University of Helsinki and Rovio Learning cooperate for playful learning

The University’s Department of Teacher Education has established the Playful Learning Center (PLC), which researches playful learning together with businesses.The aim of the Center is to research and teach new learning solutions together with education experts and Finnish companies, and to enhance Finland’s status as a leading nation in education.

The opening of the Center also coincides with the establishment of the Rovio Fun Learning Research Lab, which will study learning solutions based on Rovio Learning’s philosophy of fun learning as well as the Angry Birds Playground early education project.

New partnerships

“The Playful Learning Center combines two areas of Finnish excellence, pedagogy and the technology industry.It offers new and interesting opportunities to develop learning in kindergartens, schools and different communities throughout an individual’s life,” explains Kristiina Kumpulainen, professor in pre-primary and primary education at the University of Helsinki.

"We invite all interested parties to join the cooperation.The Center enables multidisciplinary research that makes use of the University of Helsinki’s strong, internationally recognised expertise.”

Launched with Tekes funding, the Center is located on Siltavuorenpenger in Helsinki. Tekes is the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation.

Making use of the research space for learning

At the first stage, the Center will house Rovio Learning's international Rovio Fun Learning Research Lab which focuses on developing fun learning solutions.The Center and the research cooperation are a natural continuation of the work the University of Helsinki has done with Rovio Learning in researching and providing training in playful learning solutions. The teachers for the first Angry Birds Playground kindergartens in China run by 123 Education Development Ltd have been trained in collaboration by the Helsinki University’s Department of Teacher Education and Rovio Learning. Openings will take place during the Fall. 

Rovio Learning is known for collaborating with a number of scientific and educational brands and institutions such as NASA, CERN, the National Geographic Society and the University of Helsinki. “Learning can be seriously fun! We are happy to cooperate with the University of Helsinki to find out more about what can be learned through the research on playful learning”, says Sanna Lukander, Vice President of Rovio Learning.

The Rovio Fun Learning Research Lab and the tools it contains offer a wide range of cooperation opportunities.Participation in the research will be opened up to groups of children and their supervisors in pre-primary and primary education, students, product developers, training specialists as well as international experts and institutions in the field.

The goal has been to provide researchers with a versatile, easy-to-use research environment which also utilises technology. The sponsor providing electronic devices is Samsung.

Further information:

The Playful Learning Center (PLC):

Professor Kristiina Kumpulainen, kristiina.kumpulainen@helsinki.fi, tel. +358 50 318 5221

Professor Lasse Lipponen, lasse.lipponen@helsinki.fi, tel. +358 50 318 5000

University of Helsinki Playful Learning Center » 

Rovio Learning and Rovio Fun Learning Research Lab:

Tiina Rantakokko, tiina.rantakokko@rovio.com

Leena Salmio (media contact), leena.salmio@rovio.com, tel.+358 50 525 2545

The University of Helsinki is one of the top multidisciplinary researchuniversities in the world. The high-quality research carried out by theuniversity creates new knowledge for educating specialists in variousfields, and for utilisation in social decision-making and the businesssector. It is an international academic community of over 40,000 students andstaff members.www.helsinki.fi/university

Rovio Entertainment Ltd, the creator of Angry Birds, is a global industry-changing entertainment media company headquartered in Finland that creatively combines the digital with the physical, breaking the boundaries of traditional content delivery. What started as a casual game in 2009 became an international phenomenon within a few months of its release. Today Angry Birds is not only the most downloaded game of all time, it is an entertainment brand known worldwide that is reaching out into publishing, licencing, animations, books and location-based entertainment. Rovio's animated Angry Birds feature film is slated for July 2016.www.rovio.com