Sharing Good Practice
WHEN INNOVATION MEETS EDUCATION:
QUALITY EDUCATION TO 1 MILLION CHILDREN
T
echnology and innovation
comes with benefits and
drawbacks. It can transform our
students’ learning process, but
fake news and a lack of privacy can be
a threat to our rights and democracy.
Augmented reality, 3D printers,
block chain, Virtual Reality, Artificial
Intelligence, and a plethora of other
unforeseen technological advances,
are a reality in our students’ lives. By
2020, 2.5% of all jobs will be lost due
to AI. However, we will also see a 5%
increase in newly created jobs. Those
new jobs will require skills like complex
problem solving, creativity, empathy
and collaboration.
Many classrooms are still not focusing
explicitly on those important skills.
One problem is that teaching for
different outcomes, requires different
ways of teaching. Teachers should step
outside their comfort zone and not
only instruct, but also need to allow
their students to step in the middle of
their learning process. Students can
learn from; each other, experts, videos
and by doing.
and gender equality.
In the Kakuma project, 350 teachers
across every continent, are currently
offering free education to African
refugees via Skype. The Kakuma
refugee camp houses 200,000
refugees in Kenya, who fled from war
and hunger in Sudan, Burundi, Somalia
and DR Congo. Timmers sent his own
laptop and raised funds via crowd
funding so that he could help provide
the right infrastructure to 3 schools and
enable them to connect to students
from 75 countries, via Skype.
In the Climate Action project 500
schools across 90 countries focused
on Climate Change. As part of the
Using the UN Sustainable Development
Goals as a framework, Koen Timmers
launched several educational projects
focusing on several issues like;
refugees, climate action, sustainability
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May - Jun 2019
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Class Time
project, students across the world
shared findings via videos and so
they learned about important issues
from their global peers rather than
textbooks. During four weeks, students
explored, brainstormed, discussed,
created, connected and shared their
findings via videos. The project was
endorsed by Dalai Lama, Charlize
Theron, UNESCO, the Irish president,
Greenpeace, scientists and public
figures. During the project, students
from across the world amazed us with
their overwhelming solutions and
actions. Canadian students 3D printed
coral reefs, students in Malawi started
to plant 60 million trees, American
students found out that aquaponics
help to grow plants with 90 percent