Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals depends largely on SDG4 (quality education). The transformative skills, perspectives, behaviours and unsiloed knowledge that will help us address the challenges of sustainable development, well...they won't just appear from thin air. SDG4, however, also rests largely on one thing: technology.
Technology will provide access to the education we need for a climate resilient future in a circular economy. But technology is not just one amorphous blob that can be nudged in the direction we want it to go, but rather a complex web where the sharing economy comes up against competitive interests, ROI against glaring global inequality, public against private, innovation against adoption and scalability.
Compelling research has given us the "discourses of delay"; the reasons people give to avoid doing something substantial about climate change. Techno Optimism is one of those discourses; the idea that technology will save us all, and we should put our faith in it. In the case of education, however, this might actually be the reality.
The Global Education Monitoring Report is so futuristic that it is called GEM 2023, even though we are still hanging out in 2022. It examines three systemic conditions for the success of EdTech in supporting the achievement of SDG 4, which are access to technology, government regulation and teacher preparation. Each of these will be of keen interest to progressive and socially responsible education institutions in broadening access, future-proofing delivery against a changing regulatory environment, and building staff capacity to cope with the quick pace of technological change.
Perhaps "cope" is the wrong word, for it gives an impression of trying to keep our head above water, when we can actually swim quite comfortably. Embracing technology in learning is no longer a nice-to-have. The BBC put it succinctly in their article entitled Why Digital Literacy is now a workplace non-negotiable as this skill as now as core to our functioning as members of society as literacy and numeracy.
Without access to the digital world, and the basic skills to navigate it, those who are a step behind in the global equity gap will only become further excluded. Those who express reluctance to embrace technology for the simple access to learning it can provide, at the very bare minimum, are doing a clear disservice to global attempts at dismantling barriers to social and economic participation.
Despite the point we just made above, it is not all plain and simple. Those in education institutions who have reservations about the dominance of EdTech companies in the direction of learning approaches, who ban smartphones in class and rely on "time tested" approaches. As we were once told at a Barcelona conference in 2015, where we raised the point that lectures should not be the dominant mode of learning in Higher Education, "maybe we have done it this way for 1000 years because it really works".
Somewhere in there is a good point, if deeply buried. Fear of change is a luxury we cannot allow in making decisions that critically impact our survival on this planet, but there are questions to be answered. Who created this tech and why? When an EdTech approach, device or product fails to produce real evidence of mass impact, is this because we lack the capacity to maximize its potential or because it simply does not work? To what extent does the self-interest of the creator affect the design and accessibility of the product?
How does this issue of consent stand up to new facial recognition tech, and what ethical codes govern the creation of AI? The truth is that regulation is slow in development because the tech is developing so quickly, and research tends to vary wildly between different contexts. This fuels the argument that we are just not ready to massively adopt technology in education on the scale that sustainable development requires.
Well, this is it, isn't it? Though questions about regulation must be answered (and soon!), there are several things we are already sure about.
Technology can broaden access. MOOCS, online courses at institutions, immersive metaverse learning, asynchronous classes, personalized and adaptive approaches, and access to remote populations are all things that tech can bring.
High quality content, collaborative learning across the globe, knowledge sharing and the resources to support complex problem-solving are all available at the touch of a button. How does that compare with the "time tested" approaches that, let us be blunt and honest here, have only been available to those who can afford it?
As technology advances and disperses access throughout the world, it creates new jobs, new roles, new ideas. In our world of education marketing and recruitment alone, the changes from one generation to another are huge, with a generation of metaverse natives coming into our institutions in just a few years, looking to us to meet them where they are, rather than where we were. From new soft skills in a digital environment to hard skills like coding and development, there is a whole new world open to anyone who has the keys.
GEM 2023 asks the big questions. And ok, the REAL report is coming out in 2023, and the paper we cite is just a concept note, but here are the questions it seeks to answer:
We will be watching out for the results of this report next year. It is time to really get serious about all of this. Institutions, please add your voices to this call for collaboration. We are no longer discussing whether learners should be "allowed" smartphones in class, or whether we should be obliged to use Google Classroom. The role of education is to prepare learners for the future, and to help create healthy, sustainable and thriving communities. This challenge is bigger than our fear of change, so let's get involved and meet this challenge together.
To talk to us about future proofing your education M&R and building capacity to engage with Generation Alpha, we at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) are just a click away.
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In our world of education marketing and recruitment, the EAIE needs no introduction. Since 1989, this member-driven organization has striven to be the "European centre for expertise, networking and resources in the internationalization of higher education". But while we are all very likely familiar with the organization itself, how many of us have attended one of their annual conferences?
From the first conference in 1989, things have changed a lot, of course, but even in the last 5 years there has been a really noticeable maturing of this event into something significant and highly influential in the sector. As the first post-pandemic iteration, the 32nd Annual EAIE Conference and Exhibition in Barcelona 2022 was an event that confounded all expectations.
geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy)'s Alejandra Otero was there to deliver a talk on a very pressing topic: Metaverses, Discord, Slack and (still) WhatsApp: community building reinvented which we chose because it is so critical that our community prepare itself for the shift to a new way of building connection and engagement with a whole new generation. If we are still sending emails and brochures to a generation of content creators in the Metaverse, we have already begun our own decline. But there is still a little time to learn and adapt, and this felt like the perfect message to share with our peers.
You may by now have read reports of the conference's key focus on sustainability and the building of new relationships, but what was it really like on the ground? We asked for the honest perspective of EAIE "veteran" Alejandra and conference first-timer Sole from team geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy). Here's what they had to say.
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"I really did not know what to expect on this one. The pandemic had really upended so many things, and I had attended some other international events earlier this year which proved to have been affected still. I wasn't sure whether people were still uncertain about large gatherings, or had perhaps shifted more to online and virtual networking and events, but I thought EAIE 2022 would be the same. When discussing with my colleagues in the EAIE M&R Steering Group I had thought that roughly 3000 people might attend.
I was wrong. At 6300 attendees, this was the biggest yet, and you could really feel it in the energy, which was quite simply joyful. I saw quite a few new faces who seemed to want to attend a few talks, schedule some meetings and then disappear, but for me, that's not what EAIE is about. It is about people, first and foremost, and the social is as important as the professional, though when you love what you do those lines can sometimes blur anyway!
We went all in. If I am honest, perhaps because I wasn't quite prepared for the scale of this event, I over committed myself. The same approach that had worked for me in previous years left me a bit overstretched on this one. With so many more people, I scheduled more meetings, and so didn't leave quite enough time for the wonderful people who just appear unexpectedly and want to connect. Add this to the fact that I was there with Sole, and as it was her first time, I was perhaps a bit over eager to show her everything! There were just more "things" than I was used to!
Between the talks, meetings, and late night karaoke, we left just a couple of hours per night to sleep. We found our limits right around there! I am still processing everything now, but what I can say is that I feel like we all got swept up in the energy of just being together again in person. Our community is so important to me, and to geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy). In fact, it is everything. The talks we gave and attended, the wonderful conversations I had, the jokes and smiles, the words of kindness and support, the connections and the laughter. Incredible.
Next time, I will find a balance. I will leave space open for more spontaneity, more time to connect without scheduling it, and maybe a couple more hours of sleep! That said, I think this event could not have been anything other than what it was, and I am so happy that I get to be a part of it all."
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"Wow! I can hardly speak right now. Overall an amazing experience, and I am now working through the emotions and reflections which are now coming from such a condensed time.
This felt like the centre of everything in our community, and there were so many people I wanted to connect with. I was a bit overwhelmed at first by all the options, and felt that if I had not been there with Ale, I would have found it quite challenging to navigate.
As a first timer, I had asked my self so many questions: Where do I start? How should I interact depending on the person? Who is who? How would I be able to remember everyone? But then, after speaking with Alejandra, I realized that I wasn't alone, and as a matter of fact, she had been contacted by several first timers asking the same questions. By speaking with some other first timers, we were even brainstorming on a formalized buddy/mentor system where there is always a "veteran" to help the newbies. That would fit with the community feel, which I still felt strongly. Even with such a large scale event.
What stood out for me was that this reinforced the reason I do what I do. I felt like I was surrounded by special people who just reminded me that what I do matters, and that so many of us are trying to make things better in the world of education. If this is how you feel, if it is about people (and not just products, profits and processes), then this is the community for you. We shared, I learned, and there were moments that will stay with me forever.
Something I particularly remember was the Closing Plenary, where the outgoing President Michelle Stewart and the new President Piet Van Hove shared the stage. This was such a lovely moment, and you could see how there was such a shared sense of responsibility to the community as that role passed from one to another.
And then there was guest speaker Jimmy Nelson. I won't forget this talk, ever! Jimmy brought together so many of his diverse life experiences around the question of purpose. His point was that whatever we do and wherever we come from, our job is to share, to give and to contribute. To think about our roles within the context of our responsibility to the planet and to future generations, means that we will always have a clear sense of purpose.
Like Alejandra, I found my limits in trying to "ride the wave" of this event, but to be honest, I would not change it. I feel privileged to have been there, and wanted to just soak up every new experience I could, meet new people and just absorb it all. Well, I'm still processing it now."
Things are changing really quickly in our world, with Gen Alpha knocking on the doors and channels opening up in the rich and yet-developing Metaverse, to name but a few. There is a lot to unpack as we adapt to these changes, and trying to figure this out while our busy cycles of admission and recruitment spin around can be quite dizzying.
Taking these new developments in our stride is intimidating, with so much new technology and reframing of the rules we thought we understood. geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can help you adapt your current Marketing & Recruitment approach to meet and engage a new generation in a new digital space, and we can support you step by step. You should always feel free to reach out and just get the conversation started.
We know we just can't do it alone, and so geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is looking forward to connecting with you at EAIE Rotterdam 2023, when we get to work it all out together, as a community. Shall we see you there?
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Here is a challenge for you: name something you did in your education which felt like you were genuinely applying your learning to a real world scenario. Hopefully you are fortunate enough to think of one or more examples, but most of us will not. We learn in school, college, university, and then we work in the "real" world, but they are separate entities.
There are internships as part of courses, projects with companies or NGOs, and numerous other initiatives to try to de-silo the learning and get it out into the community around us in a symbiotic way. Many of these, however, can feel a bit scripted or too formulaic. Are we really in the real world? Will this company actually maybe do something with our findings or suggestions?
It is heartbreaking to watch (and we have seen it) students presenting months of hard work to a company to get a polite round of applause, some robust feedback and then...not much. Was the company involved in the process, or did they just drop by at the end. Did they come ready to take new ideas on board, or just to fulfil a function and tick the "partnership" box on this year's CSR report? Did the learners really have freedom to iterate in this project, or were they boxed in by parameters which were tightly tied to course reporting outcomes?
This sounds scathing, but if we are going to get education and employers really working together, it has to be meaningful and authentic; otherwise what is the point?
The scenario described above is more like problem based learning, where students are given a task to solve, such as how can we improve this company's customer service reviews, or what would a rebranding of their flagship product look like. However, if the process of solving that problem is too scripted, and the involvement of the company itself is just tokenistic, then it's not authentic learning at all and an opportunity has been missed.
Challenge-based learning is a deeper approach because the learner is asked to define the problem fully before even thinking about solving it. Now things get interesting, when we actually use a design thinking approach, it is impossible to script because this process, by definition, must be free-form. Real learning can happen here, as students use their creativity, collaboration, reflection, research and interdisciplinary learning to really understand what it is they are dealing with. Done right, this can throw out new insights that those who are inside a company might find more difficult to see.
Involve the company in the process and not just the outcome, and we have a real chance that something from this whole experience can be applied to the reality of the company's operations. If not, there will at least have been real and meaningful cooperation and co-creation of a problem definition and ideation stage.
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We are so excited about this. The IE Challenge is the first project we have seen that promises a truly authentic learning experience which breaks down the theory-practice barrier and brings multidisciplinary skills and complex problem-solving out from the classroom right into the heart of a company's key development stage.
One of these companies, as you might have guessed, is geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy)-hence the excitement. We genuinely have two areas we're willing to explore, and several groups of IE students will be working on them:
1. How might we discover and engage soft-skills savvy individuals on a long-term work relationship with institutions in need of hard-skills professionals?
2. How might we engage educational institutions to explore new ways of recruiting Gen Alpha students?.
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Right now, almost 80 students are working on these two topics and will present their solutions to us in December, but we are not just hanging back until then. IE has structured the phases of design thinking to really push learners to define the problem in depth from every conceivable angle before even attempting a solution (something many of these challenges really miss).
geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) are invited in to take part in several mentoring sessions at key points in this process because, you know, that's how things actually work best in the real world. This is why we are excited- we have two genuine challenges to address, and we have well-supported students working on this via a properly structured program with oversight, mentoring, interaction and adaptive fluidity.
Take note business schools, because this is how it's done. IE have ever impressed us, as you will see from the way they often pop up as a reference point or benchmark in our articles on the future of education. We cannot wait to share the results with you, and our insights from the process, and of course, we are ready and willing to shape, develop or just straight implement good ideas when they come in December. Watch this space!
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It is still technically summer in the Northern Hemisphere, although the leaves will already be turning in Glasgow and Montreal. Also turning are the busy minds of our colleagues in education marketing and recruitment. September is not an easy time of year, as last ditch efforts to fill places and pull data on the results of our efforts are taking up much of our bandwidth.
This is a great time of year for others to do some thinking for us, and the ever reliable folks at TED Talks never seem to miss a beat. It might be a while since you've dipped in to see what is happening in the TEDaverse, so we've done it for you. We have pulled out 3 great videos for you to click, sit back, enjoy and perhaps even spark some ideas as we enter the new academic year.
We love this one, and you will too. In only 7 minutes, Haugabrook brings us a reminder that the rush to embody the best of technology in education risks losing focus on the purpose of education itself. Education is a human right, but yet those privileged few who access the best learning experiences get the best opportunities, and the divide remains between those who have and those who have not.
Aside from being completely unjust, this inequity means that the vast majority of people in this world have significant barriers to opportunity. In a world of climate breakdown, social decay and economic upheaval, we need all hands on deck, and that means throwing the door wide open. Better yet, get rid of the door altogether.
Technology opens up the possibility to reach so many new learners, and open up new horizons for them in a way that could simply never happen in the practical realities of a physical college campus. As Executive Director of the Social Impact Collective at Southern New Hampshire University, which models the approach explored in this TED Talk, Haugabrook aspires to the vision of
"A re-imagined world where a learner, regardless of life conditions, can navigate a pathway that unlocks greater opportunity, social capital, and upward mobility."
All institutions can play their part in this, and broadening access means a new dimension to the role of our peers in education marketing and recruitment. Have a look, and see what you think. How might you be able to support this shift personally? How might you influence your institution to do so professionally?
There are quite a few talks on optimism appearing, and it struck as a topic. Do you feel, as we do, that there is a sense of challenge to our lives right now, against the backdrop of global instability, war, climate change, and the "great reset" we are still waiting for after the pandemic? There is a lot going on, and perhaps of course there always was, and we are just more aware of it now in the age of information.
In such a context, it is easy to feel that we are simply trying to react. AI is going to take our jobs, so we better learn something that only humans can do. Education is increasingly digital, so we have to get moving with Web3 and make sure we are there too. In all of this, we are reacting to big forces that feel separated from us, and are often quite hard to grasp.
Tom Rivett-Carnac takes us through the process of finding agency in our lives, despite the uncertainty. How do we find meaning through action, rather than reaction? The answer is in our individual minds and collective psychology, and embracing this can bring us peace and purpose. We feel strongly about this at NEO Academy, trying to build community and make a difference where we can, and learn from our mistakes when we can not. Talks like this help us reflect on this process, and zoom out a bit on what it all means to try and support the kind of world you actually want to live in.
We at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) are Metaverse fans (have you noticed?) but that does not mean we are all in. Being blind to the challenges of new technology is to do all stakeholders a disservice. The renaissance brought the first real wave of mass access to knowledge and literature as the printing press helped spread ideas far and wide, but this brought conflict and division, and certainly didn't help those accused of witchcraft very much. Web 2.0 brought mass access to free information, but also a wave of social anxiety, body negativity, conspiracy theories and all those other lovely byproducts.
Byproducts of what? Having a tool we don't really know how to use effectively. This is Mantegna's point- that we are creatures of habit, and the Metaverse runs the risk of simply perpetuating the old Web 2.0 problems in a Web 3.0 world. If Web 3.0 is a tool, and it most certainly is, then we need to maximize the way we use its function. This is where we come back to the thing that appealed to us about the Metaverse in the first place-the possibility to reinvent our digital world and positively impact the physical one while we're at it.
This talk does not pull punches, and claims that Web 3.0 is "already on fire", but its tone is one of hope and faith in the better angels of our nature, and the higher aspirations of humanity at its best.
We hope you liked these 3 recommendations, and that at least one of them sparked something, or even fed the flames of a feeling or idea that needed a nudge. When we can change our attitudes or aspirations because of a conversation, a book, a moment of reflection, we really are on the right path; always growing and developing. Enjoy the start of the new academic year, and we hope you will walk this path a little further with us as we grow together.
How many books are in your reading list right now? What about sitting on the shelf, half-read or never begun? If you are anything like us, you'll have several sitting around with great titles like "The courage to be disliked", which we know will be incredibly insightful, but we just haven't got round to it.
Do not beat yourself up about it. Chances are, if you are buying the type of books that help you grow as a person and as a professional, you are already a lifelong learner. That means you are learning and developing all the time, in every conversation, setback and success. And let's face it, the people who write these books are often not the greatest literary talents. Sure, the ideas are dynamite, but what are the chances of being, say, an expert in behavioural psychology and an incredible writer?
Some of these books are not easy to get through, and others need to be read when you are ready to read them, and receptive to what they have to say. With that in mind, here are five books we recommend for the summer that are really well written and also inspire practical improvements in the way we work and live.
We always throw you a curveball, don't we? Blinkist is not a book about someone who needs sunglasses, but is actually an app that summarises so many influential books and podcasts into 15 minutes or less. Take personal development books like The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, or the 5am club. Blinkist squeezes the juice from these, and gives you it in one refreshing glass of ideas. That is a terrible metaphor, just to remind you how draining it is to read dull writing.
From parenting to communication, mindfulness to Web3, Blinkist condenses the core ideas into something which fits snugly into any part of your routine, whether it's a quick metro journey, or between dips in the sea. Notably, the writing is really good, and holds your attention. If you really like the condensed version, you can go read the unabridged book on your terms. There's something much more conducive to focus and retention of information in that approach, which you rarely get from going in cold to 500 pages of theory.
We'll be honest, this sat on the shelf for a while! We guess that, with all the resistance from the presenteeist culture about moving to a four-day workweek, one which lasts four hours just seemed pie in the sky. That's not really what it is about, however. Really, at its heart, this is a book about rethinking what we value. When we prioritise time as a currency, things begin to shift.
Ferris applies oft-overlooked ideas from forgotten economists, shows you how to reframe the long-haul career leading to retirement idea, and best of all, it is actually quite relatable and accessible to everyone. We can all take something from this, even if it's just a shift in perspective about what we think we have to do, because everyone else is. You'll be easy to spot on the beach reading this, because you will be the person with the facial expression that says "mind blown". You can get a flavour of his ideas in this interview with The Young Turks.
Ok, this is amazing. This is the neutron star of our list, because the matter inside these pages is dense, rich and beautiful. That means slow-going, at least that was our experience. Why? Because every two pages you stop and say "wait...what?!". This book actually charts our evolution, and before you naturally select another article to read, we have to tell you that this is not dry and distantly academic like so many others of its ilk.
Sapiens fuses cutting edge research from psychology, biology, neuroscience, archaeology, geology, and any other -ology you can think of, really, to tell the story of how we got here. There is amazing stuff in here that makes you look around at our world in a new light, and zooms out to give us a perspective we might need as we extricate ourselves from the routine of daily work and start to recapture that lost part of ourselves amid the silence of a sunrise.
Seriously, give it a go, but give it time, and we recommend just diving in and out in short bursts to help absorb the amazing insights it contains.
The life of the entrepreneur is romanticized. It is hard, gritty, non-linear, and endlessly humbling. Yes it can be joyful, liberating and life-changing too, but attempts to help us make sense of what it really feels like, have often fallen far short. Not so with this book. Horowitz gives us the soft underbelly of the entrepreneurial lifestyle, in the same way that Anthony Bourdain did for the world of the professional chef.
This is the stuff they never tell you. From losing friends to realizing who people really are under pressure. From navigating impossible choices to finding inspiration in the face of absolute chaos, Horowitz lays it all bare with humor, candor, vulnerability and an undertone that somehow helps you reflect on your own journey and invites you to revisit unlearned lessons and missed opportunities. If you are already on this path, this book will feel like a confidant. If you are getting started or just thinking about going it alone, then this book will help you do it with eyes wide open.
Have a wonderful summer, whatever books you read, don't read, put aside for later or just use to prop up that wobbly table, the most important thing is that you take care of yourself and find the time to recharge and refocus. If that means reading something inspiring and thought-provoking, then we hope these recommendations have been useful. Happy summer from the geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) team!
Wait, what? We are supposed to be on holiday and the LAST thing I want to do is listen to anything related to my work. We hear you, absolutely, but these are not heavy, and nor are they "worky". Not really. Not at all, in fact.
For those of us who find the world of education to be a career, passion, calling and hobby rolled into one, here are five great recommended beach listens that spark imagination, reflection, learning and development, to help us become better versions of us. Oh, and they are all highly compatible with cocktail-sipping, we promise.
This is a good listen. You probably know Brené by now for her famous TED talks and work on vulnerability in leadership (and life in general). Her gift as a communicator is the real strength here. Brown invites a diverse audience onto her show, who are pushing boundaries in their work on leadership, resilience, connection, creativity and a host of others.
The thing is, that Brené has the ability to parse her guest's work into a summary that not only helps us tired listeners absorb complex ideas, but does so in a way that draws her guest into an exploration of the issues that somehow asks the same questions we ourselves are wondering. You can also search the podcast by theme, which makes it so much easier to keep digging. One of the things we love most about this is not only that it's all so relatable, but that the highly practical insights do not get buried. Brown will often pause and ask the guest to repeat a nugget of wisdom, helping us with that golden pause for refection. There are worse ways to spend some beach time, for sure.
Want to know why we like this? It makes us feel smarter. No, really! You know how you can watch a documentary on Ancient Egypt or the currents of the ocean, and marvel at all that new insight it brings, only to forget it 20 seconds later? Well, this is not like that. Chuck and Josh are loved by their followers, with reviews that say they feel like "old buddies", and some that even love the ads because they like the hosts voices. That is a first.
So what stuff should you know? How about how wind works, or deconstructing the myths around absinthe? From how menstruation works to what the IRA hunger strikes were all about, you'll find everything from science to popular culture, mythology to history, sports to the arts.
The style is unique and feels like a show within a show. We follow Chuck and Josh around in a mockumentary approach, as they get content together for their show. It is funny, clever, sharp and very well researched, and the best bit is that you feel like you are learning alongside them. And if you get sunburned after 10 minutes on the beach, they also have a series of "short stuff" condensed listens that will keep your skin intact.
Newspapers are not good for your health, and the 24-hour rolling doom of the news networks is definitely targeting your brain's negativity bias. Nobody wants to spend their lives, and certainly not their holiday, in a limbic state of despair at the state of the world. But neither do many of us want to remain ignorant of the plight of our fellow humans, or to be removed from the major events that are shaping our futures.
Today in Focus is a 30-minute deep dive that goes behind the splashy headlines and really explores what is going on in an insightful and meaningful way. This is not the anxiety-inducing attack of headline clickbait and dramatic imagery, but rather thoughtful and reasoned analysis that goes far deeper than the daily hype-machine.
With shows like this you can feel like you checked in on the world, and that you did so on your own terms, with the emphasis on really understanding something rather than simply reacting to it. It really is a far healthier way to engage with current affairs.
Rich Roll is an ultra endurance athlete who knows a thing or two about resilience and optimal health. However, over the years, this core interest has broadened out into a keen passion for all things self-improvement.
Before we give the wrong impression, this is not beating people over the head with advice on "optimizing" their lives, but really exploring the weird and wonderful ways in which we can be fully human and fully ourselves. With guests like Malcom Gladwell and Andrew Hubermann, this is a cerebral, visceral, emotional and substantive show that we always finish feeling reflective and altered, if even slightly.
Rich himself describes the show as "all things wellness with some of the brightest and most forward-thinking, paradigm busting minds in health, fitness, nutrition, art, entertainment, entrepreneurship & spirituality. Intimate, deep and often intense, these are not interviews. They are conversations."
That was really sneaky! But what kind of marketing consultancy would we be if we didn't mention our own podcast? geNEOusideas are bite-sized monologues on education topics as diverse as Metaverse learning and education for sustainable development; all in 10 minutes or less, which is perfect for the commute!
geNEOuschats is where we get together with luminaries and innovators from the world of education to explore what they do, and why it matters. If you are looking to network as well as learn, this is a great place to do it, as our guests are always happy to connect with others with whom their work and passions resonate.
So that's our five-and-a-bit podcast recommendations, so check them out before you check out for your well deserved summer break, and get ready to grow a little as you drop a gear and watch the sun go down on a busy year.
The Metaverse is going to change education. Virtual reality is going to deepen and enrich learning. AI is changing the way we adapt and personalize learning. We are very aware at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), that every time we make these statements, and explore what they mean for institutions, that there is a bias and a slant to the perspective. All of this is only true if you have access. The Global North largely does, and the Global South often does not, and therefore access to the means to enrich education through technology will only deepen the divide and reinforce existing inequalities.
3.7 billion people globally are not online, and imagine what those people are losing as jobs and communities move online, MOOCs and virtual learning communities ramp up, and employers increasingly accept micro-credentials and digital learning portfolios in place of formal academic learning pathways. The internet is not the solution to everything, uses huge amounts of energy from largely unsustainable sources, and all the rest of it, but does create opportunity that should at least be available to everyone should they choose it.
Unless that gap can be closed. Until now various public-private partnerships, or laptop-for-every child initiatives have failed to produce real traction, but things are ramping up with the Giga Project; a joint initiative between UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) with the aim of connecting every school to the Internet by 2030.
2030 is the year by which 193 nations of the world have committed to delivering the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Connecting every school has a chance at making a real impact on SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), but which has a knock-on effect in other SDGs from reducing poverty and gender inequality to improving innovation and employment.
Giga is the only policy specifically named in the UN Secretary General's Digital Cooperation Roadmap, which aims to achieve universal connectivity by 2030, and promote digital goods and digital inclusion for a more equitable society.
With US$ 5 billion in current financing, from a blended model of public and private partnerships (that is SDG 17 in action, by the way) Giga has developed real momentum, connecting almost 4000 schools in 3 years from Kenya, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Botswana, to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Honduras.
That might sound obvious, but there is more to it. It is not as simple as rolling up to a school and plugging them in. In Colombia, for example, AI technology and satellite mapping identified 6000 small, rural schools that were not part of the Colombian Government's official datasets. That would be 6000 schools left behind by national policymaking, which will instead now be brought online.
Nobody really knows how many schools there are in the world, and by around 2024, Giga hopes to answer that question.
The tech to do this is centralized in Giga's Barcelona headquarters where they are using blockchain technology to monitor real-time connectivity status of the schools that have been connected, and AI to develop mapping and analysis for schools that remain offline. There is also a team running data modeling on infrastructure and policy in each target region, so that the most regional-appropriate connectivity solutions and partnerships can be identified and utilized. This is tech for good, and tech at its very best.
In tandem with connectivity, there are efforts worldwide to shore up digital human rights and inclusion. In the age of crypto and open source, new users of the internet must also be supported to protect themselves and their communities from exploitation and harm.
Companies left to their own devices tend to avoid poorer areas with less infrastructure, because the cost-benefit analysis is pretty clear. Milton-Friedman economics don't really support sustainable development, and that should surprise nobody. We needed a shift, and a commitment, and lots of cash.
But now that we are finally reaching forgotten communities, there comes a responsibility to do this right. Schools can act as connectivity hubs for isolated communities and their lifelong learning and development, but that exposes their cultures to new influences. Opportunities in the digital world are not simply there for the taking, but require really strong capacity building and co-creation of best practices and safeguards that respect cultural norms and practices.
We come back, as always, to the role and responsibilities of the education institutions. You may be in Colombia, where your government is taking a direct role in the capacity building of rural schools, as they connect to a new world with unseen dangers and complex opportunities. You may be in Finland, where not only is every school already online, but there are fully online schools now exporting a successful educational model to the rest of the world.
Regardless, we have a part to play. What can your institution offer to be part of this change? Perhaps you can offer remote technical assistance to newly connected schools. Perhaps you could help train educators to build their digital skills' capacity, or invite learners from newly connected schools to take part in your online classes and enrich the experiences of both sets of students? Even directly raising money to help fund the NGOs building capacity on the ground is hugely important.
We agree that education is a human right. We have policies of inclusion, and mechanisms from scholarships to community outreach which broaden inclusion and access through more innovative admissions and recruitment. However, in a truly connected world, perhaps we need to think beyond inclusion and equity in our own institutions, and help others beyond our borders and urban centers. We need to play a part in this, and the best bit is that our students can get involved too, through peer-to-peer teaching and learning, fundraising and awareness raising projects.
To reach out and see how you can contribute, as a teacher, techie, fundraiser, trainer, expert or institution, send an email to projectconnect@unicef.org. That's how it starts.
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Here is a question or two for you. To what extent would you agree with the following statements:
A: Humans are social and emotional beings
B: Education has a responsibility to help us develop the social and emotional aspects of who we are
How many of us are still figuring out how to be ourselves? To drop the mask, to be ok with things, to identify the things we want to change about ourselves and understand where they came from? How many of us wished we had had more support in learning to be more compassionate to ourselves, more empathetic with others, more able to regulate our self talk or emotional states, and more skilled in navigating the triggers of difficult discussions?
Parents do the best they can, of course, but there is no way of really measuring, supporting or ensuring consistency of approach in the way they support the social and emotional development of their children. That will require a greater level of societal awareness and so it has to start, like all things, from education. The approach which addresses this gap is generally called Social Emotional Learning (SEL).
Remember when scientists started talking about dark matter? It was, and is, fascinating. That there is a force in the universe we can only discern from what it does, by its presence, but not by direct observation, feels kind of like the emotional component of learning. Learning is emotional, from how and why we pay attention, to how we construct memory, to how we see ourselves as learners, is all an emotional construct. Neuroscience and psychology have been increasingly clamouring for us to really internalize that, and we are starting to see that emotion is the driving force behind so much in our learning environments.
Emotion comes into the social aspect of learning too in a big way. Maslow nailed it when he talked about "belonging" as a fundamental human need. We are complex social beings, and when we feel rejected by our peers, that can have a major impact. Not only on learning, but on the way we express that rejection in more extreme terms. Hatred, bullying and violence all have, according to a growing body of research, a causal connection to rejection and the fear of being excluded.
Not developing the skills to understand and regulate our emotions, or to empathize and collaborate with others, is closely linked to how we do in later life, from graduation and employment prospects, financial stability, physical and mental wellbeing among others. So yes, pretty important.
We have focused for so long on attainment, grades, memorization, control and the rest of the Victorian Schoolhouse industrial education model, that we forgot for a time the simple humanity of learning. Thankfully, we are really taking steps to recognize the importance of emotion and social adaption in learning.
Well, you can't, or at least, not really. There is a big change underway as we start to mainstream things like sustainability and SEL in learning, and deeper more complex competences, such as anticipatory thinking or complex problem-solving. This new stuff does not work in lectures and PowerPoint presentations. Learners of all ages need to be in control, so it is relevant to them, created by them, owned by them.
We are born with an innate capacity for social connection, and we need that to really develop higher-order cognitive skills such as we will surely need in the volatile world ahead of us. Getting this social connection does not happen when interactions are only with the teacher, or sculpted into a lesson plan where we follow a pre-determined pathway.
Learning occurs with social interaction. We learn how others think and see the world, what we might offer them and they us, and that there are so many ways to approach problems or respond to situations. We see ourselves changing in response and understand the plasticity of our states, moving away from fixed mindsets to growth mindsets. Education simply has to embed these opportunities, train its educators to support the learners in their reflective understanding, and build SEL around them as they go.
Discussions, immersive and adaptive technology, peer to peer learning, community activities, individual reflection and journaling; there are so many ways to create space for SEL.
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SEL has three dimensions:
Cognitive: e.g. planning and organizing, persevering, focusing and setting goals
Social and interpersonal: e.g. resolving conflicts, respecting others, self-advocating and demonstrating agency
Emotional: e.g. recognizing, understanding and managing our emotions, empathy for others, dealing with stress and frustration
As an adult reading this, what do you think? If you have ever said "I wish we had learned this in school" did it involve the kind of things on this list? Is there anything here you are still developing yourself? Of course, we are, and we are always a work in progress, but imagine having a head start in this as a young person. Imagine the impact on your life.
Being able to recognize and manage negative self talk, and flip that to more positive and grounding input. Being able to accept and acknowledge others perspectives without taking them personally and entering a reactive state. Being able to value diversity of though and approach in collaborative problem-solving, and to hone the skill of reflection to breed clarity and good decision-making. This is the stuff that executive coaches make careers out of helping adults develop, but imagine we could do the heavier lifting ourselves.
We are in education marketing and recruitment, as you likely are, and we can surely see how appealing this is to parents and older learners. Making SEL a key priority in all levels of learning will help bring institutions into a new century of socially responsible, self-aware and compassionate change makers. Teaching needs to change, accreditation needs to change and all the rest of it, but is it too idealistic to imagine a culturally sensitive SEL framework embedded in primary to tertiary education?
It must be a whole-institution approach. This is not something that can rest on the goodwill of committed teachers. When we talk to parents of primary and secondary learners about supporting SEL, when we bring in our teachers and administration staff to the conversation and training, when we embed it in the way we communicate internally and externally, and when it runs as a thread throughout our learning, we become something new.
Everyone can benefit from this, and focusing only on SEL in the classroom is a missed opportunity. Everything from student work experience to campus HR and marketing can involve SEL principles and frameworks in their decision-making and strategizing. You can also develop your own curriculum around SEL principles, such as the Kindness Curriculum project in the UK.
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), we consider the impact of our decisions on our team. We embed reflective and socio-emotional thinking in all of our professional training, and we navigate our community as listeners and connectors. Our strategy is based around lifting each other up, supporting what we value, and being the change we want to see. At least we try, even if we don't always get it right the first time.
The time of the Clint-Eastwood cowboy approach to leadership is as dead as the genre. We can and should show our emotions, share understanding of them, put in the work that requires, and push for more of this in education as a right, not a privilege. If you feel the same way and want to showcase what you are doing for learners and your community, let us help you tell your story and bring in others to share the journey.
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How can we meaningfully engage students in institutional strategy? It's a question that has been on the minds of educators for years, and one that is more pressing than ever in today's climate of stakeholder empowerment and enfranchisement.
The answer, of course, is not to ask them to read the minutes of board meetings or sit through PowerPoint presentations on analytics. Nor is it to create ad hoc "town hall" meetings where they are asked to provide input on issues that have already been decided. This gives the illusion of engagement, but the inauthenticity is pretty transparent.
So what do we need to do instead, to create opportunities for students to contribute their unique perspectives and experiences at every stage of the strategic planning process? Can we really ensure that our institutions are truly responsive to the needs of all stakeholders? How can we in marketing and recruitment play a part?
We are a long way from the "sit down and pay attention" mode of education, but we have not come as far as we would like to see. While education has generally moved to focus on skills over simple memorization of facts, and has generally centered learners more in the process, the true enfranchisement and empowerment of learners is still not the reality we see before us.
Learners might have a student council, might be invited to meetings of the institutional leadership team, and get some reasonably token decision-making powers, but is this the best we can do? True stakeholder engagement means really letting go of some control, and we can appreciate that this is a little scary for those at the top.
This is not about just "making students happy" or "letting students run the institution"; both of which show a real lack of understanding of what stakeholder empowerment can bring, and how strong an institution can be when all voices are not only heard, but carry substance and weight.
The 19th century planners of industrial-era education would be horrified, but if we really want our learners to leave as empowered individuals with a true sense of agency, and we really believe that this is essential in the very turbulent world ahead of them, then the choice is pretty clear.
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Getting learners to give the thumbs up to something that has already been decided, is something that happens all too often. Equally, when learners are actually involved in improvement strategies right from the inception stage, the "project" is often siloed apart from the core institutional strategy.
The message coming from both these approaches is that we are ok with some contributions from the back seat, but we do not really trust learners with the keys. The ultimate goal is for the learners we serve to be the ones initiating the ideas and decisions, which can then be guided, developed and validated by the leadership team as true partners. Not tokenism, and not written off as "projects" to show on social media.
In Maryland, USA, a nominated student sits on the state board of education. The responsibilities of this position are "extensive" and carry real weight, rather than just tokenistic inclusion for the glossy brochure. It's time to give students voting rights on an education board. Some may say that students are too young and immature to make meaningful decisions about education policy. But the fact is, students are the ones who are most affected by the decisions made by the education board.
They're the ones who have to suffer through overcrowded classrooms, outdated content, learning approaches that do not spark passion or prepare them for an uncertain future. If anyone deserves a say in how their education is run, it's them. Giving students voting rights on an education board allows them to have a say in decisions that affect their lives and supports a more inclusive and representative education system.
Our colleagues in the world of education marketing love to communicate examples of student-led decision-making or activity in the institution. The sad thing is that we are often not part of it. These projects, decisions, strategies etc. are communicated to us so that we might tell the world of what is going on inside. But what happens when someone from the marketing department participates in these groups alongside student council members, parents, local councillors and all the rest of it? Oxford Said business school is a great example of a diverse group of stakeholders driving the major decisions of the institutional strategy, right down to partnerships, projects, community activities and on-campus campaigns.
The School board itself at OS is a closer knit group, but includes students, and representatives from marketing and innovation. The wider Global Leadership Council includes key figures from the surrounding business community, in addition to the school board. Students are there throughout with a vote and voice, but marketing is also there, not just to report but to be part of the decisions and the discussions. Too often there is a disconnect between "departments" or between academic, admissions and marketing, when in fact they are all part of the living institution. We often talk about de-compartmentalizing education, but our institutions themselves can become far more fluid and horizontal, and this is a good thing.
Manchester University in the UK has completely overhauled their M&R structures to become more transversal, alongside a wider plan to break down boundaries between departments and involve students more closely in each area of institutional life which was previously "behind the scenes". Marketing teams can now help students develop their own campaigns, and help train them on how to engage interest in new ideas and spread awareness, for example. Academics are opening up their research activities more to students who may be interested.
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When students have more open access to different areas of an institution and a vote and voice in how it is governed and where it is going, things really begin to change. Accountability and transparency are much starker, there is a fresh influx of ideas, and the institution is far more closely connected to those it serves. Marketing can be right in the midst of this, working more directly with students and witnessing the process and results of co-created strategy. We look for an authentic tone in external communications, but that means authentically creating open channels of communication, and leaving our offices to get involved with the workings of everyday institutional life.
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) we are education marketing and recruitment consultants, but we are also students, passionate lifelong learners, activists and networkers. We never wanted to be stuck away apart from the heart of the institution, and perhaps that is why we seek to work with more open, progressive and student-centred schools and universities. We all serve the same purpose, and the fewer boundaries the better. Let students in, open the doors between departments, and when we all sit around that table we may just find something new and exciting ahead.
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Aside from location, which is pretty hard for institutions to change, what are the factors which really influence applicants' decision on which business school to attend? The thing is that the top three factors are relatively unchanging:
1. The quality of the learning and reputation of the school
2. The cost
3. The employment prospects after graduation
That is unlikely to be surprising, but what does surprise us at times is just how hard business schools work to compete on the same things, instead of finding their way to standing out more.
The ranking is an easy one to understand, but unless you are the type of institution that is willing to put "the 23rd best Business School in South East Asia" on your promotional material, ranking really works best as a lever for those near the very top. Some institutions further down the ranking opt for less salubrious accreditations to fill this gap, such as those which look official but can actually be bought and displayed with little to no oversight or quality control*.
Cost is understandably critical, and students want to know that it really is an investment with ROI, which means employment prospects must be substantial (tying into ranking and reputation, and academic quality once again). Flexible payment options, scholarships and sliding scales to broaden access are all critical and play a role in reducing equity gaps.
Employment prospects again come back to the quality and reputation argument. Schools which have a well established alumni network do much better here, as they can showcase positive destinations, even if the diversity of these highlighted case studies is sometimes a little formulaic. What it most often comes down to is the skills you can evidence to an employer, and the relevance of your areas of understanding to issues that are mission-critical to businesses.
So where can Business Schools really hope to stand out? What are the ways to differentiate ourselves in the top decision-making factor in 2022?
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An unchanging curriculum with static content is not going to fit well with students who can already see how unstable and fluid the real world is. Dynamic, evolving and adaptive are the keywords to leverage here, as Business Schools build more learner-directed experiences into their offer. The thing is, that when learners have the chance to explore, learn experientially, tinker, fail forward and reflect, they will not only become better lifelong learners, but they will also develop more of the critical skills the world needs.
One cannot build skills simply by imparting knowledge. Business Schools have long come under criticism for failing to adequately provide learners with practical opportunities to take control of their own development. Too much focus on research has sometimes cocooned the institutional psyche in a bubble of academia that responds inquiringly to what has already passed, instead of making meaningful steps towards dealing with what is ahead.
When course content is set in stone, lectured and taught, where is the room for empowerment and agency? It may not be the easiest route, but modernizing learning in an institution pays dividends well beyond student satisfaction. Students will not forget the place where they learned to really be themselves and step confidently forward, and that means a greater sense of belonging and community. Organic reputation is built on this, where applicant look less for research credentials and high profile partnerships, and more at the views and reviews of current and former students.
Put learners in the centre, ditch the sage-on-the-stage, support teachers to step into mentoring rather than instruction, and the learning will be far richer. Building your content around the learners might sound like much more work, but it is far more vibrant and energizing than delivering the same classes year-on-year as the world carries on regardless.
Technology can also support this transition, with adaptive learning tools a great asset to the flexibility a learner needs to juggle family, work and study commitments, as well as being able to take more control over their own pace. Interdisciplinary learning is another trend in this area which de-siloes thinking and helps learners connect the dots between areas to better face the "wicked" problems of the 21st century.
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This focus on modern learning approaches to help develop real-world skills (cognitive and practical) is a huge draw for a generation of learners who can press a button on their phone if they want to listen to a lecture, and really don't need to re-mortgage the house for the experience. What Generation Alpha want is the skills and awareness to make a difference in this world.
This means that not only the learning experience has to be more about the learner than the teacher, but also that it has to be focused on the values and issues of a more socially and environmentally conscious generation. Sustainability is not an elective, but needs to be embedded in all aspects of Business School education. We cannot teach the Thunberg generation how to get rich by extracting ever more diminishing resources and widening glaring inequity gaps. Learners will reject this increasingly, and they are right to do so.
Sustainability is not just about resource management. Business schools can stand out here by actively working to reduce the gender gap, reversing the attainment gap in diverse applicants, doing meaningful work on inclusion and standing more vocally and actively for social justice.
We have already written recently about how all jobs are green jobs, and that sustainable thinking is a huge draw for employers who are either being forced to reduce carbon emissions and/or are actively seeking to go beyond the mandated changes to be a positive force in their sector. This is only set to increase, and Business Schools who ignore this and try tokenistic band-aid fixes are really going to miss an opportunity to be part of a fundamental shift.
Does any of this chime with what you are trying to do in your institution? We want to support you, because our part in this is to elevate and sharpen the voices calling for change and help them to succeed over the institutions who are not. We are clear about that, and we can help your message to come through clearly too, so do reach out to chat with geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) about how we can help you stand out.
*Don't do it. Gen Z and Alpha can sniff out this stuff and can easily find out that your "award" from "XXX magazine" (censored) was given to pretty much anyone that paid for advertising space, or that your EQYASTHST Gold Standard membership (we made that one up) was "conferred" by a shadowy company with no registered office who encourages award holders to "self-monitor" their quality in exchange for money. Such practices undermine people's faith in such claims, and fund organisations who have little interest in the integrity of education.
Back in 2014, Irina Bokova, then the Director-General of UNESCO, launched the UNESCO Roadmap in 2014 for a Global Action programme on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
Bokova began this document with a foreword, which made it clear that for humanity to survive the coming decades, and move to a way of life that could be sustained, tinkering at the edges of our system would simply not do. Bokova called for nothing less than a "paradigm shift" in the way we work, live and consumer resources.
That's a big, bold statement. A total rethink of everything we are doing is pretty scary. Our economies, societies, ways of travelling, consuming and powering our lifestyles have to become something totally different. This is not just switching to electric cars and cutting out the beefburgers, but something much, much more.
Within the Universal Values of the United Nations, in which we have agreed fundamental Human Rights and that nobody anywhere should face barriers to living a healthy, happy life, there is a plan to achieve this. Oh yes, the Sustainable Development Goals you have heard so much about might be a little wooly and vague around some of the terminology and implementation, but they do cover pretty much everything we need to do to get this world working for people, planet and prosperity in equal measures.
We zoom in on SDG 4 (Quality Education) and find 7 targets. The last one, target 4.7, tells us of the role that education has to play in sustainable development, and it really does completely understate the point.
Far from being one small target component of one of 17 SDGs, this one really is at the heart of absolutely every part of the Sustainability agenda. If we are going to overhaul the whole blue planet, then we need to know what we are doing, and how to adapt when it doesn't go to plan.
Look at any one of the SDGs on that plan. From Climate change to innovation, life below water to reducing inequalities: every single one requires an informed, adaptable, aware, empowered and capable society to make that happen. And just who is going to take responsibility for that? We are.
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Before we get any emails, when we said "we are", we didn't mean just NEO Academy, though we'll do our best. "We" means everyone in education, from teachers and marketers to administrators and planners, learners and researchers. "Education" of course refers to K-12, FE and HE but also to the wide world of informal and non-formal learning, apprenticeships, mentoring and all the rest of it. We all have a huge part to play.
In what? Well, this is either the scary bit or the exciting bit, depending on how you feel about reworking the entire planet. You see, "sustainability" isn't very exciting. In our geNEOusChats with Eddy Van Hemelrijk, he asked us "if you asked your friend how their marriage was going, and they said it was sustainable, you'd probably think that doesn't sound very good". He's right. Sustainability is the ability to meet our needs without compromising the needs of current or future generations, but beyond that, we have aspirational words like renewal and regeneration.
Regeneration means making something new, and that's what this whole thing is about. We got a little carried away with fast fashion and avocado lattes, the illusion that wealth equates to happiness, and that we can all take as much as we want from the planet and from other people, and as long as we call it "success", things will be just peachy. We lost our way for a while.
Sustainability is sort of comforting, as it encourages us to tweak some things, reduce others and basically find new ways to do what we do. Regeneration is something more. This is where we get to say that the space to innovate is wide open, and we are up for the challenge. What happens if we have an economy based on happiness and wellbeing rather than GDP? What happens if we redefine what success looks like and support each other to find passion and purpose in pursuit of that? What happens when we share values beyond the material and look at what bonds us, and not what divides us?
When the challenge is so complex, and the "wicked problems" of our world overlap, interact, contradict and generally just don't sit well together, who do we need to be to face that? When the way forward is going to shift and tremble, the cascading effects of climate breakdown and food insecurity speed up or take unpredictable turns, what do we need to know to face that? What kind of education do we need to regenerate the world and build something new and vibrant?
According to UNESCO, we need specific elements in all of our education contexts, institutions and approaches.
We need to integrate critical issues, such as climate change, biodiversity, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and sustainable consumption and production (SCP), into all of our curricula. In our experience, that process is happening pretty slowly, though some like Bali's Green School have been doing it for years already.
We need to design learning (not teaching) in a way that is interactive, puts the learner at the centre and in control, and which is transformative. Transformative pedagogies are approaches which leave us changed in the way we think, feel and act, and not just what we know. The James-Bond wannabes all love to hang out in the shadows just "knowing" stuff, but it won't slow down global warming, will it? Education needs to be about empowering growth and change, and not just sharing facts. Immersive, experiential, personal, adaptive are just a few adjectives that fit well with that new paradigm of learning and education, but there are many more.
Learners need to be equipped with the green skills for jobs. You'll note that we did not say "skills for green jobs" because in order to regenerate this planet, we have to accept that all jobs are green jobs. From hairdressers to engineers, taxi drivers to marketing ninjas (why do people call themselves that?!), we all need to integrate and internalize new ways of doing things that do not leave others behind and do not take more from this earth than it can support.
And the big picture? Our values need brought to the fore, alongside the reflective and cognitive skills to interact with empathy and cultural acumen with a wide range of people in uncountable situations. We need to have a core that is us, in ever-changing unpredictability. Empathy, compassion, inclusiveness, and the systems-thinking ability to understand how it all fits together; these are the outcomes of education in a regenerating world.
When we at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) talk about the future of education, decentralization of control through Web3, immersive VR learning, purposeful learning and all the rest of it, it's because we see what could be. We are also a bit impatient, and that might come across in the tone of these articles at times, for which we make no apology. We have only a few years to sow these seeds.
There is no time for dragging heels and teaching to the test. The real test is whether we can let go, cross that knowing-doing fear gap, and move forward into uncertainty. Uncertain times are coming whether we move forward or not, but we can start now to build a world where we all have a fair shot at remaking it to include us all, to honor our new place as stewards of a living world, and not to fight for what is left of a dying one.
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), we want to promote and amplify the voices of those who have a similar passion and value set, even if you're not yet where you want to be. Especially if you're not yet where you want to be. Get in touch to see how we can help you get there, and let's be part of something new.
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Virtual Reality is more than gaming and 3D movies. A growing number of K-12 schools, colleges and universities are investigating the educational potential of VR. But how does VR actually work? How can it be used to facilitate learning?
Neuroscience has a lot to say about how our brains learn in virtual reality. When we put on a VR headset, we're effectively transported into a digital world. Our brains receive visual, auditory and other sensory input that trick us into thinking we're somewhere else. This is known as immersion.
Immersion is key to VR's educational potential. When we're immersed in a virtual environment, we're more likely to pay attention and engage with the content. We're also more likely to remember what we've learned. That's because immersive experiences activate the brain's memory circuits, which helps us encode and store information.
When we learn something new, our brains create connections, or neural pathways, between neurons. These pathways allow electrical impulses to travel from one neuron to another, allowing us to remember and recall information.
In a traditional learning environment, such as a high school, learners are often engaging with tasks set for them, without being actually immersed in them. Why? Because there's only so much that can be done in a classroom. There are physical limitations to what can be done and how much equipment is available, as well as the fact that supporting experiential, personal learning is a pedagogical skill which needs time to learn and develop, and we all know that time is in seriously short supply for today's educators.
In virtual reality, learners are placed in an immersive environment where they can interact with their surroundings. This allows for a more realistic learning experience and creates more neural pathways in the brain. In other words, VR helps us learn better and remember more information.
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An example of this is a study done by the University of North Carolina. They found that medical students who learned in VR were better able to retain information and perform tasks than those who didn't use VR. In this study, the VR group had a 34% increase in test scores, which is seriously significant.
We can also see VR at work in flight training. A study conducted by the US Air Force found that those who used VR in their flight training had a 230% increase in task performance.
Ok, so these examples perhaps seem quite easy to accept as rational uses of VR. Flight training has, for years, been done on simulators anyway, for example. So what about high schools, and what about subjects that we might not traditionally associate with VR?
How might Virtual Reality work for learners who are studying, for example, mathematics? A recent study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience used functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to investigate brain activity patterns while participants undertook a simple mathematical task in a virtual reality environment. The task required the participants to identify whether a sequence of numbers was either odd or even, and then press a button to indicate their answer.
The researchers found that when compared to performing the same task on a computer screen, doing it in VR resulted in increased activity in regions of the brain associated with visuospatial processing, working memory, and attention. These findings suggest that VR can provide an immersive and engaging learning experience that activates key areas of the brain involved in mathematical learning.
While this research is still in its early stages, it provides some insight into how powerful VR learning can be. But are there any concerns around using VR with high school students?
Some experts have raised concerns about potential negative impacts of VR on young people. These include the potential for addiction, social isolation, and exposure to inappropriate content. However, it is important to keep in mind that VR is still a new technology, and we are only just beginning to understand its potential impacts. As VR technology develops, it is likely that these concerns will be addressed, and there are reasonable counterarguments to consider.
In terms of the potential for addiction, it is worth noting that VR can be used in moderation, like any other technology. There are also many educational and productivity applications of VR, which can help offset any potential negative effects. For example, VR can be used to help people with anxiety disorders or phobias by gradually exposing them to their fears in a controlled environment. It can also be used for rehabilitation after injuries, and to help people with conditions such as autism or ADHD.
As for social isolation, VR can actually be used to connect people who are geographically far apart. VR can also be used to create virtual communities where people with common interests can connect and interact.
Finally, in terms of exposure to inappropriate content, let's just bear in mind that VR headsets can be equipped with filters that block out inappropriate content. It is also possible to create safe spaces in VR where only appropriate content is allowed. As challenges emerge, technology develops to counter them, and we can only imagine what will happen when whole scale adoption of VR learning comes into play, in a world where knowledge sharing and open source development is the norm. The sky is the limit.
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It is really clear that neuroscience supports the use of VR for learning, and that VR can provide immersive and stimulating experiences that engage learners on a cognitive and emotional level. With its ability to create social connection and override the limitations of physical distance, VR does have truly great potential for impactful learning opportunities. As technology continues to develop, it’s likely that we will see even more innovative uses for VR in education, and we will do our very best at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) to keep you posted as it develops!
In the meantime, why not check our other articles and podcasts on the Web3 and Ed3 world, to learn more about how your institution might develop new opportunities in this space. You can click here to see everything under our Web3 tag, and if there is something else you'd like to see, just let us know!
