Celebrating the Second TEDxEdUHK
By Dilan Dalkiran and Sasha Sikorska
Our TEDxEdUHK speakers( left to right) Sonia Samtani, Dr. Timothy Taylor, Dr. Ravindra S. Goonetilleke, Yiannis Bien Pimentel, Dr. Manisha Lakhekar, Solomon Au Yeung, and Dr. Li Man Wai, joined by Dr. Pamela Leung, Head of the Centre for Language in Education.
The second annual TEDxEdUHK event was held on April 21, 2018. This year’ s theme was“ Life-Long Learning”. When choosing the theme for this year’ s TEDx event, the International Tutor team thought that future educators should not only learn during their studies in university, but also continue to crave new knowledge throughout their lives. We focused on the importance of thinking and acting beyond classroom learning, because learning is an endless journey that can take place anywhere.
We invited speakers from all walks of life who provided us with a diverse range of perspectives that enhanced our understanding of life-long learning. Every talk was unique and represented perspectives, expertise and wisdom from multiple sectors that allowed us to expand our understanding about learning and potentially the future of education. We received insight from a 21-year old EdUHK student, Yiannis Bien Pimentel, by listening to his personal story of grappling with depression and turning tremendous challenges into growth. An English teacher at EdUHK, Dr. Timothy Taylor, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education student, Solomon Au Yeung, shared why everyday reflection is a very important tool to not only become a better educator but also a better person. We were inspired by a professor from HKUST, Dr. Ravindra S. Goonetilleke, with his talk on the importance of experiential learning in the digital age. Besides the aforementioned speakers we also had Sonia Samtani, who is a licensed clinical hypnotherapist and public speaking coach that runs her own wellness centre in Hong Kong; Dr. Manisha Lakhekar, a homeopathic doctor who taught us how re-learning is essential in order to improve ourselves and our work; and Dr. Li Man Wai, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology who invited us all to think about developing more open-minded attitudes to facilitate life-long learning through self-expansion.
During the talks, Annie Yung and Karic Lau, two EdUHK bachelor’ s students, drew sketches that summarized the key points of each talk. Life-long learning is a constant act that requires self-reflection, strength to transform challenges into growth, conscious decision-making and ensuring one’ s own wellbeing. We hope that the audience already considers themselves lifelong learners and will implement the lessons they learnt from the talks in their everyday lives.
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