PierreAntoine Ullmo

Tag: education

  • This world today is a MOOC

    Donna Hightower © all rights reserved
    Donna Hightower
    © all rights reserved

    “This world today is a MOOC”. Today’s entry isn’t a tribute to Donna Hightower’s hit, but a reflection on what we say about MOOCs these days.

    Some MOOC oracles already declare the end of the wave. John Daniel for instance, who endlessly tours the world to speak about higher education and MOOCs (30 conferences this year so far!) has positioned himself as a “disillusioned” MOOC believer. He predicts that “the media interest in MOOCs has passed its peak and MOOCs have a past rather than a future”. Hard to believe, isn’t it?

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  • Technology in the classroom: lessons learnt from a mountain bike ride

    laptop
    Technology in the classroom.

    What is the relationship between a marathon mountain bike ride and a classroom experience?

    Last weekend, I spent the whole day mountain biking in the country side near Barcelona. For 120 km, our group of 14 bikers rode through small trails, many of them hard to find, and we came back at night using headlamps to find our way through the woods. Another rider and I had brought a GPS. We started following our tracks, sharing indications that appeared on our screens, looking for consensus each time we had doubts or different interpretations. Following GPS indications is not as simple as it may seem, especially in a group. It requires technology understanding, interpretation skills and consensus. Working with technology in the classroom requires the same ingredients, and consensus is hard to reach. Students using tablets in the classroom may be tempted to “follow their own track”, i.e. make individual use of technology. The teacher in the classroom is, like any GPS holder, challenged by another GPS holder to find the right trail.

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  • The end of eLearning

    the new EU Open Education portal
    The new EU Open Education portal

    Do you remember eLearning?

    Back in 2000, the European Union launched its “eLearning action plan” to enhance the use of “technology serving lifelong learning”. By adding an ‘e’ to learning, we thought we could invent a brand new vision for learning. But it didn’t happen. Technology was simply not good enough, and our minds not ready. We ended up creating more, or less, user-friendly online training courses that were commercialised by training companies as a substitute for traditional courses. But learning remained mostly untouched, still based on a top-down relationship between teacher and learners. The classroom — even in its virtual definition — was still based on a conventional concept well described by Sir Ken Robinson in his popular TED conference.

    We desperately needed a vision for the future of learning. Said another way, we had to “open up education” and get rid of the ‘e’!

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  • Opening up education

    'Opening up Education'
    ‘Opening up Education’

    Last week, the European Union launched its “Opening up Education” initiative.

    But what does Europe mean exactly by “opening up”? Words are sometimes worth looking at.

    Looking in the dictionary, we could understand “opening up” education to mean “spreading out” or “unfolding” education, as if the walls that constrained our classrooms for so long were about to fall down or be removed. A larger classroom should come out of the initiative, and a whole new education perspective would then open up before us.

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  • Entrepreneurial excellence in school

    New Millennium Learners
    New Millennium Learners

    Last week, Nelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission, launched “the Startup Manifesto campaign for entrepreneurial excellence” and we are all invited to sign it.

    Among the various recommendations that have been made to sustain economic growth, two of them directly concern the education world:

    –          Make teachers digitally confident and competent to rise to the challenge.

    –          Teach our children the principles, processes and the passion for entrepreneurship from a young age.

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  • Education entrepreneurs: more ed or more tech?

    education entrepreneurs
    Education entrepreneurs

    In recent months, Europe has seen a flurry of initiatives aimed at fostering greater web talent in Europe and stimulating web entrepreneurship. In her blog, Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission, continuously celebrates and encourages Europe’s tech and web entrepreneurs, as: “people following their dreams and creating their own companies, coming up with ideas and products with the potential to change the way we live, work, play, communicate and collaborate.”

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  • I am an education entrepreneur. I work in a garage near you.

    Education_Chalkboard

    The changes we are envisioning for the classroom may take place at this very moment, in a garage near us, and no longer in the Ministry of Education offices.

    The notion of “education entrepreneur” challenges our understanding of an education system, ruled by core curriculum standards and a cohort of dedicated civil servants that decide on behalf of the teachers, students and families what is good to be taught in the classroom and how it should be taught.

    In recent years, we have seen acclaimed professors jumping from their “academic pedestal” and into to the start-up world. Udacity – one of the reference points for MOOCs –was cofounded by a research professor at Stanford University. So was Coursera. We could read these stories as fairy tales where the professor we once knew was almost magically transformed into a CEO. But fairy tales aren’t real.

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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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  • Skills mismatch vs. democratic imbalance

    2097402250_a7e08c3aff

                                                                                                                                                                                                                               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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