Imagine being able to provide technology education with the help of small videos made with your smartphone.
This was our idea of the school of the future: a project inspired by the concept of the flipped classroom.
We were coming from the project Once upon a time in Anderlecht, presented to the European Parliament by Austrian MEP Angelika Mlinar in June 2017. Our goal was to nurture our commitment to social inclusion and media literacy. We enjoyed the support of another MEP, Belgian Hilde Vautmans.
We were creating a powerful network of school and education professionals. It could have been a really good opportunity to reaffirm our mission and draw new boundaries in the relationship between education and technology.
Unfortunately, we have not been able to identify a revenue model that would convince large private companies to invest in the school of the future. At least, not yet 🙂
The idea was first to provide a few pilot schools with tech-education.
Then, to teach those same kids how to produce small videos with their smartphones on the topic.
And finally help them share those educational videos and scale up the school of the future.
We had prepared a series of modules: the first one was cyber security. Following an initial one-year test, we would expand the range of topics and ambitions of the school of the future.
Which for us is not just computers and programming courses. It is about curiosity, creativity and the desire to share.
In a flipped classroom, school time is devoted to development and practice. Not to research and memorisation.
After all, the new web technologies have been largely created by individuals without formal education.
Technological development does not follow the deductive method of school development.
It is rather inductive, often intuitive.
In conclusion, these different models of reasoning must complement, not replace each other.
The question is burning: who has an interest in financing the school of the future?
Big business has indeed invested in schools in recent years. But the school of the future is worth much more than the return on image, data mining or the commodification of public services.
Video-making can have educational purposes. However, any effective pedagogy needs structure and strategy.
This is what we call a video solution.
