What if Kindness Is the New Normal? A Call to Re-Imagine the Purpose of Education in the Post-COVID World
The United Nations has described the global scale of education disruption from COVID-19 as “unparalleled.” According to UNESCO monitoring, at the peak in early April, national and local closures have impacted about 91.3 percent of the world’s student population. While students across the board have been impacted, it is important to understand the impact on children […]
Building the Future of Education in a Post-Pandemic World
Throughout the ages, WISE men and women from Confucius in the East to Aristotle in the West, have declared that education is central to the human condition. John Dewey went as far as saying that “education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” Yet, despite such lofty proclamations the past 200-odd years, which […]
The Elephant in the Room
Throughout the past months we have participated in many round table discussions and webinars with our colleagues from around the world, comparing and reflecting on our countries’ different responses to the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of education. At Fondazione per la Scuola della Compagnia di San Paolo, we also recently had the honor of […]
Online Teaching 2.0: Reimagining What We Know
The global pandemic has pushed educators around the world to a transformative moment for online learning. Since February 2020, an unprecedented number of teachers, students, and parents have become exposed to a new mode of teaching. Teachers did not have the luxury of options, as online education came towards them, shouting “Ready or not, here […]
Why Impact Research Is Important in EdTech
In 2012 I taught a 5th-grade class in a Finnish public school. During a mathematics lesson, we were doing a project about fractions and one group was creating a presentation about note lengths in music. I helped them to use the Garage Band music application to explore the topic and sent them to work in […]
World Refugee Day: Reaching Children in Crisis
Teresa Wolverton is part of the WISE Emerging Leaders cohort of 2020. Her work with Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind Sesame Street, illustrates the importance of reaching refugee children with early childhood education. Today, on World Refugee Day, she reflects on how this year’s theme, ‘Every Action Counts’ relates to the educational needs of children. 1. What is […]
Education’s Role in Eliminating Racism
Note: This article was originally published on Asia Society (link) Police brutality in black communities is nothing new. As a young black man growing up in 1970’s Los Angeles, I felt the mix of panic and outrage when those blue lights went on. I knew I had done nothing wrong – but I also knew that […]
Changing the EdTech Narrative Among Schools and Teachers
Edward Keller is the co-founder of SmartScience Lab, a California-based EdTech startup that provides students and teachers with the opportunity to learn STEM through virtual labs. Due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, SmartScience Lab experienced a surge in demand from teachers and schools. We asked Edward to share with us what the potential […]
Three Ways Technology Can Improve Student Learning
We have witnessed an unprecedented scale and intensity of disruptions to teaching practices in the last five months. Many teachers who had limited opportunities for training and guidance had to bring their classes online almost overnight. As a teacher, you may now feel ready to shut down your laptop and walk away from your desk […]
Global Day of Parents: Celebrating our Community-level Activists
A child’s first teacher is, almost always, a parent or carer. Parents are central in the development of a child’s social, moral, and cultural learning journey. Today, on Global Day of Parents, we celebrate parents worldwide, and recognize their role as activists within local communities, especially during a time of crisis. When United World Schools (UWS) […]