Future of education - Insights from discussions building on an initial perspective by Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology, Newcastle University.

The
Future
of
Educa/on

Insights
from
Discussions
Building
on
an
Ini4al
Perspec4ve
by:

Prof.
Sugata
Mitra
|
University
of
Newcastle

Context

The
ini4al
perspec4ve
on
the
Future
of
Wealth
kicked
oﬀ
the

Future
Agenda
2.0
global
discussions
taking
place
through
2015.

This
summary
builds
on
the
ini4al
view
and
is
updated
as
we
progress

Ini4al

Perspec4ves

Q4
2014

Global

Discussions

Q1/2
2015

Insight

Synthesis

Q3
2015

Sharing

Output

Q4
2015

Educa/on
Systems
are
Obsolete

The
educa4on
systems
in
almost
all
countries
are
obsolete
having

been
designed
for
a
world
that
has
changed
–
we
need
to
reinvent

educa4on
to
prepare
today’s
students
for
the
jobs
of
the
future.

The
End
of
the
“3
Rs”

Machines
will
make
reading,
wri4ng
and
arithme4c,
the
three

pillars
of
primary
educa4on,
redundant.
Knowing
will
be
obsolete

because
informa4on
will
be
forever
at
our
ﬁnger4ps.

Delivering
Educa/on
for
All

How
do
we
enable
people
in
remote
loca4ons
to

access
high
quality
educa4on,
what
do
we
need
to
teach

and
how
can
we
best
deliver
educa4on?

Self-‐Organised
Learning

By
removing
adult
restric4ons
on
educa4on
and
providing
children

with
Internet
access
and
on-‐line
support
and
encouragement,

children
are
able
to
self-‐organise
and
learn.

Learning
to
Learn

Children
thrive
best
when
le^
alone
to
uncover
knowledge,
par4cularly

when
their
imagina4on
is
charged
with
diﬃcult
ques4ons,
and
achieve

more
when
they
are
encouraged
and
praised
for
their
achievements.

Sparking
the
Imagina/on

Profound
changes
to
how
children
access
vast
informa4on
are
yielding
new

forms
of
peer-‐to-‐peer
and
individual-‐guided
learning.
We
should
use
it
to

spark
the
imagina4ons
and
build
the
mental
muscles
of
children
worldwide.

School
in
the
Cloud

In
the
networked
age,
we
need
schools,
not
structured
like
factories,

but
like
clouds.
We
know
the
way
we
will
work
in
the
future
will
change.

Therefore
the
way
we
are
educated
and
learn
must
change.

An
Educa/on
System
For
Our
Time

The
system
was
designed
to
ﬁt
the
needs
of
the
industrial
revolu4on,
we
need

an
educa4on
system
ﬁt
for
the
digital
revolu4on.
We
need
a
curriculum
of
big

ques4ons,
examina4ons
where
children
can
talk,
share
and
use
the
Internet.

Access
to
Knowledge

The
informa4on
revolu4on
has
enabled
a
style
of
learning
that
was
not

possible
before
and
educa4on
systems
need
to
evolve
accordingly.

If
this
happens
everything
will
be
diﬀerent.

Freedom
to
Learn

In
the
future
teachers
will
provide
prompts,
not
answers,
and
then
they

will
step
aside
so
students
can
teach
themselves
and
one
another.

They
will
create
ways
for
children
to
discover
their
passion.

Non-‐Linear
Educa/on
Paths

Building
on
the
success
of
online,
open
courses,
there
will
be
a
rise
in
non-‐
linear
educa4on
paths.
Success
will
be
re-‐deﬁned
to
include
self-‐actualisa4on

and
micro-‐badging
will
gain
credibility.
Interna4onal
benchmarks
will
emerge.

Unequal
Access
to
Educa/on

Inequali4es
of
access
to
educa4on
and

con4nuing
commodifica4on
of
learning

lead
to
more
stra4fied
provision.
Economic
developments
con4nue
to
benefit

the
wealthy
and
connec4on
to
technology
remains
a
key
global
challenge.

Parental
Defini/ons
of
Success

The
influence
of
parents
remains
core
and,
with
the
increased

commercialisa4on
of
educa4on
and
the
new
op4ons
that
result,
parental

influence
will
keep
alive
the
tension
between
teacher,
parents
and
children.

Role
of
Educa/on

Educa4on
becomes
more
holis4c
and
increasingly
focused
on
self-‐enrichment,

responsible
ci4zenship
and
decision-‐making
with
integrity.
This
broad
focus

guides
systemic
change
in
the
curriculum,
in
assessment
and
in
pedagogy.

The
Role
of
Private
Educa/on

Reshaping
educa4on
in
La4n
America
is
focused
on
improving
policies
and

changing
aftudes
towards
learning.
Integral
within
this
is
the
role
of
private

educa4on
in
sefng
standards
–
that
extend
beyond
just
the
wealthy.

Crea/ve
Resilience

We
move
from
placing
all
the
value
on
IQ
to
a
system
that
values,
EQ
and

learning
from
risk
taking,
innova4on
and
entrepreneurship.
We
will
have

greater
focus
on
developing
resilience
and
wellbeing
in
students.

Sustaining
Local
Language
and
Culture

In
many
regions
Western
inﬂuence
aﬀects
values,
causing
cultural
instability

at
a
na4onal
level.
In
the
struggle
to
keep
tradi4ons,
educa4on
will
play
a
key

role
in
helping
to
preserve
language
and
maintaining
balance
in
the
system.

Symbiosis
of
Educa/on
and
Industry

There
is
a
gap
between
the
educa4on
system
and
the
workplace.
As
industry

becomes
more
involved
in
learning,
new
models
of
skills
development
will

emerge
leading
to
meaningful
internship
programmes
for
students.

Teachers
as
Coaches

Future
teachers
will
focus
less
on
content
transfer
and
more
on
facilita4ng

good
learning
-‐
coaching
students
to
become
beger
thinkers
and
decision

makers
is
the
priority:
Many
teachers’
status
in
society
rises.

New
Governance
Models

Educa4on
strategy
development
shi^s
from
a
centralised
to
a
more

collabora4ve
mul4-‐party
process:
Business,
NGOs,
students,
parents
and

teachers
provide
advice
to
government
on
curriculum
and
learning
approach.

Crea/ve
Values

Greater
individualisa4on
and
a
focus
on
boos4ng
crea4vity
will
be

increasingly
valued
by
the
young
-‐
they
will
be
comfortable
with
uncertainty,

living
by
new
values
as
well
as
becoming
more
adaptable
and
diverse.

Teacher-‐less
Classrooms

If
we
have
driver-‐less
cars
then
we
can
also
have
teacher-‐less
classrooms:

As
learning
comes
from
mul4ple
sources
beyond
the
school,
we
reinvent
the

educa4on
experience
around
project-‐based
collabora4on
and
sharing.

Curated
Informa/on

Everything
you
will
need
to
know
will
be
available
online,
but
it
is
going

to
be
vital
that
there
is
a
way
of
ﬁltering
and
cura4ng
this
overwhelming

wealth
of
informa4on
in
a
way
that
is
simple,
intui4ve
and
valuable.

Standards
of
Learning

The
learning
that
takes
place
on
a
mobile
device
at
the
ins4ga4on
of
an

inquisi4ve
learner
needs
to
have
the
same
status
as
courses
delivered

in
the
tradi4onal
learning
environments
of
schools
and
universi4es.

Streaming
Learning

Learning
content
will
emulate
the
model
of
music/media
streaming:
A

learner
will
be
able
to
engage
with
valuable
content
as
and
when
they
need

to
without
needing
to
subscribe
to
full
courses
or
a
full
set
of
materials.

Paradigm
ShiRs

The
ancient
paradigm
of
a
teacher-‐led
learning
approach
-‐
rows
of
iden4cal

desks
or
chairs
facing
the
same
single
point
of
reference
at
the
front
of
the

room
-‐
will
be
replaced
by
a
more
ﬂuid,
collabora4ve
pedagogical
method.

Collabora/ve
Networked
Learning

There
will
be
a
movement
away
from
a
top-‐down,
broadcast
approach

of
learning
to
a
hyper-‐collabora4ve
global
network
consis4ng
of

learners,
ins4tu4ons
and
content
providers.

Personal
Learning
Networks

Educators
encourage
their
learners
to
source
informa4on
from
their
own

Personal
Learning
Networks
and
to
also
ac4vely
contribute
themselves

to
requests
from
other
individuals
within
their
communi4es.

Learning
From
The
Crowd

Embracing
adap4ve
learning
and
the
crowd-‐sourced
learning
solu4ons

radically
changes
the
culture
surrounding
learning
and
promotes
the

shi^
from
a
top-‐down
model
to
one
of
collabora4on
and
exchange.

Deep
Distant
Interac/ons

Reliable,
ubiquitous
mobile
communica4ons
will
enable
deep
and

effec4ve
geographically-‐distant
interac4ons
where
the
online
experience

will
be
difficult
to
differen4ate
from
face-‐to-‐face
mee4ngs.

Mo/va/on
to
Learn

The
need
to
learn
in
order
to
compete
in
the
global
workplace
will
lead
to

increasing
numbers
of
overseas
students
at
established
ins4tu4ons,
while

others
choose
integrated
learning
experiences
over
tradi4onal
academia.

Breaking
Boundaries

The
acceptance
of
opera4ng
in
a
digital
world
may
result
in
substan4ve
shi^s

that
break
down
geographical,
genera4onal
and
cultural
boundaries.
But
this

could
poten4ally
build
new
e-‐boundaries
–
perhaps
boundaries
of
access?

Learning
to
be
Crea/ve

Gamiﬁca4on
helps
the
learning
experience
shi^
from
a
focus
on
avoiding

failure
to
one
that
encourages
learning
from
mistakes,
recognises
diﬀerent

learning
styles
and
abili4es
and
embraces
problem
solving.

Ability
Benchmarks

If
c20th
educa4on
was
about
standardisa4on
of
levels
of
knowledge,
then

the
c21st
is
focused
on
ability
and
insight.
In
a
world
of
MOOCS
and
knowledge

credits
from
mul4ple
plahorms,
a
key
challenge
is
sefng
the
global
reference.

Bridging
the
Digital
Divide

If
access
to
connec4vity
is
the
core
driver
of
change
for
educa4on
for
some,

what
about
those
on
the
other
side
of
the
digital
divide?
Many
focus
on

oﬀ-‐line
learning
evolve
and
support
the
development
of
the
other
billion.

Skilling
Rather
Than
Teaching

As
most
informa4on
is
available
on
the
net,
the
need
to
prepare
us
for
the

increasingly
unstructured
nature
of
work
drives
schools
to
become
places
for

developing
core
skills
–
emo4onal
intelligence
/
leadership
/
cri4cal
thinking.

The
Hybrid
Experience

Learning
increasingly
takes
place
via
a
combina4on
of
physical
spaces
and

digital
classrooms
–
and
ﬂows
seamlessly
across
both.
Students
use
diﬀerent

parts
of
their
brain
as
educa4on
becomes
much
more
experien4al.

Life
Lessons

There
is
rising
recogni4on
of
the
need
to
prepare
students
to
become

a
valuable
member
of
the
community
through
‘teaching’
such
issues

as
empathy,
ethics,
handling
failure
and
managing
ambiguity.

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Agenda

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Street

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Future of education - Insights from discussions building on an initial perspective by Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology, Newcastle University.

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