PierreAntoine Ullmo

Tag: education

  • Education “bricoleurs”

    The multiplicity of tools and solutions offered today by educators and edtech entrepreneurs from around the world supports the vision of education in the hands of passionate “bricoleurs”.

    The mother of all battles

    Innovation in education has many faces – the faces of teachers and their students in Tallinn, Nairobi or Brooklyn; of researchers in a science education lab in Belo Horizonte or London; of refugees in a camp in Sudan… For each of these people, education is the answer to a question posed in a different way but with the same promise: that of a better, fairer and more sustainable world for all. The ideal, and idealised, vision of education spans the ages from Socrates or St Augustine to the digital age of generative Artificial Intelligence.

    The images of hundreds of millions of children on their way to school and tens of millions of teachers who have made a commitment to train them, however, are still superimposed on those of closed schools and children deprived of education in towns and villages transformed into new battlefields all over the world. Despite all our efforts, education remains an uncertain response to vital questions.

    Education is the mother of all battles, said the French prime minister – a former short-lived minister of education – at the time of his appointment. The language of war is required when it comes to mobilising parents, teachers, students, public authorities, unions, businesses. But for what purpose?

    The countries of the world, in the same breath, have made access to quality education one of the objectives of our sustainable development, just like the protection of the planet or health and well-being for all. Are we close to the goal? Education is first a matter of measurement. What impact does education have on the lives of those who receive it? Does it really allow for better jobs, better salaries, more responsible behaviour, for a fairer life and a more cohesive society

    Getting to school alive

    Everyone has their own concerns, and they are all different. For students at MIT or Imperial College, education is the royal road to innovation in health. From the laboratories of these prestigious universities, for example, will come new drugs against cancer, as they did for the COVID-19 pandemic. But university education remains the privilege of a minority, while compulsory primary and secondary education face challenges of incredible diversity.

    Getting to school alive is the goal of tens of thousands of children in Africa who cross roads without signs. Finding a free desk in the morning or afternoon shift in an overcrowded classroom of a hundred or more students is the daily life of tens of thousands of others. At the same time in Europe, it is priority to have a student–teacher ratio of less than 10 to fight against school dropouts in the most vulnerable neighbourhoods on the outskirts of large cities. In dozens of countries, 130 million young girls do not have the right to an education, and the integrity of millions more is threatened. Absenteeism is a recurring scourge in low- and high-income countries. For some children, it is a health problem, because intestinal parasites or the lack of distribution of school meals prevent millions of young people from going to school on a regular basis. For others, often thousands of kilometres away, it is unhappiness, anxiety about their grades, loss of family and social reference points, and dropping out of school.

    The education divide

    Since education is about measurement, we must rely on data collected around the world to assess the performance of education systems: PISA studies for OECD countries; data collected by the United Nations and the World Bank for low-income countries.

    In the “richest” countries of the OECD, the divide between a “West” often in the process of an education regression and an “East” asserting its leadership in 21st century skills is accentuated. In short, the skills of students from Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Macau or Japan – but also from Shanghai and other Chinese provinces measured by PISA – would be far superior to those of their American or European counterparts in mathematics, reading and science. (The importance of effort in academic achievement also comes with a price for young people.) This gap has only been widening over the past 10 years, even if this divergence cannot yet be seen in higher education, which is still dominated by Anglo-Saxon universities.

    Low-income countries continue to face endemic difficulties in accessing quality education: only one country in six seems capable of achieving the target of universal completion of the secondary cycle by 2030, and it is estimated that more than 80 million children and young people will still be out of school by that date and that around 300 million students will not have the basic numeracy, reading and writing skills needed to succeed in life.

    There is indeed a two-speed education (at least two!) between countries of course – and the amount invested in education does not necessarily explain the differences – but also within countries where education systems often reproduce inequalities. In France, private schools, which are a minority, train elite students, who will attain academic and later professional success at the cost of an almost complete exclusion of disadvantaged social classes. In Brazil, state universities, on the other hand, are home to the Brazilian elite while private universities are left answering the needs of millions of disadvantaged young Brazilians. Many education systems find their own modus operandi to, ultimately, reproduce social inequalities.

     

    education-innovators-from-the-past-and-from-today-in-a-multicolor-classroom

    A gigantic network of pipes

    We must therefore innovate to be able to educate and to be better, longer, anywhere, anytime. Education is first and foremost a public good, and states have taken the commitment to ensuring broad and equal access to knowledge « for all ». Most states have faced huge difficulties in fulfilling this mission. Innovation and adaptation seem contradictory to the very functioning of education systems. Significant resources are allocated in a gigantic network of pipes emerging from multiple mazes in the classroom. Managing such an infrastructure has proven to be increasingly complex; management tasks and evaluation needs have gradually encroached on education time and imposed an administrative burden deemed necessary to account for the impact of the enormous investment made on behalf of taxpayers. The teaching profession has gradually been devalued in many countries, with training, salaries and status that no longer make it possible to recruit the best individuals for the fundamental task of educating.

    However, new educational models are emerging in certain countries in Europe and Asia that favour the autonomy of schools and teachers – and therefore less pressure from the central administration – educational solutions for the needs of each student, more social diversity, enhanced recognition of teachers through salary and status, and smart use of digital technologies.

    Do we need more technology in education?

    What about technology often presented as a primary driving force behind education reform? How can digital technologies contribute to solving the structural problems of education systems in countries which are experiencing a progressive deterioration of learning and teaching conditions – and help all those who suffer from inaccessibility to educational resources and tutoring?

    PISA shows a positive relationship between the intentional integration of technology into school education and student performance, even if dependent on the time spent on these digital solutions. PISA tests show that digital resources and one-hour support in mathematics have a positive influence on performance. At the same time, prolonged use of these devices for leisure – for more than two hours at a time – has a negative influence on student performance, and the addictive nature of mobile phone use is a cause of distraction and increases anxiety.

    Do we need more technology in school education? The whole point of edtech is to offer new digital solutions that meet a wide spectrum of educational needs and make it possible to improve educational resources, facilitate school management, better assess skills and, ultimately, promote lifelong learning. Edtech entrepreneurs constitute a community of teachers, parents, programmers, etc. driven by innovation and with diverse interests in education.

    Let’s look at compulsory education – K12 in the USA. Edtech entrepreneurs often summarise the need for innovation in education via one image: a child asleep at their desk or yawning while waiting for the lesson to end. If education is therefore boring or unenjoyable, it would explain students’ disinterest, them dropping out of school, and the mismatch between the skills they acquire and those demanded by the job market. This image is not new. Photographer Robert Doisneau took one of his most famous photos in the 1950s, of boys at their desks, with one boy yawning.

    Innovation in education would therefore consist of making education “stimulating”, “entertaining”, “participatory”, “personalised”. Teachers would have more time for direct interaction with their students, for creating easy but engaging educational resources and for real-time personalised assessment data that better meets the needs of their students. They would be able to communicate easily with families and students outside of school hours, and in one click respond to the administrative requirements of the school management. Digital technology would be able to revolutionise education and fulfil the dual promise of social impact and economic impact.

    Innovators from the past

    This plea for innovation in education was not born with digital technology. Montessori schools, Waldorf schools, democratic schools…  have all been at different times the proponents of an education “revolution”, where education had to be considered an “inclusive fabric” based on new learning practices. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed, developed in the 1960s, sought to bring together “educator-learners” and “learner-educators”, who would dialogue together to develop new critical knowledge.

    Technology has always been integrated into the thinking of education innovators. Célestin Freinet introduced printers into his schools in the 1920s. Maria Montessori built her pedagogy around scientific thinking. Ivan Illich and Paulo Freire encouraged educators to appropriate new communication technologies, including educational television. Seymour Papert even predicted a student revolt if they continued passively consuming pre-digested knowledge.

    What have we done with their heritage?

    One of the most common trends has been to dismiss these pedagogies as “alternative” or marginal. The resistance of education systems to change has long prevented the transformations dreamed of today by edtech entrepreneurs. Ironically, the founders of the digital giants in Silicon Valley send their children to Montessori or Waldorf schools, where mobile phones are banned…

    Are edtech entrepreneurs more qualified or more visionary than their illustrious predecessors? The difficulties they face in imposing their solutions in schools and colleges reveal the persistence of administrative burden and resistance to change but also sometimes their own lack of vision. Of course, large digital companies (GAFA) have massively penetrated the education systems which have equipped themselves with digital solutions. Start-ups have succeeded in imposing innovative products, and at the same time investors have committed to supporting them. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the merits of distance learning systems in this extreme health crisis, although videoconferencing is not an educational tool by nature.

    The investment necessary for edtech entrepreneurs needs tangible results to be sustained over time, and it always takes a long time to obtain results in education. The small revenues generated by most digital solutions are today out of proportion with the financial valuation desired by the shareholders of these companies. The marriage between public good and private interest proves difficult as compulsory education remains a “public good”. Funding is decreasing, and start-ups are learning to deal with the long term. Many of them then turn to companies to continue their development: workforce management and training or employee well-being become priorities for edtech start-ups.

    Artificial Intelligence: pivot of change?

    Is technology really the pivot of the hoped-for change? David Edgerton, historian of science and technology and professor at King’s College London, tells us about technology that we are too ready to believe – that we know everything about it and its effects but, really, we know remarkably little. He says it is extremely difficult to answer to what extent invention has played an important role in the transformation of our world. We do not have an inventory of inventions. We also do not have an inventory of the importance of these inventions.

    This debate on the role of technology in innovation in education has rebounded in recent months with the emergence of ChatGPT. Generative Artificial Intelligence – which is not associated with a particular educational theory – seems, according to its creators (who remain unnamed, unlike the educators of the past), to expand the capabilities of education systems and make it possible to generate better educational resources at lower cost; better evaluate students’ achievements and measure their needs in real time; and free up teachers’ time by providing them with the data that will allow them to take care of students with the greatest needs, while knowing they can count on chatbots serving as tutors for more routine tasks. Of course, Artificial Intelligence opens the door to large-scale plagiarism and a biased use of sources, but these flaws will, say the “experts”, gradually be erased by more accurate developments, as will the problems of data security and intellectual property sources be resolved over time.

    The dominant position of OpenAI on the Artificial Intelligence market, the cost of the service, the illusion of freedom of access, the computational costs, the energy costs of these computing powers, and the toll organised around one or two unique sellers are some of the issues that question the compatibility between large-scale use of AI in school and the search for public good. The hidden costs of generative Artificial Intelligence are starting to be better documented. They resemble the exponential server costs for streaming platforms once AWS or Google or Azure have ensured you will be using their services exclusively.

    The choice made by companies such as French startup EvidenceB to favour research and the long term with a proprietary solution shows there is a path beyond GAFA to provide truly innovative responses backed by a detailed understanding of the needs of learners and teachers.

    Edtech tinkerers: the new education “bricoleurs”

    This is the whole point of edtech incubators like MindCET today or the Open Education Challenge a few years ago – to allow edtech entrepreneurs to take stock of the problems that arise for education professionals so they can validate their solutions and at the same time educate their investors on the specificities of return on investment in education. The latter learn quickly, and some become enthusiasts and experts in education.

    The finalists of the Global EdTech Startup Awards (GESA), whose 2024 final has just been held in London, demonstrates the diversity, talent and passion of edtech entrepreneurs.

    Among these finalists, Eneza Education, a Kenya-based social enterprise, offers digital educational programmes running on basic phones at a price of $0.10 per week. More and more social enterprises are fighting on this front of accessibility, such as Kajou, which was created by the NGO Libraries Without Borders. At the other end of the spectrum, NOLEJ and Storywizard offer teachers the opportunity to create their own educational resources using generative Artificial Intelligence.

    Edtech entrepreneurs are education tinkerers, always busy devising or repairing learning activities and making their mark, their distinctive style. Bricoleur is a French word described by anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss in ‘The Savage Mind’ as “someone who works with his hands, using devious means. His universe of instruments is closed, and the rules of his game are always to make do with ‘whatever is at hand’”.

    The multiplicity of tools and solutions offered today by these entrepreneurs from around the world supports the vision of education in the hands of passionate “bricoleurs”.

  • The distance class: less is more

    The teacher was the physical referent of the class, the permanent facilitator, the moderator.

    She divided her time between the school where she taught, participated in meetings with her colleagues, received parents and her home where she prepared his lessons, corrected homework.

    And then overnight, all schools closed. Everyone has to teach and learn distance and has to do it now! No magician imagined being able to make the school disappear overnight.

    We certainly have the technical means to do so. We can give a distance learning course by videoconference to students staying at home. We can use a virtual class which reproduces the functioning of the class with a shared screen and a chat tool for the pupils.

    But none of these solutions has been thought of as a replacement for physical school. In fact, nothing was as ready as we thought. Nothing has ever been thought of on a large scale so that children no longer have to go to school.

    The teaching paradigm changed within hours.

     

    The “distance class”

    “Teaching is a two way thing!”This is exactly the challenge we face. In a few days we need to invent the distance class – and this is not about distance learning as we understood it.

    The distance class starts with the relationship between a teacher and his class – the only guarantee of the quality of learning -. This relationship should be maintained at a distance with a quality equivalent or close to that which existed in the physical space of the classroom.

    How to continue teaching “as before”? How to do it without a physical place common to the teacher and his students but with the same protagonists? How to respond to an exceptional situation with the same quality? With what skills, what training, what goals?

    All these questions are raised and a mobilized, competent teaching staff must urgently invent a new concept: distance class.

    What has changed?

    Physical space has disappeared; Students have become invisible; Heads of schools have become invisible; Parents have become more visible; Time has lengthened: the day no longer has clear boundaries between work and leisure.

    What remains as before

    The teacher is the only one in charge of his class; Classroom assistance is mandatory; All children have the right to be in class; A class has a schedule; Class hours allow children to acquire knowledge and skills by following a well established curriculum

     

    Distance class? Yes but how?

    It is reassuring to hold on to what we do best.

    The teacher prepares her lesson with care, following on the one hand the school curriculum and on the other hand adapting her teaching to the characteristics of the class group. The lessons are scheduled during the day depending on their difficulty and the attention required from the students; a class will alternate between “difficult” subjects and more “fun” activities to give a rhythm that suits the greatest number of students in the class.

    The teacher follows the work of his students in a way as personalized as possible; the teacher questions the students, answers their questions as individually as possible, getting closer to those who need it.

     

    How long should a distance class last?

    Can we keep the 50-minute lessons or should we offer shorter durations … supplemented by home work? Those who experience extreme teleworking these days know the fatigue generated and the concentration required by repetitive videoconferences, more or less organized and with very variable durations.

    The distance class cannot be a perfect copy of the physical class. The teacher and student’s ability to concentrate is not the same. They need breaths, moments of escape.

     

    Less is more

    Today with digital, you have to learn to do less, better, shorter.

    The teacher must be convinced of his ability to easily create lessons for the distance class without duplicating those he had for the traditional class. Simple advice: Do as usual! Prepare your lesson before giving it on a virtual platform! This advice seems trivial. It’s not that much.

    Each online lesson should last a maximum of 30 minutes. To the teacher, the motivating and explanatory work to be done in class: “the teacher is the guide”. To the students that want to go deeper, complementary work to be done “at home.”

     

    Our recommendation

    4 lessons per day;

    4 x 30 minutes;

    2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon for example.

    Between each lesson, a break to refresh, “disconnect”, review what we have just seen.

    So do only during the lesson what you feel you can do in 30 minutes.

    Go straight to the point. Choose.

    A lesson is “a minimum” but containing the essentials: clearly stated objectives, basic points well summarized, some dynamic activities. The rest, everything else, can be the subject of an additional email or a file shared on the school’s digital workspace.

    There are simple guidelines to do the preparatory work: create a simple word document, divide the sheet into 5 blocks; one 10-minute block (reserved for teaching content) and four 5-minute blocks.

    – Assign activity to each block of 5 minutes to be done in class;

    – Select for each activity an introductory element (image, video, text, sound file).

    – Keep the word document and these items in a folder on your computer.

    – When you have to create the lesson on a virtual platform, use this folder.

    

    


    


    BLOCKS
    
    		


    DURATION
    
    		

    

    


    Block 1
    
    		


    5 minutes  – a video
    
    		

    

    


    Block 2
    
    		


    10 minutes – the core of the lesson
    
    		

    

    


    Block 3
    
    		


    5 minutes – an exercise
    
    		

    

    


    Block 4
    
    		


    5 minutes – a quizz
    
    		

    

    


    Block 5
    
    		


    5 minutes – an assessment poll and next steps
    
    		

    
    

    

     
    

    Interactive and synchronous teaching
    

    We have no other choice than the distance class? So let’s also make it interactive. Let’s address the challenge of synchronous education where everyone – teacher and students – connect at the same time, as in real class.
    

    Synchronous teaching requires tools. That’s a good news! There are plenty!
    

    Learning does not consist in seeing your students in full screen. Imagine a teacher 50 centimeters away from each of his students, feeling their breath, blowing in their face!
    

    Learning is first and foremost the art of distance, the art of knowing how to use pedagogical supports wisely and to animate the discussion on subjects that require a specific approach and address challenging issues!
    

    In a visioconference, the teacher scrolls through a powerpoint presentation – prepared in advance – by moving from one slide to another according to the time allotted for the lesson. It is therefore an imported pedagogy.
    

    The particularity of a lesson on the contrary is that it is part of a dynamic process. Students need to know more at the end than at the beginning. They all go from point a to point b. We must therefore ensure that this progression takes place.
    

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    Assessment
    

    Both individual and collective assessment is essential. The online class cannot afford to lose students on the way, to leave out those who do not understand quickly enough.
    

    A simple online survey with a single question allows us to move forward in a coordinated way: “Did we understand what we have just learned? Yes or no?”
    

    Depending on the answer, the teacher will decide whether to go back on what he thought he had acquired and whether he should do it during this lesson or the next.
    

    For online assessment, there are tools – questionnaires – of all kinds that allow you to test remotely with more or less simple questions if the lesson meets the objectives set for learning.
    

     
    

    Some tips
    

    – Avoid reinventing content
    

    – Do not confuse your learners with an overambitious use of third party tools and services
    

    – Use a regular pattern of communication to help establish a sense of community
    

    – Maintain student attention during content delivery
    

    – Extend the life of a lesson beyond its final assessment
    

    – Set clear and measurable learning outcomes
    

    – Use carefully positioned quizzes to pause your learners and prompt reflection
    

    – Use additional platforms to support your teaching where the central plaform’s functionality falls short
    

    – Encourage learners to engage in authentic tasks
    

    – Direct social dynamics by highlighting selected contributions
    

    – Develop your students as autonomous learners by asking them to continue the work at home
    

    -Use a provocative question to wake up the class and extend a live debate after class in a discussion forum
    

    (adapted from MOOC Design Patterns Project, Warburton and Mor, 2015)
    

     
    

    How do you get students involved online?
    

    For those who practice videoconferencing, you have noticed the difficulty in speaking and the difficulty in enforcing a speaking order. Priority is given to whoever speaks, it is he or she that we see on the screen.
    

    What happen if we “leave the microphone open” for each student to raise questions aloud at any time? Kind of like letting everyone in a class speak when they want to. How many times have teachers complained about these talkative classes!
    

    The big question that we all ask ourselves then becomes: can we participate without necessarily (speaking)? This is the gamble of the educational moment that we are going through: not to fall into the ease of speaking to say nothing but to insist on “doing and sharing it”.
    

    Shouldn’t we in the course of the class favor “soft” interaction modes – one by one in private exchange – or deferred modes – meet again after class for a telephone exchange of a few minutes.
    

    The important thing during the online class is for the teacher to be able to “map” his class: who follows, who does not follow, who does, who does not.
    

    Two solutions open:
    

    – being able to “see” the students’ screens live and intervene immediately if necessary for those of them who need it, even if it means contacting them personally by telephone, for example;
    

    – being able to include participation in activities to be carried out in class: instead of carrying out a powerpoint, the teacher focuses on the student’s ability to bring documents, find a video, express an idea. Then the teacher has to have the means to share the student’s production with the whole class.
    

     
    

    Another innovative possibility, group work!
    

    Cooperative or collaborative work – group work – is all about shared tasks, accomplishing something together, solving problems using collective intelligence.
    

    These goals are as difficult or as easy to achieve from a distance as in the classroom. There are simple applications that allow you to bring students together, assign them tasks, track their work. In short, there are tools that make us work together.
    

    It all seems strange, singular or provocative; but in an online course, you have to create a new pact of confidence with students who no longer rely on visual or sound control.
    

     
    

    Does this work?
    

    We are used to blaming technology for all the problems of the classroom at a distance. The famous bugs multiply, the screen suddenly blackens, the page loses its configuration on the screen, what works on a computer does not work on a tablet, the connection is interrupted …
    

    So what? Who said technology replaces teachers?
    

    All problems related to technology have solutions. The distance class is first and foremost a lesson of humility both for teachers and for those who have seen themselves too quickly as digital magicians.
    

     
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
  • 
		
		
    
			
			
    La classe à distance
    
			
    L’enseignant partageait son temps entre l’école où il faisait classe, participait aux réunions avec ses collègues, recevait les parents et son domicile où il préparait ses cours, corrigeait les devoirs. Et puis du jour au lendemain, il n’y a plus d’écoles ouvertes. Tout le monde doit se mettre au “télétravail”. Télétravail, quel drôle de nom pour un enseignant! Aucune des solutions digitales existantes n’a été pensé en remplacement de l’école physique. Aucun magicien n’a imaginé pouvoir faire disparaître l’école du jour au lendemain. Rien n’a jamais été pensé à grande échelle pour que les enfants n’aient plus à aller à l’école.
    

    Il nous faut donc en quelques jours inventer la classe à distance – et non plus l’enseignement à distance.
    

    La question est de savoir si la relation entre un enseignant et sa classe – seule garante de la qualité de l’apprentissage – peut se maintenir à distance avec une qualité équivalente ou proche de celle qui existait dans l’espace physique de la salle de classe. Toutes ces questions se posent à un corps enseignant mobilisé, compétent mais qui doit inventer dans l’urgence un nouveau concept: la classe à distance.
    

    Ce qui demeure du temps d’avant
    

    

    L’enseignant est le seul en charge de sa classe; L’assistance en classe est obligatoire; Tous les enfants ont droit à être en classe; Une classe a un emploi du temps; Les temps de la classe permettent aux enfants d’acquérir connaissances et compétences en suivant un programme.
    

    Ce qui change
    

    

    L’espace physique a disparu; Les élèves sont devenus invisibles; Les chefs d’établissement sont devenus invisibles; Les parents sont devenus visibles; Le temps s’est allongé: la journée n’a plus de frontières claires entre travail et loisirs.
    

    Ceux qui font ces jours-ci l’expérience du télétravail à outrance savent la fatigue engendrée et la concentration exigée par des visioconférences à répétition, plus ou moins organisées et aux durées très variables. Rien de plus perturbant que de voir des dizaines de visages sur un écran, qui bougent au gré des prises de parole et sans jamais savoir quand parler, combien de temps, avec qui.
    

    

    

    La leçon à distance ne peut être une copie parfaite de la leçon réelle. La capacité de concentration de l’enseignant et de l’élève n’est pas la même. Il leur faut des respirations, des moments d’évasion.
    

    Aujourd’hui avec le numérique, il faut apprendre à faire moins, mieux, plus court.
    

    La leçon
    

    Chaque leçon en ligne doit durer 30 minutes au maximum. Au professeur, le travail d’amorçage, de défrichage à réaliser en classe: “le professeur donne l’envie”. Aux élèves l’approfondissement, le travail complémentaire fait “à la maison.”
    

    4 leçons par jour; 4 x 30 minutes; 2 le matin et 2 l’après-midi par exemple. Entre chaque leçon, une pause pour se rafraîchir, “déconnecter”, réviser ce que l’on vient de voir.
    

    Ne faites donc lors de la leçon que ce que vous vous sentez capables de faire en 30 minutes. Allez au plus juste. Choisissez.
    

    Un conseil simple: Faites comme d’habitude! Préparez votre leçon avant de la donner sur une plateforme virtuelle! Ce conseil semble trivial. Il ne l’est pas autant que ça.
    

    Il faut retrouver le cours dans sa simplicité d’avant. Un cours “a minima” mais comportant l’essentiel: les objectifs clairement énoncés, les points fondamentaux bien résumés, quelques activités dynamiques. Le reste, tout le reste, peut faire l’objet d’un mail complémentaire ou d’un fichier partagé sur l’espace numérique de travail.
    

    Pour ce faire ouvrez un simple document word, divisez la feuille en 5 blocs; un bloc de 10 minutes (réservé au contenu de l’enseignement) et 4 blocs de 5 minutes. Attribuer à chaque bloc de 5 minutes une activité à faire en classe et sélectionner pour chaque activité un élément introductif (image, vidéo, texte, fichier son).
    

    


    
Bloc 1 – Ouverture
5’ rappel des objectifs

    

    
Bloc 2 – Enseignement
10’ le cœur de la séance

    

    
Bloc 3 – Activité
5’ Un exercice en réaction au bloc précédent (écriture, exercice de maths)

    

    
Bloc 4 – Activité
5’ Une vidéo, un extrait sonore pour exercer sa créativité et sa capacité de réflexion

    

    
Bloc 5 – Quiz
5’ Un questionnaire simple pour que chacun auto-évalue ses acquis

    
    

    

    Gardez le document word et ces éléments dans un fichier sur votre ordinateur. Quand vous aurez à créer la leçon sur une plateforme virtuelle, utilisez ce fichier. Ne vous rajoutez pas de contraintes en allant sélectionner sur des bases de données infinies des contenus que vous découvrez.
    

    Comment utiliser la visioconférence ?
    

    L’apprentissage ne consiste pas à voir en plein écran ses élèves. Imaginez un enseignant se trouvant à 50 centimètres de distance de chacun de ses élèves, respirant leur haleine, leur soufflant en pleine figure.
    

    L’apprentissage c’est d’abord l’art de la distance, l’art de savoir utiliser à bon escient des supports pédagogiques et animer la discussion sur des sujets que l’on découvre, des points précis, des points qui font problème!
    

    La particularité d’une leçon c’est qu’elle est donc inscrite dans une dynamique d’apprentissage. Il faut en savoir plus à la fin qu’au début. Nous allons d’un point a vers un point b. Il faut donc s’assurer que cette progression a bien lieu.
    

    Deux éléments sont fondamentaux pour garantir la progression dans le temps court d’une leçon en ligne.
    

    Tout d’abord, comme nous l’avons vu,  la leçon elle-même doit aller à l’essentiel, filtrer le superflu, avancer par bonds en laissant de côté les détails que chacun pourra approfondir hors ligne en consultant son manuel.
    

    Ensuite l’évaluation tant individuelle que collective est essentielle. La classe en ligne ne peut pas se permettre de perdre des élèves en route, de laisser de côté ceux qui ne comprennent pas assez vite.
    

    © Shutterstock
    © Shutterstock
    

    Comment faire participer les élèves en ligne?
    

    Les fonctions de visio (et audio) conférence permettent bien à l’enseignant de parler et donner la parole. Mais la parole n’est utile que pour faciliter l’interaction au sein de la classe. C’est tout le pari du moment éducatif que nous traversons: ne pas tomber dans la facilité du parler pour ne rien dire mais insister sur “le faire et le partager”.
    

    Imaginons “laisser le micro ouvert” pour chaque élève et laisser chacun réagir, s’interroger à voix haute à tout bout de champ. Le premier risque est que cette participation sans contrôle deviennent vite source de nuisances sonores. Combien de fois les enseignants ne se sont-ils plaints de ces classes bavardes! Le deuxième risque est de se voir déborder par les questions dans le temps réduit de la classe, rallongeant sans fin le cours. Le troisième risque est de voir se creuser encore les inégalités entre ceux capables de réagir instantanément et les autres.
    

    Comment donc créer de la participation réelle, respectueuse et aussi silencieuse que possible?
    

    Deux solutions s’ouvrent:
    

    – pouvoir inclure la participation dans les activités à réaliser en classe: au lieu de dérouler un powerpoint, l’enseignant mise sur la capacité de l’élève à apporter des documents, trouver une vidéo, exprimer une idée. Il faut alors que l’enseignant dispose du moyen de partager la production de l’élève avec toute la classe.
    

    – pouvoir “voir” les écrans des élèves en direct et intervenir tout de suite en cas de besoin pour ceux d’entre eux qui en ont besoin, quitte à les contacter ensuite personnellement par téléphone par exemple;
    

    Dans la classe à distance, une fonction d’écrans partagés permettrait à l’enseignant de voir les écrans de tous les élèves (lui ou elle seule les verrait), d’interagir avec chaque élève depuis leur écran en toute discrétion, en toute “intimité”.
    

    Autre possibilité innovante, le travail de groupe!
    

    Le travail coopératif ou collaboratif – le travail en groupe – est d’abord affaire de tâches partagées, d’accomplir quelque chose ensemble, de résoudre des problèmes en faisant appel à l’intelligence collective.
    

    Ces objectifs sont aussi difficiles ou aussi faciles à atteindre à distance que dans la salle de classes. Il existe des applications simples qui permettent de réunir les élèves, de leur assigner des tâches, de suivre leur travail. Bref, il existe des outils qui nous font travailler ensemble.
    

    Une leçon d’humilité
    

    On a coutume de mettre sur le compte de la technologie, tous les problèmes de la classe à distance. Les fameux bugs se multiplient, l’écran se noircit brutalement, la page perd sa configuration sur l’écran, ce qui marche sur un ordinateur ne marche pas sur une tablette, la connexion s’interrompt…
    

    Et alors? Qui a dit que la technologie se substituait à l’enseignant ?
    

    Tous les problèmes liés à la technologie ont des solutions. La classe à distance est d’abord une belle leçon d’humilité tant pour les enseignants que pour ceux qui se sont vus trop vite comme les magiciens du numérique.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
  • 
		
		
    
			
			
    The education crisis of the century
    
			
    The health crisis is taking on an unprecedented scale, partly based on the progression of the epidemic, partly fueled by the virus of fear and death anxiety.
    

    The economic crisis stems from containment, negative consumer expectations, shutdown of production chains, speculative movements in oil and other raw materials.
    

    The financial crisis is fed by these crises; markets collapse in chains, gold becomes (again) the safe haven.
    

    Nothing seems to be able to stop THE crisis!
    

    But what if there was a more serious and more lasting one? The education crisis.
    

    In 2019, according to the UN, nearly 260 million children did not go to school. Conflict areas are particularly affected: around 50% of out-of-school children of primary school age live in these areas.
    

    Four days ago, Unesco listed 13 countries forced to close all their schools, affecting more than 290 million students. The arithmetic is simple: 260+290= 550 million children are out of school due to war or coronavirus and the number will increase. The right of children and young to education no matter who they are, regardless of race, gender or disability is a fundamental right of children (article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child).
    

    The question posed by NGOs, often in vain, becomes – finally – topical: What to do to guarantee their right to education?
    

    It is easy to imagine that the problem does not arise in the same way in Italy, in the UK or Syria or Iraq. On the one hand, organized, developed countries, on the other, countries devastated by wars. And yet in both cases, children on both sides are deprived of school. Some are “confined”, “locked up at home”, others are left to themselves, most often in the street. Inequality before school also exists for children without school. Better to be born French than Afghan.
    

    How can we guarantee the educational continuity for all children? This question is at the heart of the statements of ministers of education in developed countries. This question is most often absent in countries at war and NGOs do their best to replace the failing political power.
    

    What is said today in developed countries affected by the Coronavirus? All those in charge insist on the continuity of the educational activity.
    

    The answer can of course only be digital! This is in any case the guarantee that is hastily given to parents and children. Digital workspaces, digital textbooks, remote conference tools will replace the “traditional” class.
    

    Schools quickly inform parents of the solutions implemented. Here is an example from a french “lycée”;
    

    – Regarding the absence during class, the teachers will use the e-mail and the school learning management system so that the child can continue to work at home.
    

    – Concerning the absence to a school test, the teachers will be able to offer the child a written or oral question when he or she returns.
    

    – Concerning the written exams: the teachers will be able, after the test will have taken place in the school, to send by e-mail the subject to the student.
    

    These solutions seem rather poor. A week ago, we were talking of adaptive technologies, of deep learning, of artificial intelligence and we are back to emails!
    

    But other questions arise: How do we really ensure the continuity of education when schools are closed, teachers poorly trained in the use of digital technology with poor internet infrastructure? What about personalized attention, interaction between students, social mix, educational innovation? Everywhere of course, the closure is presented as temporary. It will certainly be so even if the provisional is already part of a random temporality.
    

    Paradoxically, here are the richest countries on the planet confronted with the questions that the poorest have been raising for decades. How to do without school? How to guarantee equality in school when the school is closed? How to reduce the digital divide, this invisible gap inscribed in the heart of the territories and which irreparably separates connected families from others? Back in 2017, a UN report found that 52% of the world’s population still has no access to the internet. There are so many figures to describe differently the inequality in front of the school which persists and worsens in the Coronavirus crisis!
    

    The Coronavirus crisis is revealing in rich countries what NGOs are experiencing on a daily basis in the countries where they operate: the need to innovate.
    

    Think of the NGO “Libraries without Borders” which brings its Ideas Box to refugee camps to allow children to read and write when schools have disappeared from their daily lives.
    

    What is the ideas box that developed countries in turn need?
    

    ©Shutterstock Ververidis Vasilis
    ©Shutterstock Ververidis Vasilis
    

    What if the Coronavirus crisis was an opportunity to rethink the role of digital in and out of school, to help teachers strengthen the social bond at the heart of their practice and commitment? Digital technology does not create innovation, it supports it by giving teachers, families and students shared responsibility for learning.
    

    We thought that digital was a “plus”, “the icing on the cake”, a luxury item for learners of school age; in any case not an essential aspect of our pedagogies. Nothing was to replace physical presence. This myth is collapsing.
    

    We can, we must know how to educate from a distance. Not by email or through Digital Workspaces, but by giving the educator a central place at the heart of digital solutions.
    

    Nothing can replace the teacher – there are 69 million teachers missing by 2030 to ensure primary and secondary education for every child in the world – and digital innovation must do nothing but strengthen its very “presence” when he is physically absent.
    

    Problem: teachers mostly restrict the use of digital solutions to their private communications and social life outside of school. Many immediately put digital out of their daily teaching lives. As for children, the abuse of digital leads to the same conclusions as those observed for young “dropouts”: aggression, anxiety, loneliness. According to a recent study published in JAMA Psychiatry and by a researcher from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health. (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2749480): « teens who spend more than three hours a day on social media are more likely to report high levels of behaviors that may be indicators of mental health problems compared to adolescents who do not use social media at all. »
    

    What should educational continuity look like when there is no school?
    

      

    • To a motivated, respected teacher who is capable of animating a distance course in an intuitive way by not reproducing the traditional model of the course “one against many” but of the course “each with everyone”;
      • 

    • To mobilized and united families pooling digital resources and educational attention;
      • 

    • To children who seize the chance to learn with others in an interactive way;
      • 

    • To an education system that accepts to assess differently;
      • 

    • To “Edtech” solutions that are designed by and with teacher to replicate an innovative educational experience, not a pale copy of a shared workspace specific to companies’ meetings.
      • 

    

    Tomorrow when the Coronavirus crisis is over, educational practices will have evolved. We will know that we can do without school as we knew it. We will also know how to do it better with school. We will finally know why countries which have no schools are in dire need of our help.
    

    A real reason to hope? Innovation is on our doorstep and innovators are ready.
    

     
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
  • 
		
		
    
			
			
    The ten viruses of Coronavirus
    
			
    My daughter Inés is a biology researcher at Imperial College.
    

    Our weekly breakfast this morning in London was dedicated to…coronavirus. I asked her how we could get out of this collective hysteria. How we could rationally interpret what is happening from a scientific point of view.
    

    On the one hand, there is a public health problem with a new virus that is highly transmissible by traditional means. We know how to predict and map epidemics. We know how to calculate morbidity. We don’t yet know how to stop this virus, which needs to be studied urgently.
    

    Tens of thousands of vulnerable people, invisible victims of life, are dying worldwide. We seem powerless. But science needs time. A vaccine only develops after testing periods.
    

    On the other hand, coronavirus may be much more harmful than what we are currently seeing. Beyond the lethal respiratory risk of a very dangerous and unknown disease, much more dangerous viruses may quickly jointly develop with our withdrawal from the social sphere.
    

    the plague
    

    The first virus is that of racism: Let’s avoid all contact with Chinese, Koreans, Iranians, Italians. As the number of infected patients grows, the virus of racism becomes global: let’s reject each other!
    

    The second virus is fear: Mistrust and rejection of “the other” settle in the hearts of our families. Where were you yesterday? Who did you see? Due to social distancing and protection measures, we don’t kiss anymore, we don’t greet each other anymore. Will we ever again?
    

    The third virus is that of denunciation: So-and-so coughed; so-and-so had a fever and said nothing; so-and-so have been seen walking outside . No matter the reason, you are (we are all) under scrutiny.
    

    The fourth virus is that of withdrawal and abandon: I’m not risking helping others. We raid the supermarkets. Protective masks are being sold on the black market. We close the borders. Sad memory.
    

    The fifth virus is that of the apocalypse: We are back in the days of the Black Death, the Spanish flu (which had nothing to do with Spain). We’re all going to die….it’s written in the Bible!
    

    The sixth virus is that of conspiracy: The Chinese have spread coronavirus to better plunder the world’s wealth.
    

    The seventh virus is that of greed: greed of stock markets and companies which, in a mix of speculative wave and legal fears, “take a position” or “take positions”; greed of the media and influencers who seek an audience at all costs.
    

    The eighth virus is that of despair, of hopelessness, whereas barely an hour ago artificial intelligence promised us the wonders of transhumanism!
    

    The ninth virus is that of ignorance, rumour and misinformation, which travels at the speed of light in a global world and sweeps away everything in its path, starting with intelligence.
    

    The tenth and last (?) virus is inhumanity, which, in a few weeks, threatens to overthrow the most developed world humankind has ever known.
    

    Are we facing a public health challenge or a social and educational catastrophe? Choose the virus you like best…or RESIST (and read/reread The Plague!).
    

    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
  • 
		
		
    
			
			
    The fly Thunberg and the elephant
    
			
    A few days ago in Davos, President Trump invited us to be wary of these prophets of doom that herald the end of the world. A few weeks earlier, he had advised Greta Thunberg to relax and go to the movies. Interesting obsession as that of the king of the world for the smallest of his subjects! In 2016, Yuval Noah Harari used the parable of the fly and the elephant in connection with terrorism: “Small, weak, the fly is incapable of moving even a cup. So, it finds an elephant, enters his ear and buzzes until enraged, mad with fear and anger, the latter ransacks the store. ”
    

    This is how, according to Harari, the Al-Qaeda fly led the American elephant to destroy the porcelain store in the Middle East. Will the Thunberg fly cause Trump and all climate skeptics to self-destruct or will it lead Trump and his friends to trash the planet?
    

     
    

    all rights reserved - https://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/l-allegorie-de-la-mouche-et-de-l-219456
    all rights reserved – https://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/l-allegorie-de-la-mouche-et-de-l-219456
    

    It will certainly take a lot of little flies to enter the ears of all these leaders who strive to deny, minimize or disguise the impact of their policies on the climate. In this regard, it is interesting to put into perspective the role of young people in climate alert. The strikes of schoolchildren have shown the mobilization capacity and the concern of the young generations.
    

    What should be the next step? The French Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, reminded at the launch of the Learning Planet initiative (UNESCO-CRI) that students should not be taught to fall into pessimism (unintentional convergence no doubt with the President Trump!) But, on the contrary, make young people actors of the environment and call them to action, in particular on biodiversity around their schools.
    

    It definitely takes a lot of courage for all the Gretas in the world to think that one day they will be taken really seriously, as full-fledged citizens, capable not only of acting but of deciding instead of adults on what we must do to protect the planet and not just the school garden.
    

    The participation of young people in climate action is not an educational issue which will be resolved by decisions worthy of the manual of the Junior Woodchucks. It is a political subject which calls into question the balance of powers and the manner of exercising it and therefore requires political decisions.
    

     
    

     
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
  • 
		
		
    
			
			
    Can we still educate for the world as it is?
    
			
    Recently a controversy opposed environmental NGOs and the BNP Paribas bank regarding the bank’s investment into fossil energies. The CSR director tried to close the controversy by explaining: “we finance the world as it is.”
    

    If we do so, then how can we reasonably expect to change it? The same could be asked for education: are we educating children to live in the world as it is in the same way we (the banks) are financing the world as it is? in other words, can we still educate for the world as it is?
    

    This question resonates with the latest actions undertaken by young people all over the world against climate change or feminicides. Aren’t young people claiming for being educated / financing a world as they want them to be?
    

    (all rights reserved)
    (all rights reserved)
    

    Our incapacity to listen to them is certainly deeply rooted in the practices of BNP Paribas and all other banking and political institutions, i.e. using people’s deposits and votes to finance the world as it is.
    

    Martha Nussbaum once said (Cultivating Humanity, 1998) that “we produce all too many citizens whose imaginations never step out of the counting house”. How do we step out? According to Nussbaum, we need Socratic citizens who are capable of thinking for themselves and arguing with tradition. It goes back to key questions raised by Margaret Mead back in 1969 (Culture and Commitment): Can I commit my life to anything? Is there anything in human cultures as they exist today worth saving, worth committing myself to?
    

    In their Capability approach theory, Sen and Nussbaum stated that freedom to achieve well-being is a matter of what people are able to do and to be. Young people think the same. In a recent poll a 51 percent of Americans ages 18-29 said their generation can change the world. The same result was registered in France.
    

    This is certainly a good moment to listen more carefully to what young people say and more importantly do (or can do).  One of the key principles of child participation, elaborated by Roger Hart, was that the highest level of child participation (*) should be “Child initiated, Shared Decisions with Adults (Children’s Participation, 1997). This is what Greta Thunberg and her friends worldwide are claiming for.
    

    (* At this level of participation, banks shouldn’t be authorized any longer to finance the world as it is…)
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
  • 
		
		
    
			
			
    Teaching about climate change?
    
			
    “We call France, the country of the Paris agreement, to launch a major project to make the fight against climate change a priority of national education and higher education, and make the school a laboratory of the transformation of society.”
    

    This vibrant call made by Valérie Masson Delmotte, vice president of the IPCC workgroup 1 and Laurence Tubiana rightly questions our capacity to act upon climate change from an educational perspective.
    

    Why should we believe in the overwhelming power of education to act upon climate change? Why would climate change education succeed in raising awareness and changing behaviours when environmental politics have been a dismal failure?
    

    The New York Times asked a simple key question in one of its surveys:
    

    Do you think schools should teach about climate change? Why or why not?
    

    That is the first question we must answer!
    

    Others follow: Should students learn about the natural and human causes of global warming? Should they learn about solutions? Should they learn about the politics related to it? Why do you think these topics should or should not be included in science curriculum?
    

    Once the questions are raised about students, come the questions about teachers and their ability to teach climate change.
    

    The NCSE/Penn State survey found a robust correlation between ignorance of the level of the scientific consensus on climate change and willingness to use pedagogical techniques:  10 percent of the teachers declared rejecting human responsibility over climate.
    

    © Yale Climate Connections
    © Yale Climate Connections
    

    More dangerous, is the tendency to use fallacious pedagogical arguments such as encouraging students to “debate the likely causes of global warming” or “come to their own conclusions” on the topic to foster doubt or denial about climate change.
    

    The following question was raised on a debate platform (see here): Should climate change be taught in schools?
    

    We can read answers from climate deniers such as: “Climate change is a myth. God is the great and merciful and we have to act accordingly to his emotions. Acid rain is simply God crying angry tears at the reduction in the burning of forests.”, Much more worrying is the following answer: “All theories, whether they be evolution, climate change, or any other kind of theory should be taught in school. As long as they are backed up with facts and great minds behind them, I do not see why climate change would be any different. Of course, there should be a counterpoint to any theory which should also be taught.”
    

    The pedagogical argument for debate in the classroom is in that case the starting point of climate change denial. And denial is at work on many more issues that we now consider as part of what must be taught in school. It happens with climate change and also with evolution, sexual abuse, gender, antisemitism…
    

    Even if we rightly believe that education is part of the answer on climate change, we may question the efficiency of teaching in this matter. Ivan Illich criticized the “illusion on which the school system rests (assuming) that most learning is the result of teaching”. For him, “most learning happens casually”.
    

    Margaret Mead argued that fighting back the dangers facing our planet should begin by understanding “the immense and long-term consequences of what appear to be small immediate choices”. Is it the responsibility of schools and teachers?
    

    Protecting nature can’t be reduced to an educative challenge. French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, once argued that “protecting nature is a right of the environment in regard to man”. Enforcing this right is maybe first a matter for lawyers and not for teachers.
    

     
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
  • 
		
		
    
			
			
    Edtech magicians on stage in London
    
			
    We just finalized our fifth edition of the GESA Awards and edtech magicians are more alive than ever. Startups from all over the world joined in London to address the future of education with a mix of creativity, vision and candors. They tell a fascinating and some times frightening story about the impact of innovation in education from the very beginning of our life cycle.
    

    gesa 2018
    

    A baby is born. More than one million new neural connections will be formed every second. The newborn is a genius! Enough to raise attention of smart entrepreneurs that create the perfect baby app to make sure that each of these precious seconds are used for learning. https://babysparks.com/
    

    Your baby is growing smart and joyful. Already time at preschool to be acquainted with maths and language, get a sense of proportion and syntax, thanks to algorithms based on a mix of neuroscience and artificial intelligence that will enrich and personalize the learning path. https://www.hanamarulab.com/en
    

    You may ask : why does a 3-year old kid need adaptive learning when socialization is essential at that age? Magicians will tell you that your child as every child is unique!
    

    Time to go to the big school and learn for good! Core contents, core knowledge, core standards! From day one, it is all about skills and competences. Because our challenge as educator is clear and ambitious: to prepare a 6-year kid for a job that has not been invented! Impossible? Not for our magicians. They come to the classroom on their magical carpet with a box full of apps and robots to make our daily life fun, interactive and successful.
    

    Learning maths remains one of our core objective because what was learned in early age was good but not enough. A new app combined fun exercises and artificial intelligence to get out of the black hole. https://www.maphi.app/ A smartphone will make us a mathematician, and a physicist, and a biologist, and an artist, and an historian, and a reader. A reader? Or at least an “easy reader” that can now read a book in a matter of minutes thanks to Natural Language Programming. https://www.onovation.co.il/startup/mist/. No more excuses for no readers: our magicians can convert every book in a smart book. How could we ever think of learning without a smartphone or a tablet?
    

    Companies are complaining about how well prepared our kids for professional life? (as if they had no role in it!) Our child must be prepared for a future job that doesn’t exist yet. No programming, no future. Magicians brought robots in our classrooms ready to be programmed by 6-year old kids. Nicely designed or made of recycled waste, they remind us of a future job that not yet exists. http://khalmaxsoftwaresystems.com/krc.html
    

    Education authorities watching us from their PISA tower are relieved: solutions do exist for every education problem and even to educate children as citizens! Media literacy in a click https://gutennews.com.br/ or citizenship education with a 360º perspective www.lyfta.com are only a few examples of what digital innovation is also about: respect for diversity and grassroot cultures.
    

    But parents are worried. They always are and always will be! They dream of being in touch with teachers, at any time and from any where. Magicians make it possible.  https://www.classtag.com
    

    And what about teachers? Are they dreaming with parents? At least, they dream with better training and this can also be as magical as a smartphone. http://www.millionsparks.org/
    

    Education everywhere will be transformed thanks to the power of chips, processors, networks, artificial intelligence and… people. Even in Africa! Or maybe before all in Africa. https://solutions.snapplify.com/
    

    And education goes on as a continuous journey! Skills, skills, skills are needed once we left school as if our (long) stay in school had been useless. Learning is deconstructed to be constructed again. Online courses – https://bedu.org/ – enable skills acquisition that will immediately be connected to the job market – https://www.skillist.co. Simulation tools will help future doctors to cope with future illnesses – https://insimu.com/ – because our reality is also virtual!
    

    And in this magical world where we have a hard time separating virtual and real worlds, the winner is immersive learning. And for those who don’t believe in true magics in education, have a look at https://www.uptale.io. One last thought, isn’t “immersive” the final goal of learning, i.e. feeling completely involved?
    

    All winners of the 2019 GESA edition are to be found on the GESA website.
    

    Thanks to Avi, Cecilia, all MindCET team and all GESA partners to make magic come true once again!
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
  • 
		
		
    
			
			
    School is boring!
    
			
    School is boring!
    

    How often have we heard this sentence!  Googling the expression will give more than 60 million results.
    

    Most education “innovators” start with the same statement “school is boring” and end up with the same conclusion ” let’s change it”.
    

    But our innovators arrive late. Let’s look back in history for a moment.
    

    For centuries, brillant educators have introduced innovative methods and practices based on a simple conviction: school shouldn’t be boring!
    

    Saint Augustine in the fourth century defined education as “a process of posing problems and seeking answers through conversation”.
    

    The Saint Augustine Taken to School by Saint Monica. by Niccolò di Pietro 1413-15 
    The Saint Augustine Taken to School by Saint Monica. by Niccolò di Pietro 1413-15
    

    After him, Swedish educator Ellen Key, German education reformer Kurt Hahn, Italian paediatrician Maria Montessori, Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, French educator, Célestin Freinet, British visionary A.S. Neil, Catalan anarchist Francisco Ferrer y Guardia, American psychologist John Dewey, Brazilian educator Paulo Freire all envisaged education as a dialogue, flowing from learner to teachers and back.
    

    Their ideas and methods are however still considered as marginal and categorized as  “alternative” as no other words seem to fit them.
    

    We are prompt nowadays to celebrate any innovation in education, advocate for education entrepreneurship but we forget the truly disruptive nature of innovation, i.e. restore freedom to learn and freedom to teach as a central component of any education system.
    

    Students and teachers require after all two basic “rights” to do their jobs right: engage into continuous dialogue and be free to learn and teach.
    

    All education innovators should help strengthening these basic rights.