rather—hopefully—a new phase in deploying IX.

If it really comes down to technology, then I hope AI will ensure that creating IX becomes as easy as video—allowing education professionals to create standard IX experiences themselves, and specialists can focus on specialized applications, innovations, improvements, expansions, and so on.’

Public values play an important role at CIIIC, how do you view this? Extra stimulating or a possible obstacle?

‘I find public values very important and indeed an obstacle in IX. How can we develop the best education for learners and do justice to public values, how do we ensure the safety of learners' data, while the hardware is in the hands of Big Tech who are not transparent about this? How do we get out of this ever-deepening vendor lock-in? These are really complex themes that we can only resolve by working together (nationally/internationally). I would like to have a more positive outlook on this, but unfortunately, this is the current reality.’

Finally, the Advisory Council gives advice – what is your message to the community? And how can they find and 'use' you to possibly share their ideas with the community?

‘It's a bit of a cliché, but we really have to do it together; alone you might go faster, but together you get further. So I want to commit to ensuring the growth fund programs work well together, but I also want to encourage people in all other areas to see and use the strengths of others. IX is a complex field in motion, so let's move slowly, cautiously, but decisively in the right direction together – then anything is possible.

And if someone wants to 'use' me: I have spent my entire working life in higher education and that is where my passion and network lie, so if you want to know more about education or are looking for collaboration opportunities, I would love to brainstorm with you! You can find me on LinkedIn or via adviesraad@ciiic.nl.’

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Interview: Nils Adriaans. Photography: Ben Houdijk