EduTrends: A collaboratED future

Become more comfortable at being uncomfrotable

With the beginning of 2023 I decided to choose MERAKI as the word that will guide my work this year:

Meraki is used by the Greeks to describe scenarios where a person actually put a part of themselves into something. It could be cooking from the heart, composing music that comes straight from the soul, or writing an article that expresses thoughts openly, honestly, and vulnerablely.

I am fortunate to be at the forefront of global trends in education. In this article, I want to share some of the most attractive ones I see based on a compilation of hundreds of signals.

1. Integrate brain knowledge into learning

I was intrigued to learn the latest developments in “Neuroplasticity”: the brain’s ability to adapt in response to new experiences, situations, or changes in the environment. This means you can improve a skill or learn a new one by tapping into the power of neuroplasticity.

By understanding the brain’s ability to adapt and reorganize itself, you can harness neuroplasticity to improve your thinking and change old assumptions and beliefs.

Science has come so far in understanding how our brains work that most of how and what we learned in the past no longer makes sense!

For example: During the agricultural era learning was centered on HOW TO DO IT; how to take care of the seeds, how to harvest, etc. Then came the Industrial age, and learning shifted to help us with KNOW WHAT; what process, what formula, what event, etc. For the era we live in, it is more important to KNOW WHO and KNOW WHY.

When you repeat a skill many times, you improve the efficiency of already established neural pathways to the point where you become expert at executing the skills associated with them.

Preparing the next generation of students to be creative innovators who can think deeply about challenging problems and make important decisions.

Educational institutions will have to keep pace with advances in our knowledge of how people learn.

2. Focus on Collaboration

I am convinced that the main skill we must develop if we are to meet the challenges humanity still faces is collaboration, this is particularly a strength for us as relationships distinguish most of our culture.

Human beings have a need to establish connections with others, whether on a personal or professional level. Your brain thrives on these connections, and the quality of them plays an important role in your thinking, mood, and behavior.

Collaboration is a crucial aspect of success in today’s complex and interconnected world. It requires the ability to work effectively with others, regardless of differences in background, perspective or interests.

In “Collaborating with the Enemy,” Adam Kahane draws on his extensive experience as a facilitator and consultant to explore the challenges and opportunities of collaboration in a variety of contexts, including business, politics, and social activism. He argues that collaboration is essential in today’s complex and rapidly changing world, as it allows us to tackle complex problems that require diverse perspectives and expertise. However, he also recognizes that collaboration can be difficult, particularly when working with people who have different goals, values, or beliefs.

A key strategy is to focus on the “in-between space” between conflicting parties, where common ground can be found and work toward mutually beneficial solutions. He also emphasizes the importance of establishing trust and building relationships, which requires active listening, showing respect, and being open to feedback and learning.

Robert Axelrod’s book “The Evolution of Cooperation” also offers valuable insight into the dynamics of collaboration. Axelrod explores the ways in which cooperation can emerge and thrive in situations where self-interest seems to dictate otherwise.

3. Content decentralization protocols

The protocol is a game theory system designed to provide incentives for agents (individual humans, AI, or people using AI) to converge on the truth.

Provide rewards for correct data and disincentives for being wrong. Organizations using and paying for the data provide a direct feedback loop to converge on correctness as well as dynamic market pricing.

It uses the blockchain to build a ledger of transactions and eventually the data itself. Tokenization allows incentives to be given to good actors who add correct data to the system and to verifiers who verify the accuracy of the data.

Knowledge is fragmented; To find reliable information, you need to search centralized repositories, personal web pages, news sites, blogs, and private databases.

The world lacks a standardized interface for discovering, contributing, and verifying knowledge.

The technologies and mechanics of Web3 are well suited to solving the main problems of encouraging efficient task execution and organizing resources for protocol operations.

Construct NFTs from canonical public data for each “real world” entity in the protocol. This allows public canonical data collections to be built and provides a disincentive to produce duplicates (a common problem in building knowledge graphs).

These canonical data NFTs have revenue sharing rights for the use of data that has been compiled and verified. Data creators earn most of their revenue when business users use the data.

4. Satellite connectivity speeds up for everyone

Satellite systems have great advantages over other communication systems, such as the possibility of covering large portions of the Earth with a single satellite.

This facilitates the provision of communication services in areas of difficult access that do not have infrastructure or where the implementation of terrestrial communication systems would be impracticable.

Thanks to this feature, it is possible to have very long distance communication links at low cost, requiring less infrastructure than a terrestrial communication system, in addition, they have the versatility of being able to be used for different purposes, so that the use of this type of systems is of great importance in Communications.

5. Artificial intelligence in your pocket

Universities and large digital companies are responsible for the vast majority of developments in artificial intelligence, emerging under the laboratory “spin off” model.

The biggest trends are in the treatment of images, videos and audios, emerging as the most relevant areas in the training sector.

GPT3 is a platform that advances in the use of language models capable of connecting with search applications, APIs that allow interaction with existing technologies, mapping human behavior and replicating it at scale.

Text-to-image, text-to-speech, and text-to-video templates receive investment and start-ups emerge that prove their worth.

6. Immersive technologies (XR)

The term XR is often used to express the vivid simulation of being inside a virtual world, be it a video game or social interaction in a digital world.

As its name suggests, virtual reality is the “reality” experienced in a virtual world, also called a computer-generated environment. The term VR is often used to express the vivid simulation of being inside a virtual world, be it a video game or social interaction in an imaginary world. This experience is enabled by special VR glasses and is provided by special handheld devices for interacting with objects.

This immersive experience is based on two main aspects; The first is quite fundamental, the 3D perception of objects and how they look from a first person perspective in the digital world.

The other element of the VR experience is the seamless fit of objects as you move and look around in the simulation. This allows other props in the metaverse, such as buildings, cars, and any moving objects, to change based on which way you turn your head. Even when looking at your hands in the virtual world, you will see them move simultaneously with how you move your hands in reality.

Together with the headset placed on the virtual reality glasses, your brain will perceive the virtual interaction as a complete experience, as if you were interacting in the real world.

7. E-sports

This is the sector with the greatest projection and relevance. Although it is an industry that has been around for decades, there is a new generation of applications based on games/sports/simulation and social interaction.

The skills developed from these technologies — and related pedagogies — become more relevant to the future of work.

An integration with the real world is observed from the creation of communities, spaces, merchandising and support groups.

The structure allows the ability to develop individual and collaborative skills, the design of inclusive environments (gender, disability, multigenerational), the identification of capabilities and limitations (own and others), the search for new capabilities and complements, in an environment of motivation and action, recovery from failure, and the aspiration to level up.

The educational institutions will have teams and centers for the practice of esports, developing links of identity and global competition as elements of attraction and retention of students.

8. Active multidisciplinary learning

Provide instruction in a learning environment and measure the results of educational programs that are designed to systematically reinforce transferable skills.

Through this process, students gain practical knowledge that prepares them to succeed in any career and adapt flexibly in an ever-changing world.

Systematically incorporate evidence-based techniques that produce better student outcomes, such as active learning, deliberately spaced practice, and formative feedback.

Teaching approach is focused on applied practice rather than knowledge transmission, students have repeated opportunities to use the skills and concepts they are learning to solve concrete problems.

Through this approach, learning outcomes are reinforced and reused in different contexts so that learners can transfer their knowledge into new domains.

Highly Interactive Lessons — Students actually learn the material because they are paying attention and engaging with others most of the time in class.

Class activities are constructed using engagement techniques

Active Learning offers the opportunity to put knowledge to work by solving problems in a collaborative environment.

9. We learn in PHYSICAL, PHYGITAL AND DIGITAL scenarios

How does a college student learn best?

- When you are placed at the center of the learning process.

The physical space will help students recognize and develop their cognitive and emotional skills through the creative learning cycle.

The creative learning cycle happens in 3 dimensions: physical, digital and in the combination of both: phygital.

DIFFERENTIATED LEARNING 3 TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTS: FLEXIBLE FIXED FLOW

From the creative learning cycle and its processes, we extract the types of spaces and facilities needed to conduct the learning process.

Thus arise the spatial categories that organize the University:

Specialized areas that provide students with different types of spaces; everything needed in your learning process.

In this differentiated environment, students freely combine spaces according to the needs of their path.

Furthermore, the (digital) platform supports the extended community, connects them with headquarters and acts as support in the way.

In this way we can design different areas that facilitate learning from different perspectives.

Creating a form of educational institution and allows for future development.

Thanks to the great spatial flexibility, the academic offer the number of enrolled students can be adapted according to demand.

For example, more courses, more seminars, attending more students and organizing more large events with many participants. Any evolution is possible.

10. More-versity as opposed to UNI-versity: more relevant, for more people, for more time, with more options and possibilities

Digitization will enable the democratization of access to learning. This will give rise to

a greater diversity of students and users.

Shared microcredentials, in the style of shared records, will facilitate lifelong learning and encourage access to university education for people of all ages.

The input ports (the current grades) are reduced and simplified while the output options are endless. Learning becomes a personalized itinerary that combines content and skills from different disciplines and where digital skills will be increasingly essential.

Certified and non-regulated training certification is collected into a blockchain-enabled skills passport, which unlocks access to the next stop on the training itinerary.

The representation we propose is inspired by the London subway system: one can

access at any station and follow a predefined path that interconnects with other directions and lines and exit when the destination is reached.

In education, each station can represent an entry point, a validation of previous experiences or skills. Each stop can give students a badge, certificate or validation that they took a trip. Students can reach a point where the line offers alternative directions, other disciplines, other skills, the company of different travelers. However, students remain motivated until they reach their destination, and their ticket is valid for life. Until your next trip.

11 Leadership for the age of collaboration

Tomorrow’s leadership is less about the omniscient dictatorial commander and more

about the enabling servant leader, making collaborative teams work more agile for more innovative results.

Instead of apps and org charts, we’ll need authentic human connection and true curiosity to find and empower our next leaders. Today’s leaders must see and recognize where those who possess the uniquely human traits of initiative, imagination, resourcefulness, and collaboration actually are in their organization.

Higher education institutions would need to enable leaders to learn and grow by connecting and learning from others. Taking risks means employees regularly share discussions to explore new concepts and ideas. Taking risks and learning from failure are valued concepts and employees practice them in their daily work processes.

The institution has had several generations and a balanced diversity of leaders at all levels.

Reverse mentoring programs are common to build empathy among diverse leaders about

its various perspectives. Targeted opportunities for networking and social exchange for

leaders inside and outside the organization are evident.

A new generation of leaders, firm in their values, driven by purpose and aware that they are not the ultimate authority, but a channel for the will and well-being of their team. these

they are leaders with a conscious commitment to the well-being of all people and the courage to stand by their beliefs.