Key ideas for the panel 'Education for the Future' at @glob_solutions @T20Solutions in Berlin

Today there is increasing interest in accelerating and expand the access (massification) to education, making more efficient the educational process but also improving its performance. That means to make it cheaper, to make it change faster, being able to deliver education to a larger population and when possible to automate some of the processes.

Although some of these aspects possibly can be implemented it is important to understand that this is the result of a number of interrelated transformations (which takes more time than providing access to technologies). How to diversify the opportunities of learning without affecting the quality? Technology usually is part of the solution. However, as in many other cases, this transformation can affect the most vulnerable communities while and empower those who have more cognitive, technological or economic resources.

Here are presented three factors to take into account when thinking in the current transformations in the field of (digital) education.

1. That changing context. Education as many other sectors in the society is facing a process of disruption. However, this sector has been more resilient to change than others (banking, mass media, health, transport, services). Another factor that is critical is the reality of ‘schooling without learning’ while also we see an increasing number of ‘learning without schooling’ opportunities. The processes of disintermediation, although might be affecting some traditional educational institutions, in many cases tend to allocate more relevance and recognition to big digital content providers (Google, Apple, Facebook y Amazon, GAFA). The diversification of sources for learning can also make more evident Mathew Effects. The truth is regarding technology in education all countries are in their developing stage. The effectiveness of using technology for enhancing and transforming learning is still a matter to be seeing. The acceleration of formal education, only because of the access to technology is not always as effective as predicted. Another transformational process is that is increasingly observed is the interest in unbundling the college degrees and expand the learning. That means to make the learning experience more continuous but also more concrete, where specific skill sets and capacities are needed.

2. The big transformation is not about technical aspects but creating new ways of thinking. Is the Internet of ideas. That means developing new and interrelated literacies. It means to understand that critical and computational thinking is today as important as developing citizenship. Technology cannot be understood only as a technical subject but as a socio-technical platform. That’s why it’s important to develop capacities that better prepare the coming generations to become 'humanics' (people who can work and collaborate in a seamless way with artificial intelligence). You might not be replaced by a robot but by a professional who can work with 'cobots' (collaborative robot). In a world of continuous knowledge, a transformation is critical for developing self-learning and metacognitive capacities that help not only to learn how to learn, but also to transfer one knowledge from one specific domain into another one. Likewise, the capability to translating knowledge from one disciplined into others or being able to speak different discipline languages is critical. Flexibility/adaptability are considered much more relevant than only that the mere expertise in a specific subject. People’s skills are today more valued than ever before.

3. Diversification in the means of accountability. It makes little sense to acknowledge the transformations previously preferred without redefining what needs to be assessed. Today we live in a world of ubiquitous accountability, where all can be measured. However not all that can be measured really "counts". What can be ranked of the educational system is a limited part of the educational experience (ranking although attractive lead to reductionist decisions). Even standardized test today are exploring new domains like measuring citizenship, social-emotional skills, digital competencies, collaborative problem or global competences, stressing the importance of diversifying what is understood as critical learning. Although we know these capabilities are important schools don’t know how to measure them. Today we face a credential inflation where qualifications and degrees are losing or at least diminishing the social and economic value they had in the past. Today the market is increasingly valuing competency base model, which use other sources and evidence of learning (like the digital footprint). Not only assigning importance to what you know but what can you do with what you know. This is relevant for recognizing actionable evidence of learning. When learning "just in time" becomes critical more dynamics forms of recognizing knowledge are important. Learning analytics and similar tools of large-scale data processing is still to be seen as a potential tool for monitoring (predicting, better understanding) different forms of learning on teaching. Similarly, the interest in cryptocurrency is evolving into the development of new forms of issuing diplomas, using similar technology focused on decentralizing standard process (see digital certificates among other forms of 'blockcerts').

* It is important to remember that these new innovations in education tend (closely linked with information technologies) exclude vulnerable communities. The massification of up-skilling opportunities might be helpful to prepare people to 'learn to earn a living' but not necessary to transform their societies. We might have to ask ourselves who can be affected by the new trends in education. There is a great risk of asymmetry between those who produce and those who consume goods such as information, knowledge, technology, etc.

*Although it’s hard to say in which direction will education evolve, it is significantly important to say that teachers should not be removed out of the equation. They are critical professionals and we need to find ways form bringing them into the solution. That means adding social value to their profession. That means also to give them tools for upskilling, improving and update their profession (as is happening to many others professional activities). Teachers will not be replaced by technology. They have one of the most important professionals and we need to find ways of bringing them into the solution. That means adding social value to their profession. Teachers will not be replaced by technology, maybe books will, but teachers are much more than books.

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