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Research and advisory services for education, museums and governement, by Wouter van der Horst

Wouter van der Horst

Meet Wouter van der Horst, a freelance AI-researcher & media scholar driven by a passion for history, art, science and teaching. As a former history teacher and museum educator (Rijksmuseum) with an expertise in media literacy and AI, he's able to bridge the gap between arts, culture, education and technology.

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Book - AI in education

In the book AI in Education- Historical Perspectives and New Opportunities, Wouter explores the influence of historical technological developments on our modern understanding of generative AI. He demonstrates that our current view is often limited by the "Horseless Carriage Syndrome," a phenomenon where we attempt to interpret the potential of new technologies through contemporary perspectives.

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Keynotes

Wouter is available for keynotes, lectures, and workshops on AI in education, the labour market, and the museum sector. Get in touch to arrange an engaging, tailored session.

Opinion piece NRC - AI narratives and the labour market

In this op-ed, Niels Kerssens and Wouter van der Horst argue that dystopian predictions about AI mislead prospective students, especially in Dutch vocational education, and risk steering them away from valuable technical fields. They call for balanced, evidence-based guidance and critical digital literacy so study choices reflect real labor-market needs and the complementary roles humans will continue to play alongside AI.

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Media Literacy & Citizenship Practorate

Wouter takes great pride in leading the research community as a Practor at the Practoraat Mediawijsheid & Burgerschap, a colaboratory project involving four vocational colleges in the Netherlands.

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PhD-research

Wouter is an external doctoral researcher at Utrecht University, focusing on how AI narratives affect Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

Smartify

Between 2020 and 2023, Wouter van der Horst led the content & learning strategy and content creation at Smartify, the premier Arts & Culture app with over 3.5 million users. As Head of Content & Learning, he spearheaded the development of this cutting-edge platform-technology, revolutionizing the museum, heritage, and historic sites' engagement worldwide.

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Towards AI Literacy: 101+ Creative and Critical Practices, Perspectives and Purposes

Wouter has two contributions in the open, crowdsourced collection Towards AI Literacy: 101+ Creative and Critical Practices, Perspectives and Purposes (June 2024) curated by the #creativeHE community. His entries share practical, educator-facing approaches to building AI literacy and are published under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.