13th CJ Koh Professorial Public Lecture

Had the chance to hear from Prof Pam Grossman on 27 Sep, Thursday.

Are we (teachers, students, classrooms) future-ready?

Joi Ito's 9 principles is a helpful compass.

Problem-based collaboration where people around the world coming together to solve real problems is expected.

Education is system-centered. Learning is student-centered, with focus on,

1. Deeper learning
   Not all the science of it is in yet.
2. Project-based learning
   The challenges of it being resource intensive remains.
   A new form of assessment should work towards assessing for collaboration, creativity, problem solving skills, resilience, your usual cocktail for SEL related.
3. Personalised learning
   Students having their own iPads with personalised instructions. Technology shall be a platform for learning.

One area that has eluded the initial education would be entrepreneurship related. Glad to hear something on it. Some schools are getting students to identify a real problem out there, then develop a solution and to formulate a biz plan as part of their curriculum. Sounds interesting. Then what about the art aspect of it? Trump and Kim's recent summit made me think about art, business, science and its dialogue.

One key component remains which is students must be engaged.

And so I wonder, where's the AI in all this? AI is supposed to help us with matters that are repetitive and respond quickly to a "match" to result in high level of personalisation.

I wondered what the society will look like if we had entrepreneurship as the basic underlying skills before adding in other specialisation like art, science or business since end of the day, we will either be employees, self-employed, investors/mentors or business/system owners.

But we're still very stuck to the old approach. If we planned with the end in mind, I suppose earth is successful when,

1. pollution is low,
2. stifles are low,
3. people are empowered enough to take time off their routines to deal with incidents,
4. stress management is accessible to people,
5. systems minimising the impact of diseases and natural disasters are in place,
6. people found their avenues to add value to their community, field, environment, or globally based on their personality, character and training.

Adding value is one thing. Having the skills to create a simple system that generates resources for the person so that he or she can continue to add higher value is another. So I thought basic entrepreneurship skills should be helpful towards that end. Aeons ago, that was probably basic foraging skills, trading skills and a few well-practiced team tactics.