[I will be attempting to live blog notes throughout the day]
MC – My own questions and comments preceded by “MC”
Link to the event website with more details on the programme, speakers, etc.: http://www.tedxlondon.com/event/the_education_revolution_1
14:45 Session 1 – Hosted by Marcus Davey
What’s wrong?
A video introduction from Sir Ken Robinson
Direction for conversations:
Roundhouse cultural and political history
Why need a revolution?
Misused by politicians but need to get back to basics – politicians often talk about what their school experience was
Economic – education has powerful roles in growth and sustainability – but economies have changed
Cultural – students need to understand their own culture and identity but also to understand others
Personal – about people – lots of people dropping out of education – governments attempts to control education impede the addressing of the personal
All need for theatre is an actor in a space and an audience – parallel for education is what is needed is the relationship between the teachers and the learners
Core principles:
Education has to be personalised
Education has to be customised to the student’s context
Diversity – the drive to standardisation offends the principle of diversity – human life is inherently diverse and we need to celebrate that in education
Education needs to be a partnership with societies institutions
No more important conversation than how we transform education for the 21 century!
What’s happening?
Adam Roberts – Campaigner
Youth campaigner
The importance of questioning – of being critical
Young children are natural critical thinkers
Teenager – asking why am I learning this – often dismissed
Education revolution needs to come about throughout the way we assess children
Goal of education is independence
We don’t need more knowledge but more critical thinking
Questions are important
Tolerate a child’s willingness to think critically and engage them!
Georgia Allis Mills – School Student
I learn’t most this morning and haven’t been anywhere near school!
Education is a very loaded word.
Is learning waste of time – why are we learning things we don’t need to know in late life e.g.
Simultaneous equations
MC – some need to know those – I have used them – how do we best decide “what young people need to know”?
Goldie (video) – Artist, DJ and Actor
The education system is very old fashioned
“What I learnt in education was punctuality”
I learnt from good mentors in the real world – completely different from the way learning is organised in school
I am still learning every day
I knew what I wanted to see but did not know how to get there – that is what we need to give to kids
Carmel McConnell – Social Activist
Magic Breakfast – fuel for learning
Educational value:
In UK 1,000s of children can not access their education because they are hungry
1 in 4 children – only hot food they get is food they get at school
Magic breakfast improves attainment, punctuality, …
Dan Roberts – Teacher
Self confessed geek
Example from his own Maths lessons –
Exercise by exercise from books
Copying off board
Example of upside down calculator entries to spell funny or rude words – creative but not approved of by teachers
Technology can engage – can make life long learners – if users properly!
(Stories not noted)
The egg cam – free range chickens
Teleconferencing to Indonesia rebroadcast to their national TV – mass audience inspired kids
Saltash.net Enable – web app
What will maths lesson be in 2021?
Allowing students to use technology in amazing ways but some schools tend to ban and block!
www.unblocked.com
Entertainment
The Baker Brothers – Musicians
16:50 Session 2 – hosted by Adjoa Andoh
“Education dislocating people from their natural talent” – Ken Robinson
What’s right?
Nick Stanhope – CEO
Every spot on the planet has a vast extent of history behind it!
Can be represented as points on a map but need a 4th dimension
Overlaying old photos onto their modern equivalent
How scale up?
Dynamic mapping tools
Historic pictures onto street view
Moving comparative mapping
Making history an immersive experience
The important roles that schools play in capturing this history
Value on both sides – kids and older propel with their memories
Invitation to all schools batting involved!
Max Whitby – Filmmaker & Scientist
Theme of talk – floating
Apps for Touch Press
Very good demo floating a foil boat on dense gas but didn’t say what it was MC – frustrating to me!
Evan Grant – Creative Technologist
Arts and technology collective Seeper
Explored use of motion sensing technology firs typed to give access to music with kids with autism – created a sensory school. Immersive interactive technologies!
Video
Geoff Stead – Education Technologist
Sophie Bosworth – Student
Alternative paths to University
The ideas foundation
Education that prepares for after education:
Knowledge
Skills
Passion
Vocational education viewed as second class
Too many students not able to distinguish themselves after university to show what they are offering the word of work
Creativity is a cycle … Peddle it!
Professor Ken Spours – Professor of Education
Education is arguable the most important thing societies do!
Education is too important! …
To be treated as a political football
Complete absence of policy memory – no willingness to learn from the past.
A real revolution in the English system will mean agreement and acting in a different way
How?:
We should start by agreeing about out values
Everybody counts everybody can think and do
A law of care
????
Leave the world of “verses” and move to the world of “and”
We need to think ecologically about food
C.f Bruce from Finding Nemo
We need a Hypocratic oath for education:
The micro educational level of the learner
A dedication to the area
Politicians offer real leadership by giving power away!
Warning: if we do not take this line we will not see the good ideas we have seen today permeate our schools!
Entertainment
Tim Exile – Musicial, Performer and Developer
19:00 Session 3 – hosted by Steve Munday
Head teacher – how many messages you get telling you what to do!
Technology future can scare people in schools – but it must be embraced
What’s next?
Scott Snibbe – Artist, Filmmaker & Researcher
iPad Apps:
Bubble Harp
Use patters of nature to model something new – what maths was invented for
Work with Bork
(Too visual a presentation to note)
Ewan McIntosh – Entrepreneur
“What did you make at school today?”
Problem based learning – what we need is problem finders
Divergent thinking is where the future lies – need a bit of convergent thinking at the end to pull things together
Pledge – wants to engage 10,000 learners in problem finding curriculum
Emily Cummins – Inventor
Grandad taught to to design and work with wood while primary aged
This country would still be using the abacus if children had not taught their parents
Designed a toothpaste dispenser for other grandad – entered for technology competition
Invented a fridge for developing countries – open sourced it!
Why are we not using young people’s imagination and then trusting them?
Dougald Hine – Writer and Creator
A new kind of university
Life shaped by a university in exile who escaped higher ED because of where it was going
University promise:
Places dedicated to knowledge
We underestimate how little people change from century to century
Projects
The university of openness
Pick me up
The school of everything
Learning is not a commodity to be exchanged
Talking about first life not second life
The temporary school of thought
Let’s recycle Woolworths
Spacemakers
A DIY spirit and a culture of reflection
John Geraci quote
The Edgeless University – Demos
Hub Westminster
“I want to start a University”
Happening in many places
14-16Oct 2011 universities Past and Present (check out)
Jude Kelly OBE – Artistic Director
What does the future hold?
A review of inspirational women in the arts
Motivated by a burning sense of injustice
Telling of a personal journey
Thinking of changing tack – can only dream for yourself – so what can Southbank Centre do?
“The propaganda of the imagination”
I could be as daring and as bold as my predecessors
Events to date essentially for adults – need to turn this on it’s head
Taxes are there to create a bounty for the future of civilisation
A Call To Action – video message from Sir Ken Robinson
Drivers of change:
Population growth
Technology
Rate of change will accelerate
Civilisation is a race between education and catastrophe
We don’t have to reinvent everything – many similar attempts in the past
E.g. Montessori, Piaget … … ….
Personalise curriculum
Intensive relationship between teachers and learners
The principles of all good education not just alternative education
Technologies have their role but are not the whole answer
He pledges his work and his support!
21:35 Event ends
52.011591
-0.688419