From Global Disruption to Disruptive Innovation in Education
In a matter of weeks, coronavirus (COVID-19) has changed how students are educated around the world. No doubt, these are highly disruptive times, yet they hold unique potential for the much needed transformation the education system has long been waiting for. Entrepreneurship is thriving in times of chaos and new solutions are being created by many educational teams, individuals, entrepreneurs, organizations and officials every day.
“COVID-19 has become a catalyst for educational institutions worldwide to search for innovative solutions in a relatively short period of time” — Gloria Tam & Diana El-Azar, Minerva Project
One way to ready ourselves for these changes is to start a discussion around the challenges and promising innovations that the future holds, and take time to listen to others’ experiences. On April 20th, Nōmada, together with Mifras Educational Entrepreneurship Incubator, hosted an online roundtable to discuss innovation in education during the coronavirus pandemic and the future of education. We brought together leaders from different sectors (education experts, academics, policymakers, EdTech entrepreneurs and business executives) from 13 countries and asked them to share their current experiences, challenges, and local solutions.
Here are the most important insights shared:
1. What we have witnessed during this enforced remote learning
- The perception of who can be an educator is changing: there is a joining of forces with many new players in the learning ecosystem — parents, neighbors, grandparents, communities, EdTech companies, etc. Indeed, there is a big opportunity for making alliances between schools and families.
- New human-oriented perspective for teachers and students: this period has revealed what new skills both for teachers and students are needed in order to enable learning. School is taking care of how to deal with student’s emotions of having to stay at home. Students may be even asked to step in and be part of their own assessment: “What have you learned? How are you feeling? What new difficulties are you facing?” As for teachers, there is a change in the perception of the role of the lecturer — shifting towards a mentorship approach.
- It is now easier to obtain blended financing, enlisting private and philanthropic funding. There is an economic opportunity to invest in new solutions in the education field.
- Virtual platforms. What this period has done is not so much the use of new technologies, rather a sudden, much wider social acceptance and use of existing technologies making virtual platforms part of “mainstream” education. Online classrooms are being adapted to formats other than PCs — mobile phones and even TV and radio being used to support remote learning, especially for individuals who don’t have access to computers. Moreover, there is a global shift to focus on effective pedagogy.
2. Challenges observed
- There are serious limitations on access to technology, for vulnerable populations, fully online learning is problematic as they lack equipment and access at home
- Need to balance technology & empathy-driven approaches. We need to remember that education is a human ecosystem and that technology must be combined with in-person contact to ensure empathy and solidarity.
- Teachers are currently so overwhelmed with “getting through the day” that they have had no time to reflect on the process they are undergoing.
3. Desirable paradigm shifts: what we want to carry forward
- New players should be encouraged to become part of the learning ecosystems.
- Greater collaboration between the public and private sectors: governments can invite start-ups and other stakeholders to help tackle specific challenges and restrictions and facilitate more piloting of possible solutions. Thus, the encouragement of blended financing to include private and philanthropic sources will become even more important.
- Documenting current innovations and emerging paradigms in order to focus efforts to ensure changes happen and could be scaled to improve education once we get back to the new normal. The impact and outcomes of new approaches must be documented and shared and this should constitute the basis of massive retraining of teachers to suit the new and future circumstances.
4. Ideas to guide our explorations in the immediate future
- Access to technology for vulnerable communities. Ensure we bridge these digital gaps effectively and fast, by giving access, connectivity and teaching tech skills to all students.
- Identification of skills needed to foster autonomous lifelong learning among students and adults and how to impart these skills in order to steer people towards the new economy.
- Significance and relevance of curriculum content must be reexamined. The learning experience is equally important as content and methodology.
- Measure and examine the effectiveness and outcomes of new approaches in education to leverage into the future.
Thanks to all the participants of this roundtable for the insights and contribution to the discussion! Representatives of Microsoft, IMD Business School, INSEAD, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Sistema B, Branco-Weiss School Tel Aviv Municipality, Google.org, Ânima Educação, Minerva Project, IDB Lab, Universidad de San Andrés Argentina, Government of Paraguay, Territorium Life, Ministry of Education Estonia, Innova Foundation Estonia, Enseña por Paraguay, Arca Latam, Daniel Foundation, Global Education Futures.
ROUNDTABLE — Organizers and Moderators:
- Dalia Silberstein and Martina Mariani, Co-founders Nōmada Impact.
- Bat-Chen Weinheber, Co-founder and Head of Mifras and Lilac Wasserman, Mifras Global Collaborations and Leadership team member.
- Josefina Maturana, glocalminds, visual recording.
This article was written by Martina Mariani, co-founder of Nōmada. Discover more about Nōmada at www.nomadaimpact.com
We’d like to give a special credit and thanks to the participants of the roundtable and to Mifras Educational Entrepreneurship Incubator, who triggered the ideas developed in this article.
