future of Education
World Education Forum Stresses Public-Private Collaboration for Quality Learning
System-wide innovations to improve education quality can only take root through broad collaboration across private, public and non-governmental actors, participants affirmed at the World Education Forum in London on 9-10 January.
Addressing the Forum, which gathered some 60 education ministers, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova stressed the importance of “fit to size solutions. Progress is more than a question of money – it is all about matching… matching capacity with needs, matching skills and knowledge to the requirements of markets. ”
During the Forum, she presented the ICT Competency Framework for Teachers, describing it as “an excellent example of how an intergovernmental organizations and private partners can cooperate to deliver concrete results. ” She noted that “public-private partnership is a new form of ‘civilian power’ that will help shape the new spirit of learning in the 21st century.”
Speaking at the opening reception of the Forum, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs William Hague commended the ICT Competency Framework.“Unless we continue to have a global outlook in our education system and constantly refresh our thinking from examples of success around the world, we put that cutting-edge status at risk. (…) UNESCO’s Information and Communication Technology Competency Framework for Teachers demonstrates this forward thinking approach to education.”
The Deputy Secretary-General Commonwealth Secretariat Ransford Smith reiterated that “innovative ideas adapted to vastly diverse circumstances call for sharing and collaboration. ” The ICT Competency Framework, he said, offered a comprehensive and integrated approach, adding that it is expected to have a “long term impact on teachers in Guyana,” where UNESCO has been a partner in the ICT professional development of teachers.
Intel’s Vice President John Davies gave examples of system-wide innovations in Turkey, Argentina and Viet Nam that have led to teacher training in ICTs, improved learning outcomes and increased connectivity through broad partnerships involving governments and private industries.
On the sidelines of the Forum, the Director-General met with a number of partners, including Intel, Microsoft, Pearson, HP, Lego Education, Promethean and GEMS Education to discuss the establishment of a Global Alliance of Corporate Partners for Education. “Unless we show a global mobilization involving private sector, governments and NGOs, we will not be able to seriously put education on the global agenda.”
The Education World Forum is hosted by the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), with support from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for Education, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and several industry partners.
Related Links
UNESCO chief stresses need for innovation to ensure quality, equitable education (UN News Centre)
Future Classroom Lab
The Future Classroom Lab is created by European Schoolnet, its supporting 30 ministries and industry partners to help visualise how conventional classrooms and other learning spaces can be easily reorganised to support changing styles of teaching and learning.
Future of Learning Introduction
The Future of Learning: Preparing for Change
This report aims to identify, understand and visualise major changes to learning in the future. It developed a descriptive vision of the future, based on existing trends and drivers, and a normative vision outlining how future learning opportunities should be developed to contribute to social cohesion, socio-economic inclusion and economic growth.
The overall vision is that personalisation, collaboration and informalisation (informal learning) are at the core of learning in the future. These terms are not new in education and training but will have to become the central guiding principle for organising learning and teaching in the future.
The central learning paradigm is thereby characterised by lifelong and life-wide learning, shaped by the ubiquity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). At the same time, due to fast advances in technology and structural changes to European labour markets that are related to demographic change, globalisation and immigration, generic and transversal skills become more important, which support citizens in becoming lifelong learners who flexibly respond to change, are able to pro-actively develop their competences and thrive in collaborative learning and working environments.
Many of the changes depicted have been foreseen for some time but they now come together in such a way that is becomes urgent and pressing for policymakers to consider them and to propose and implement a fundamental shift in the learning paradigm for the 21st century digital world and economy. To reach the goals of personalised, collaborative and informalised learning, holistic changes need to be made (curricula, pedagogies, assessment, leadership, teacher training, etc.) and mechanisms need to be put in place which make flexible and targeted lifelong learning a reality and support the recognition of informally acquired skills.
Designing for Education: Compendium of Exemplary Educational Facilities 2011
Designing for Education: Compendium of Exemplary Educational Facilities 2011 showcases over 60 recently built or refurbished educational facilities from 28 countries. Collectively, these projects demonstrate state-of-the-art design in this field and each one is lavishly illustrated with colour photos, plans and descriptions.
Learning School Initiative launched
The Learning School Initiative, calling for a worldwide federation of efforts to make schools fit for the future, was officially launched at the EFQUEL Forum on September 16, 2011. It will be presented and discussed at the Open Classroom Conference taking place in Athens on October 27-29, 2011 and at the World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha (November 2011).
If you share the belief that school transformation is key in enabling a better future for our children, you can join it!. The invitation is open to:
- Individuals (teachers, parents, students, citizens) willing to contribute with their views, experience and ideas on how to improve and transform schools to make them fit to the future.
- Funding agencies interested in sponsoring the initiative.
- International networks involved in education interested in contributing to the promotion and international coordination of the initiative.
- Public institutions and organisations (Ministries of Education, Universities, Research centres) interested in supporting the federated initiative through promotion at national level, sharing of knowledge, research findings and expertise, identification of test beds for school transformation pilots.
- Research/implementation projects active at local, national, regional, international level throughout the world sharing the aim of school transformation and willing to share knowledge, experience and results achieved as well as to discuss jointly with all other actors on how to face encountered challenges.
- Schools of all grades (ages 3-18) in all countries of the world willing to share their experience, to act as test beds, discuss their daily problems and challenges and to be grassroots innovators.
Want to know more about the initiative?
Read the Learning School Manifesto and watch the PPT presentation about the Initiative.
Click here to contribute to the Initiative!
- Help building the map of school transformation
- Endorse the initiative
- Send your comments and suggestions
- Suggest an event where the initiative could be presented and discussed
- Vote the name of the Initiative
Note: the map of school transformation is under construction. Here is a preview of the map; if you wish to contribute you may contact
2011 Global Education Conference, online and free
The second annual Global Education Conference, a week-long event bringing together educators and innovators from around the world, will be held Monday, November 14 through Friday, November 18, 2011. The entire conference will be broadcast online for free using the Blackboard Collaborate platform (formerly known as Elluminate/Wimba).
The Global Education Conference is a collaborative and world-wide community effort organized by the Global Education Collaborative, Classroom 2.0, and Web 2.0 Labs, and is aimed at increasing opportunities for globally-connecting education activities and initiatives. Last year’s conference featured 387 sessions and 60 keynote addresses from 62 countries with over 15,000 participant logins. Sessions will be held in multiple time zones and multiple languages over the five days, and all of last years sessions are currently archived as a standing educational resource at http://globaledcon.weebly.com/recordings.html.
The Call for Proposals for the 2011 event is now open at http://globaleducation.ning.com/page/call-for-proposals. Presenters can submit proposals for general sessions focused on one of four possible tracks: Teacher Track; Student Track; Curricular Track; and Policy and Leadership Track. Proposals should focus on ideas, projects, and initiatives that promote global understanding and collaboration. The deadline for submissions is October 15 and participants will be notified of acceptance by October 30. Keynote presentations are by invitation only.
Session proposals are to be non-commercial. Interest in commercial sponsorship or presentations should be directed to Steve Hargadon at steve@hargadon.com.