Founder and CEO, Ben Mason, was recently invited to attend a week of #edtech events during the 2022 United Nations General Assembly week in New York City. Attending the The Centre for Universal Education & Brookings Institute Transformational Educational Technology week followed by the global HolonIQ #edtech summit, the week took a deep dive into the 'Future of Education' and #edtech. There were some outstanding speakers throughout the week bringing #innovation to and from their respective fields. One of the key questions was how do we broaden out how education evaluates and recognises skills in order to be more inclusive for all young people, widening participation and increase access to future opportunities.
2022 U.S entrepreneur of the year, Tiffany Norwood's opening statement at HolonIQ "innovation is imagination taken seriously" set the tone along with the comment that education needs more life long learning solutions. It was great to hear Brookings CEO, Rebecca Winthrop talking about the need for education to be more ‘experiential’!
Some great insights from Maria Flynn, CEO & President at Jobs for the Future asking the question ‘how do we bridge the gap between traditional systems and more skills based systems’ in education. This resonated with comments earlier in the week, at The Brookings Institution events, from U.S Deputy Director at the Department of Education, Kristina Ishmael who identified that ‘we need more evidence of learning, beyond the academic”. The key drivers behind many of these statements which went beyond just the United States was the need to improve how we evidence emerging talent and improve the connectivity with industry pathways and training.
From all the events last week, it is clear that industry is looking for a balance of evidence of student experience from in and outside the classroom. The aim being to give young people the opportunity to ‘experience’ a broad and #inclusive range of activities to develop the whole person across academia, skills and character.
The final session of the week "Evidencing Outcomes in EdTech & Online Learning, What Matters?” hosted by Stavros N. Yiannouka, CEO at WISE at Qatar Foundation. Three great comments from the panellists:
"Education is social, emotional and academic - it's a balance to service all aspects for rounded outcomes" Rachel Manning, Head of EdTech, Google Cloud
"How is EdTech moving the needle to improve student learner outcomes?" Verna Lalbeharie, Executive Director, The EdTech Hub
"We need to evidence value in every competency completed, not just finishing a degree" Marni Baker Stein, CEO & Provost, WGU
And finally, the best business card ever for Chair of Learning through Play and at The Lego Foundation, Bo Stjerne Thomsen:
A fantastic week!