PierreAntoine Ullmo

Author: Pierre Antoine Ullmo

  • Open education: “c’est du bricolage”

      Teachers’ workshop, Hanoch Piven

    Last week, I was invited to a vision workshop where experts gathered from all over Europe, organised by the European Commission’s prospective think tank – Institute for Prospective Technological Studies. It addressed the issue of school education and Open Education Resources (OER) at the horizon of 2030.

    One of the participants – Alex Beard – argued in his intervention that “teachers will be bricoleurs” and that by 2030 “adaptations, mash-ups and bricolages will be the norm”. It helped me to understand OER in a different way than its usual technology-oriented definition. I was challenged by Alex’s description of the teachers-bricoleurs “continuously using, adding to or adapting new resources for new learning needs, inviting peer-review and providing evidence of learning results”.

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  • Digital communities: Are they real?

                                                                      Campo de Cebada, La Latina, Madrid (Zepelin)

    A week ago, the Prix Ars Electronica, one of the most important awards for creativity in the field of digital media, was awarded to ‘El Campo de Cebada’ as the best practice in the category of ‘Digital Communities’. I visited the website to learn more about this “barley field”.

    ‘El Campo de Cebada’ is a 5,500 square meter area in the La Latina neighbourhood, at the very heart of the historic centre of Madrid. It was once left vacant and converted into a temporary installation. Then, as the architect David Bravo explains, the parents of children attending nearby schools and collectives of young architects came together under the name ‘El Campo de Cebada’ to maintain the community’s use of the space. They signed an agreement with the city council for its temporary lease.

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  • MOOCS: from Alice in Wonderland to Harry Potter

     

    No time to say hello, goodbye
    No time to say hello, goodbye

    MOOCs from a historical – and magical – perspective

    “No time to say hello, goodbye”. Innovators in education are these days like the white rabbit in Alice’s adventures in Wonderland: they jump from one innovation to the other and have no time to look backwards to validate their ideas and find inspiration from the past.

    Let’s take the example of MOOCs, these “massive open online courses” that are presented as “the” solution for opening up education to all. We used to count students by the tens or hundreds in classrooms or amphitheatres. We are now designing a universal classroom with hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – of students. Universities, students, professors, business angels, and policy makers have embarked on an adventure that should transform the way we learn and the way we teach.

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  • Education is a special need

     

    The teacher as a lighthouse
    The teacher as a lighthouse

    I just came back from spending a few days with Yaacov Hecht  and had the chance to get inspired by his vision and energy. In his book, Democratic Education: A Beginning of a Story, he described himself as “dyslectic and dysgraphic with average academic capabilities”. He writes: “When I began first grade, it became evident to me that I could not learn to read and write”.

    How can he be a leading visionary in education if he doesn’t read or write adequately?  It is maybe – surely? – that he transformed his “special needs” into “special skills”.

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  • No more classrooms or more democracy?

    Vittra school Stockholm

    Vittra school Stockholm

    I rediscovered a very interesting study commissioned in the UK by the DfES – Classroom of the Future. It argues that a pleasant and comfortable environment for learning will stimulate children’s imaginations. Everyone will share this view even if most of our schools are very far from offering such architectural and design features. Very interestingly, the report linked the delivery of an effective education, which makes use of all the possibilities of the Information Age, to the way the school buildings reflect advances in technology (1).

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  • Children will revolt

    - Please teacher what did I learned today - That's a peculiar - They will ask me when I get home
    Boy – “Please, teacher, what did I learn today?”
    Teacher – “That’s a peculiar question”
    Boy – “They will ask me when I get home”

    While preparing a contribution on the future of Open Education, I discovered a dialogue between Seymour Papert and Paulo Freire that took place at the end of the 1980’s.

    Papert mentioned in his conversation with Freire a cartoon from the Punch Magazine that gives much to think about the  importance of learning vs. teaching. Papert links it to what he understands school is about, i.e.  “learning by being told” or better said “by being taught” as opposed to  “learning by exploring”. According to him, “many children are destroyed by that, strangled”. 20 years later we keep arguing upon the ways for creativity to enter the classroom. (more…)

  • Skills mismatch vs. democratic imbalance

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Photo by Xin Li 88

    Youth unemployment is one of the most serious challenges we face. In Spain, where I live, more than 50% of young people are unemployed. More than 32% are early school leavers. More than 25% live below the poverty line. The threat of a lost generation is much more acute than the risk of the Spanish banking system collapsing.

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  • Participation as precondition for true social change

    escalera Roger EN

    Participation forms the core of our methodology and is central to our creativity.

    Participation is crucial for a teacher seeking to engage students and parents in the learning process. Participation is fundamental for a company aiming to involve its employees in an empowerment scheme and strengthen corporate culture. Participation is essential for a public authority (city council or ministry) wanting to involve citizens in an awareness-raising campaign. Participation is key for an NGO aspiring to transform its members and volunteers into social activists.

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