PierreAntoine Ullmo

Tag: creativity

  • Investing in education

    Investing in education
    Investing in education. ©Sergey Nivens

    Why invest in education? Why invest now? Where should we invest?

    Asking these questions is already a sign that much has changed on the education scene. Education is no longer a matter reserved for public authorities or free from real life constraints. The world is spending more on education than ever before. Education is the answer to parents’ desire to guarantee a future job for their children and to companies’ needs for more innovation and better skilled employees. Education is the key to building better lives for hundreds of millions worldwide and responding to challenges such as climate change, sustainable development and gender equality.

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  • Arrest change?

    Creativity
    Creativity

    In a period of continuous transformation and change for schools, it is worth listening to disruptive voices questioning the need and the proposed direction of change.

    Last week, the European Commission launched its “Opening Up Education” initiative. (See my previous blog entry.) The final objective is to enable “all individuals to learn anywhere, anytime, through any device with the support of anyone”.

    All education ministers in Europe and beyond seem to agree on the need to advance in the “digitalisation of learning” and design strategies to favour the future students’ employability. Jobs and skills are the ultimate objective, and testing is one of the key instruments to measure youth attainment and the system’s overall effectiveness.  All education ministers? No! Like in Asterix, “one small village of indomitable education experts still holds out against the invaders”.

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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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