A World of Tomorrow
Sunday 12 July 2020
What is the future for education?
I have just attended the first virtal Beaconhouse conference exploring the future for education. It was a wonderful opportunity to engage with educational leaders across the globe.
I have included some of my favourite sessions on this page. Each is about 60 minutes long. They can be used for private reflection or to provoke staff discussion - over the summer holidays or at the beginning of the new academic year.
Will this crisis finally push us to completely reimagine the future of learning?
A panel conversation exploring the purpose of education | the role of the teacher | are subjects outdated? | how do make education interesting?
Panel: Dr. Siva Kumari (IB Director General), Dr. Ger Graus (KidZania), Suzie Boss (PBL Works), Dr. Roger Schank (Socratic Arts). Chaired by Nassir Kasuri (Executive Director, Beaconhouse)
A discussion with Lance King, who helped to formulate the IB approaches to learning. He underlines the importance of teaching these skills in a post-Covid world where students have to learn to self-manage their learning. Towards the end he introduces a new website he is designing: LALATAT.
Link page: IB Approaches to Learning
In this conversation from A World of Tomorrow: Negotiating a Better Future, Beaconhouse Conference, July 2020, the following three strategies are discussed:
- SENSORY COGNITION: Create learning enviornments around sensory cognition to promote content accessibility.
- AGENTIC PRODUCTION: Design so learners are the "producers" who demonstrate Agency over their learning process. Ensure that we design learning experiences that will move students from being passive consumers to agentic producers. How do learners share what they do beyond the computer screen? How do they demonstrate transfer of their learning to authentic contexts?
- MICRO-INTERACTIONS: Facilitate micro-interactions to promote authentic collaborative groupings (a minimum or 4 or 5 every 50 minutes). These micro-interactions (e.g. collaborative opportunities such as use of break out rooms, small group work) are embedded into every online experience. These interactions need to result in artifacts / products.
Link page: Using technologies for learning
In a one-on-one conversation with Dr Ger Graus (Chair Beaconhouse Advisory Council), Carla Rinaldi (visionary Early Years educator and President Fondazione Reggio Children) shares her views on the impact of the pandemic on early childhood education.
In this video Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education & Skills, OECD, explains what PISA assesses and why it is important.
Key points:
- 'Learning' is the work.
- Think like a ...scientist / historian / mathematician
- Social and emotional skills (curiosity, leadership, working with others)
Tags: Beaconhouse conference, a world of tomorrow 2020