Jellybean 081 with Sandra Viggers

Denmark. Probably the best or fairest economy in the world. Probably the best wind power in the world. Probably the happiest nation on earth. (No comment on the beer.)

In FOAMed, as in so many other things, the Danes are really doing some impressive stuff. We have had Mads Astvad on the Jellybean Podcast before and now we have his partner in Viking FOAMed crime; Sandra Viggers. Serious simulation expert, educationalist and skater.

I find some things rather frightening. Not clowns or spiders. It’s things like gymnastics, especially the bar, and ice skating. Ice in general is a little bit difficult but figure skating with all its speed, sharp edged skates, people throwing themselves or other people in the air and not enough head protection, I can barely watch.

Sandra Viggers figure skates at an elite level which means she is brave, strong, seriously coordinated and awesome. She did find being on stage at SMACC frightening so at least she is mortal. However it turns out figure skating is a transferable skill. One that can help an educationalist. Simon Carley has written about learning from elite sports teams in our training of elite medical and nursing teams. (That’s YOU by the way, you are a part of that elite medical and nursing team.) Like aviation sports teams are often considered as a source of possible tools or practices that we can utilise in our world.

Having trained as a nurse and then practicing her craft in simulation as a nurse before training in medicine puts Sandra in a rather interesting position to contribute to the improvement of education in our overlapping professions.

Indeed we have already seen ScanFoam pair up with the Teaching Institute to run The Teaching Course in Copenhagen before dasSMACC. They called it “das Teaching Course” and it seems to have been a big success.

So bad luck for Mads Astvad. He used to be my favourite Danish FOAMster, but now he has been replaced.

Musical inspiration this week was provided Danish electro cool thing Heidi Mortenson. A woman that entered the music scene using only her surname spelled backwards; Nosnetrom. Apparently to stop people assuming things related to her gender.