World Innovation Summit in Education - what next?

At the opening of the first World Innovation Summit in Education (WISE) in Dohar, Qatar, developed from an idea of Her Royal Highness Sheikha Mozah two years ago, one thousand invitees drawn from every continent, were told at the opening session, 'The future of education is about to turn a page'. It certainly felt that way over the three days that followed.
The three themes for the conference were pluralism, sustainability and innovation. Experiences, ideas and evidence of what works and what fails to work in learning were exchanged - along with e-mail addresses and links - by entrepreneurs, industrialists, business people, academics, educationalists, NGOs, politicians and community activists from the United States, Africa, Europe, the Gulf States and the UK. They endeavoured, for a short time at least, to put into action President Barak Obama's belief that 'innovation and education will be the currency of the 21st century'.
Remarkably, in spite of the differences in culture, faith, resources, wealth and understanding of what innovation might mean in practice, a common consensus emerged. Namely that incremental change isn't enough to fix the scale of the challenges that are already here - hunger, health epidemics, climate change, an ageing population in the west and a young and largely illiterate population in the Arab world. Plus education systems that even in the wealthier countries too often fail many of their children - and the hurdle that is global illiteracy. Seventy-nine million boys and girls are without education around the world. 800 million adults have no literacy skills - and a number live in the UK. Given the need for urgency, slow reform isn't the answer: much more radical, immediate and disruptive action is required.
In the Arab world, for instance, 40% of the population are under fifteen. One hundred million new jobs need to be created over the next ten years to create buoyant economies. High quality, imaginative and appropriate education is vital to ‘upgrade the human mind’ and deal with what Her Highness called, ‘the scourge of ignorance, isolation and fragility.’
Among the many examples of what a radically different approach can achieve was seen in a presentation given by Dr Sugata Mitra http://www.ted.com/speakers/sugata_mitra.html from Newcastle University. He is the originator of a concept, Hole in the Wall, also known as Self Organising Learning Environments (SOLE) that led to the film, Slumdog Millionaire (a teenager raised on the streets with an encyclopaedic store of knowledge – although Dr Mitra said he would have preferred if the film had more appropriately been called Slumdog Nobel Laureate!). Ten years ago, Dr Mitra began placing computers in holes in the wall in poor urban and rural areas of India to test a methodology called, Minimally Invasive Education.
Over the first three months, illiterate street children – without the intervention of adults - taught themselves how to use the internet, how to speak English, how to read and write, and enjoy a range of subjects including algebra and art. In one case, Hindi children understood advanced concepts like human anatomy (speaking English with a Southern US accent copying the voice on the software). Another Hole in the Wall experiment, in 2007, gave English biotechnology software to Tamil speaking children. Two months later, the children told Dr Mitra they had learned nothing except, as one 12 year old explained, ‘about DNA replication and the fact that you can get diseases when the replication of DNA undergoes a small defect….but other than that we understood nothing.’
Now, hundreds of computers are in holes in the walls in Africa, India, Cambodia and Goa with the help of funding from the World Bank. Dr Mitra also has a scheme in which 200 grandmothers in Newcastle read fairy stories using a webcam to poor children in India, 5000 miles away, enthusing the children to learn more as they do so. Dr Mitra points out that there are insufficient teachers, schools and funds, given the other priorities of global powers, to bring education to the billion children over the next ten years who have a need for an education – and whose economies would benefit as a result.
Between 200-300 children can share a single village computer – at a cost of two cents per child a day; $20 per child over three years. ‘Ten million SOLES over 10 years would cost $180 billion dollars, ‘Dr Mitra says, ‘It can be done. It’s a question of attitude not technology.’
Other presentations included a project run by Ashoka Arab World (http://www.ashoka-arab.org/ashoka/) that supports teams of five young people selected from schools in deprived areas. Ashoka helps the team to develop and implement social enterprises from concept to venture – improving skills, confidence and aspirations as it does so. And, from the UK, came Stephen Heppell (www.Heppell.net) – who is engaged in a range of enterprises, including putting innovative schools in empty shops; Mum TV to give pregnant teenagers more knowledge about the development of babies and crafting education for what he called ‘the post-Google generation’ who technologically have traveled much further than the teaching profession often understands. ‘Email?’ Heppell quoted one teenager. “That’s what my dad does.” Heppell is also developing Portland Academy in the UK - the first academy to provide education from 0–21 years of age. The new mantra for teachers working with pupils, wherever they might be, Heppell argued, should be ‘ask don’t tell’. ‘We are at the death of education and the dawn of learning,’ he said. ‘. It is an extraordinary time.’
Six awards were given for particularly striking projects, many long established. These included Escuela Nueva in Columbia http://www.wise-qatar.org/en/laureats/Escuela+Nueva; the Self Sufficient School in Paraguay encouraging entrepreneurship among the poor http://www.wise-qatar.org/en/laureats/Self-Sufficient-School and distance learning in the Amazon http://www.wise-qatar.org/en/laureats/Distance+Learning+in+the+Amazon+Fo...
WISE, now to be held annually, is part of a modernisation drive in Qatar – a country with a local population of under 400,000. According to the IMF, Qatar has the highest per capita income in the world, based on the assets of gas and oil. But the country, led by Sheikh Amir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, is also determined to develop a knowledge economy. Hence the establishment of Education City http://www.qf.org.qa/output/Page17.asp, the home of branch campuses of six international universities as well as a number of other institutions.
In 2002, the Supreme Education Council (SEC) was established to role out, ‘Education for a New Era’. SEC conducts research, evaluations and promotes innovation in education. The overhaul of Qatar’s education was driven by concerns not unknown in the UK - that the existing system was too centralised, slow to change and was out of synch with the requirements of a 21st century global world. Dr Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, chair of WISE and the Qatar Foundation’s Viice-President of Education, said at the conclusion of the conference, the identification of ten strategic priorities, signalled, ‘a convergence among global educational leaders on the key issues that will affect and shape education in the 21st century’. These priorities include access to quality education; global citizenship, innovating new ways to learn; protecting educators and pursuing sustainable development.
What was also reassuring at WISE is the emphasis on action rather than rhetoric over the next twelve months – an army of innovators and would be innovators across the world, encouraged and supported to push forward the frontiers of learning; encourage the exchange of knowledge; develop methods and metrics. And reinforce each others’ belief that such efforts can and will make a difference on a global stage.