Education: Change Is Here, But Are You Ready For It?
“Our education system is a mess; it is failing us, our children, our future” – a catchphrase I hear at conferences, during dinner and casual conversations. This refrain takes me back to my school years. I remember sitting in class, listening passively followed by hours of rote learning and note taking. There was no room […]
Four Points to Consider Before Leveraging Technology for Equity
In one of my blog articles I wrote about research and tech in Kenya and if we are doing enough of both. Equally, another article asked the question: University-based research inspired Google – is research needed to inspire Kenyan innovators too? If these two articles are to go by then there is a real concern over the quality […]
The Changing Ends and Paradigm for Education in the World
EVEN THE MOST TRADITIONAL among us understand that the world is changing rapidly. Today, our most important educational question is “How do we adapt our children’s education to these exponential and ongoing changes?” Many already realize that the education we give our young people no longer prepares them to thrive in the future. But although reformers […]
Why Higher Education Must Transform Itself to Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century
On any given day, in college classrooms across the globe, a unique group of millennial students is putting to the test the true effectiveness of universities responsible for producing the next generation of world leaders. But their expectations are unlike those of their predecessors —these students are technologically savvy, socially engaged and forward-thinking individuals […]
The Big Idea: Reset the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem with Education
When we surveyed fresh graduates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) about their lives, hopes, and challenges, two things stood out. First, 75% of fresh graduates in the Middle East and North Africa say that finding a job is the biggest challenge faced by their generation. Second, when asked about the greatest challenge they […]
Redesigning Educational Systems for the Future
Today, more than ever, significant academic institutions should focus on molding and shaping young people by providing them with the necessary tools for being able to respond to the fast-paced, complex, and multi-dimensional challenges of today’s society. This is imperative in order for youth to not be somehow conditioned by these changes, thus become devoid […]
Simple Questions, Complex Challenges
We have spent too many years now speaking of the need to transform the education model, a model that is failing to meet the needs of the third millennium. While many sectors are suffering disruption of their activities, the education sector seems to be comfortably ensconced in its ancestral ways. The small adjustments that […]
The Death of Education, But the Dawn of Learning
Education is dauntingly complex. There are simply SO many variables. Even a windy day changes the whole school. We also know from today’s greater knowledge of physiology and cognition that relatively small changes in temperature, hydration, noise, light levels and more can profoundly impact on attention and learning in one part of a room, […]
How Movement Improves Intelligence
Want smarter kids? Let them move! In too many classrooms around the globe, children are expected to sit through the day while passively absorbing huge amounts of information. A quiet, almost petrified student has been synonymous with concentration and productivity. Sometimes, even sitting up is not enough; children are required to avoid any “unnecessary” noise […]
Designing the Future of Education
Most agree that schools have struggled to keep up with the pace of society’s changes. Although it’s easy to point to the “industrial” nature of the way schools are designed or make lists of the skills we need to foster for the future, actually creating the new models for learning is a daunting task. […]