Learning Futures

When our students leave our schools, what can they point to and say, “I did that”?

The typical artifacts of education they might choose include sports trophies, a diploma, and the cap and gown. But what does any of this tell us about their educational experience? Very little, especially about the main reason for school: learning.

It doesn’t have to be this way. With today’s technologies, any student can now be a curator of their own learning experience. The mini-computers they have in their back pockets can be used to document evidence of their work. Audio, video, images and text can all describe a student’s success and growth over time in a way that grades and scores cannot.

With the combination of blended learning and new staffing models, schools are starting to unleash their most valuable asset for improving student outcomes: excellent teachers. The organizational inertia of traditional staffing arrangements may take some time to change. But as schools like these produce strong results and then refine and codify their practices, more schools across the country will have the will and the means to follow in their footsteps.

Better education for generations to come means a brighter future for us all. These TED speakers have some great ideas for how we can solve our current education crisis.

Ever since the landmark "marshmallow test" highlighted the importance of early self-control in later achievement, educators have worked to find ways to build self-regulation among young children. But a new study in the journal Pediatric Research suggests boosting children's natural curiosity may be equally crucial to their long-term learning.

Researchers from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and the Center for Human Growth and Development tracked 6,200 children participating in the federal Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, a nationally representative longitudinal study. In addition to collecting data on children's family income, education, and backgrounds, the federal survey also included home visits with parent interviews, and assessments of the children at ages 9 months, 2 years, at the start of preschool, and in kindergarten.

Australian universities are “monoliths” in which two out of five degrees will soon become redundant, a new study says.

Education has far out-stretched its humble beginning that only involved reading, writing and understanding the subjects taught. With changing dynamics, students have evolved from information gatherers to learners looking for practical learning that extends beyond examinations and classrooms. Learning today, breaks the barriers of curriculum, seeping into the nuances of the mind and its effect on the overall development of a student. It takes into consideration, the different kinds of learners, their capabilities and interests, skills and will, to make learning more effective, leading to the emergence of deep learning.

Increased student success will not be the result of one initiative or the work of one unit; it will be the result of collective campus efforts to collaborate to break down silos and focus holistically on students. That collaboration underscores student success because students do not see institutions as the units through which we organize ourselves. They see only one campus. In turn, leaders must connect the dots and approach student success through a singular, unified lens. The return on the investment of a leader who articulates the reason why, engages the key stakeholders early and often, and celebrates short-term victories will outperform that of any singular initiative or the most comprehensive technology solution. Leaders must be change managers first and student success implementers second.

Data Literacy: How It Benefits Learning And Development Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and automation are no longer theoretical conference topics for geeks only. According to the Deloitte's 2018 Global Human Capital Trends survey [1]: Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and new communications technologies are fundamentally changing how work gets done, who does it, and how it influences society.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent presentation on the future of learning technology.

I went to school to be a video producer. Right after I graduated, the video industry changed from analog to digital. At the time digital video technology was cutting-edge and super expensive. And I was stuck in a job with an organization that had no money, so I felt that everything was was passing me by and I’d never catch up.

I see a lot of the same things in our industry today. So much is changing and it’s hard to keep up. It can be quite stressful.

We’ll look at some emerging technologies and how they impact our jobs and then how it really impacts you.

"Much of what we do in schools belies common sense. There. I said it. Given the opportunity to start from the ground up, few would build the schools we have today. But how do we make common sense prevail given the schools that we have? In short, we need to focus our education efforts through a different lens. Would love to know what you think. Best, Will"

Does higher education need a new paradigm to serve Australia’s needs in the Transformative Age? We have entered the Transformative Age and, much like the Industrial Revolution before it, we can expect fundamental shifts in how we live, work and learn.

External disruptive forces over which university stakeholders have limited control will shape the future of higher education in Australia. Our report explores four divergent views of the higher education landscape in 2030 and provides insights to how universities need to transform themselves to serve a changing society and a profoundly changed world.