Presentation of the lead educator

Hello, my name is Josef Hallberg and I’m an associate professor in pervasive and mobile computing here at Luleå university of technology in Sweden. I will be your teacher in this course and will bring you on this journey together.

I have over 20 years of research experience in e-health and helping people manage their health at home. Fifteen years out of those are to support persons with dementia. And a major aspect of helping people with dementia is to help them manage their diet, improve their sleep quality and reduce their stress because those contributes to symptoms of dementia. So, I’ve studied stress, I’ve studied how can we use technology to reduce this. But over the past few years I’ve also delved into psychology and behavioral science because one of the things that contributes a lot to our well-being is, of course, our behavior. And how can we change? How can we motivate people to change their behavior?

So, from this perspective I’ve learned a lot, both applying my understanding of stress on dementia, but also on how our own behavior affects our wellbeing. I’ve also been a person who suffered from low self-esteem my entire life in all aspects of my life. I suffered through a major depression a decade ago. But I managed to get through it with help of friends and colleagues and by reflecting on my own behavior and changing my behavior and changing how I react to certain situations. That is why I’m so passionate about this topic, because I would like to share with you my own experiences to help you avoid the situations I’ve been in and help you develop the tools for surviving the workplace.