From the Principal

From the Principal

Bonjour à tous, and Wanju

Before we get into the last part of our five-part series on Living on the Future Edge I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the amazing effort that you have put in during this term. After 2 years of uncertain working conditions and anxiety, we finally had the term that we were expecting. We did a great job to ensure the continuity of education for our students. More importantly, you pulled together marvellously to support each other through the COVID outbreak. It was a great team effort. I take every opportunity to shout that out loud.

Please ensure that you take a moment this week to prepare for the upcoming holiday. I wish you a wonderful rest and hope that this holiday brings all the joy and wonder that you deserve. Without further ado.

Living on the Future Edge - PART V

“By failing to prepare we prepare to fail”

Education is the foundation of a society. How will the exponential growth of technology that we have been talking about over the last four weeks affect education. If we accept what I have said previously, that we are trapped in an old paradigm we can see that the answer lies in changing the paradigm and creating new structures to take advantage of the trends we have discussed.

If education is a train, it is pulling many cars down the track – reading, writing, mathematics. Each year it seems that even more cars are being attached by the expectations of society. We have become the social worker, providing counselling and support victims of abuse. Despite the obstacles of time and money we are pulling the education train down the tracks faster and more effectively than ever before. Educators are doing a better job today than they have ever done – So what is the problem.

Despite our best efforts, the immediacy that technology has brought us has also made education increasingly disconnected from the rest of the world.

In the future education must adapt so that

1. Learning is customised for the learner
2. Learning is non-linear
3. Learning is both virtual and physical
4. Learning is assisted by thinking machines
5. Learning is focussed on processing multimedia information
6. Learning is collaborative
7. Learning is whole mind
8. Learning is based on discovery
9. Teaching is about crafting problems.

Over the last five weeks, I have paraphrased and highlighted only sections of Living on the Future Edge. I thoroughly recommend reading the whole book it is an easy read and very pertinent for our own professional understanding of teaching and learning.

En Avant