Four international experts share their perspective on education innovation.

The education of the future needs renewed models, institutions, tracks and courses. And, of course, proper integration of technology.

What is education innovation? This is a question with more answers than it may seem at first glance. It is not easily unraveled, but it is essential to do so, for the sake of society. International Education Day, celebrated on January 24, is the perfect time to ask four internationally renowned experts about innovation in education.

What does it really mean to innovate in education?

When we think of education innovation, our minds are drawn to a hodgepodge of electronic devices and nifty apps. However, one thing has become clear after the great shelter-at-home period that locked millions of students around the world in their homes: it is not enough to put a screen in front of them to prepare them for the future.

On International Education Day, it is worth reflecting on some ideas—open ecosystems, adapting tracks to a changing world or leaving behind education designed for a work environment that no longer exists are some of them–proposed by experts Gordon Freedman, president of the Californian NGO National Laboratory for Education Transformation; Wilfried Vanhonacker, founder of the Skolkovo business school in Moscow; Steve Robinson, Business Development Manager at Wolfram Research Europe (Oxford) and Soumitra Dutta, dean-elect of Saïd Business School (Oxford University).

Transforming the educational model and institutions

“Innovating around education means making it ubiquitous, making learning fully accessible to all students through open ecosystems. Students and teachers, experts and all those who are directed towards the future value of what is being learned will engage in these ecosystems” explains Gordon Freedman.

Progress is only feasible if the very institutions in charge of moving forward look inwards to redefine their purpose. “The hobby horse of education innovation is to banish the idea that separate educational institutions own the knowledge. Rather, they must become stewards and purveyors of knowledge, who successfully qualify all students, regardless of their circumstances,” adds Freedman.

These are profound changes that affect the educational model itself. Indeed, the education of the future requires much more than plugging a tablet or an electronic whiteboard into the traditional model. On International Education Day, it is more necessary than ever to turn around a way of teaching that is already ineffective in bringing out the potential of students. 

“Education innovation means breaking the mold and replacing it with a new one, not dropping something new into the old mold. For example, the way education has integrated technology is the equivalent of polishing an obsolete model, rather than using its capacity to redesign pedagogy,” says Wilfried Vanhonacker.

Tailoring subjects to learners (not the other way around)

When it comes to making education innovation truly effective, the very subjects studied require a thorough rethinking. Rather than one-sidedly establishing what students should learn, it is better to add them to the conversation.

This is how Steve Robinson sees it: “How do you find out which concepts or tools in mathematics are most important and what their priority is? Today, experts do this—usually heavily biased toward academic mathematics coming together to define, or, rather, tweak and develop the same thing that has been going on for the last hundred years.” 

Instead of a bunch of mathematicians deciding in a closed room what their students need based on their own perceptions, Robinson proposes that they consider the actual use those students will make of subjects like mathematics or computer science. 

“Academic mathematicians are only a small fraction of the actual users of mathematics or computer science. In fact, most people who use them in the real world define themselves as engineers, scientists and, increasingly, lawyers, managers or CEOs. So, it is important not to over-represent scholars when deciding on the topics included in an educational track and to include areas of use proportionately.”

Education in a post-COVID world

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up many industries, and education certainly is one of them. This crisis has accelerated the evolution towards hybrid teaching systems, a path where it is essential to integrate the best of face-to-face teaching with the unique aspects of the online modality.

For Soumitra Dutta, it is necessary for both faculty and students to be trained in basic digital skills. He even calls for the establishment of new partnerships with technology leaders and start-ups. “Investments in buildings and other capital projects should be questioned and compared with the benefits to be gained from new technology investments,” he warns.

Beyond connectivity, the pandemic has spurred a volatile and unstable environment, in which processes such as decision-making must be responsive. For this reason, students must learn skills that will enable them to develop professionally in this type of context. This is called case teaching. It promotes debate among students and practical learning, it is an interesting tool.

As Soumitra Dutta believes: “Case teaching effectively helps managers and business students explore the various facets of decision making in a volatile, uncertain and ambiguous environment. In this world, there is often no right answer, and you must be prepared to switch to alternative routes based on a real-time analysis of the situation.”

Lifelong learning

Beyond adapting tracks, institutions and models, the education of the future must prepare students for their own lives. This is a concept that, until now, has been linked almost exclusively to one type of work. The point is that working life will be much longer and more varied because we are living longer and longer. Education must know how to adapt to this reality.

“The current model focuses too much on guiding students along narrow career paths, with no room or ability to turn back when those paths become dead ends, either due to obsolescence or radical restructuring. Change and disruption have made many jobs fragile and transient. This is something we have to accept,” explains Wilfried Vanhonacker.

In this context, lifelong learning is the future that awaits us all. For Vanhonacker, “we must redesign education for the role it will play in that reality. We need to first design a paradigm for lifelong learning and then reinvent education to play a role in that.

This type of lifelong learning finds no support in the current educational model. “It neither nurtures it nor incentivizes it,” Vanhonacker stresses. “We need to reflect deeply upon what the future will look like and what it will require from the education we deliver now. We are beginning to ask ourselves a lot of questions, that’s a great start. What we need is for those questions to be right and also fundamental.”

Technology to democratize education

We would be remiss to ignore the most fascinating conversation topic (educational technology) during the International Day of Education. Integrating it into the profound transformation proposed by the experts should enable personalized teaching to meet student needs. This would spread innovation far and wide to anyone and everyone, whatever their educational needs.

To achieve this milestone, Gordon Freedman is committed to involving large institutions in the development of infrastructures that enable personalization. A goal that can be achieved on the basis of resources such as artificial intelligence or natural language processing (NLP), along with social networks and other advanced technologies. 

“Business solutions and even non-profit tools can innovate thanks to blockchain, NFTs and other remarkably interesting technologies. However, in order to effectively reach those people who need education the most, governments and large corporations must invest in the common good”, ends Freedman.