Farewell to Qatar!

By Kim Jones, Curriki executive director

My trip to Qatar has been amazing and inspiring! As I prepare to depart, here are a few interesting conclusions from WISE 2011:

1.  Education has to change. The skills children need in today’s world are extremely different than before.  It is no longer about memorization, but instead about knowing how to learn all the time.  Yes, there are certain skills that children need to know – how to read, do math, write, etc., but why memorize the presidents of the United States when that can be at your fingertips by simply searching the Internet?  Much more interesting is understanding how the country developed and the chain of events that occurred to get us to where we are – and having an opinion that can be shared in a discussion.

2. Teaching will transition to be more like coaching.  As we utilize technology tools to personalize learning, teachers will take on the role of coaching, not teaching per se.  But it’s critical to give them the tools they need and continued professional development.

3.  Children will become part of the learning process and contribute to the content and process.  This is already standard in Scandinavia where schools operate very differently from here. For example, there are no desks and chairs – one-to-one computing, and project-based learning are already standard.  And guess what?  They have some of the highest PISA scores.

4.  OER will become the norm.  We will no longer utilize a set curriculum as this does not address personalized learning.  Of course, for certain topics like math, lessons will be taught in a certain order as it logically builds, but children will continue to learn at different speeds.

5. Education requires political will from top down, and innovation needs to flourish from the bottom up.

6.  Having a highly educated population is key to the economy. Studies have shown that for every $1 spent, you get $15 back.  In developed countries like the UK and America, we spend about $100K per child, whereas in developing countries like parts of Asia, Latin America, and Africa these countries spend zero to $400 on a child in his or her lifetime.  This must change.

Gordon Brown spoke yesterday and he was fantastic. When I lived in the UK, he was the prime minister and I have never seen him speak with such passion and clarity!  I was so amazed, it was great, and he brought tears to my eyes as he related stories of specific children from countries around the world.

Almost half the world has little access to education.  We should all be proud knowing that the OER resources we are creating are having a huge impact on teachers and children outside the United States and it really is making a difference with the children and teachers who need it most!

Sheika Moza bint Nassar – A Passion for Education

By Kim Jones, Executive Director of Curriki

I’m writing to you from Qatar. Her Highness Sheika Moza bint Nassar, wife of the Emir (King), is the head of the Qatar foundation and the patron of the WISE conference that I’m attending. She has a strong passion for education.  Women here dress very conservatively, and most are completely covered.  The Sheika dresses in the long black abaya, but her face is not covered although her hair is.  She is very beautiful and when she travels to the Western world, she dresses in Western fashions and is now on all the” best dressed” lists.

Sheika Moza bint Nassar

Here at the WISE conference, there are 1,200 people from 120 different countries around the world.  One of things the Sheika is trying to do is to help the world reach the Millennium Development Goals around Education – to ensure that all children are able to complete a full course of primary education, and that gender disparities at all levels of education are eliminated.  This is a powerful driver that will not only help reduce poverty, but will also help with areas of conflict throughout the world.

Delivering high quality, innovative education to prepare students in developing and developed countries is critical.  Although differences can be great between the two, there are also many similarities and needs.  Both share common threads when it comes to making overall reforms:

1. It takes political will.
2. Education must be put on a pedestal – you want your best and brightest to want to teach and be well recognized for their efforts.
3. Support and professional development is needed to help teachers explore innovative ways of helping children learn.
4. Communicate often about the importance of education and its benefits.
5. Establish solid measurements for learning outcomes.

The general consensus is reform must be top-down and bottoms-up.  To achieve bottoms-up, you have to empower teachers and students to try new things and to do things differently.  Personalized learning is key and we must have the right capacity building for teachers to enable this to happen at scale.

Hello from WISE 2011 in Doha, Qatar!

By Kim Jones, Curriki executive director

On behalf of Curriki, I have the great privilege to be part of the third annual WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) 2011 summit held here in Doha, Qatar.  Curriki was chosen as a WISE Laureate recipient in 2009 for its innovation in international K-12 curriculum development. Today, there are more than 1,200 delegates from 120 countries around the world!

Doha is a fascinating city and the weather here is beautiful – clear and in the mid-80s. The conference runs from Nov. 1-3 and you can tune into the live session broadcasts.

This year’s theme is Changing Education, Changing Societies.  WISE is a global platform for discussions and debates around how important education is in shaping the future of societies and the world.  How do we innovate on education to create a better world?

Today there have been some incredible sessions on innovation – so many great ideas and projects from all over the world!  From novel schools with “bring your own device” and one-to-one computing, to project-based learning in schools that do not use desks and chairs but instead use more modular working group space in developed countries like Denmark and Australia.

To work in the poorest parts of India where young children drop out of school for very practical reasons is hard to imagine. In many cases, the parents are domestic workers and they live in a home with no doors or windows so someone has to stay home to watch their belongings or watch the babies.  The goal of this latter program in India is to bring education to these children, who may live in a building with other kids with a teacher there all day.  Or they may take buses to where the children are on the streets.  The goal is to at least get these children literate enough to read a newspaper or write their name or a few sentences.  This, in itself, is a huge accomplishment in a place where more than 30% of kids are not literate.

Two of the most commonly talked about themes here are around the ideas of open and sharing. As you know, these are foundational concepts that Curriki pioneered in education, and which stemmed from its roots at Sun Microsystems. I am thrilled to see these key topics at the core of what this global community is talking about so we can continue to widen access to learning for all students.