Innovation in Education, the future is already here

In the digital age, the great innovation lies in building campuses open to the community where various stakeholders come together and interact, from organisations in the education system at various levels, foundations and companies to civil society organisations.

How can education be reinvented to respond to the megatrends that are shaping the future of our society? How can we educate and train individuals who are aligned and prepared for what their future will be? These are key questions that allow us to reflect on innovation in education and that we can find in the recent OECD report "Measuring Innovation in Education in 2019".

This reinvention began a few years ago with the implementation of innovative teaching and learning processes leveraging digital transformation, of which MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are the paradigmatic example.

These courses, produced by organisations, often in partnership with prestigious universities around the world, have revolutionised the way educational content is produced and distributed, allowing universal and personalised access to knowledge. The concepts and practices of e-learning, blended and micro learning and gamification are now widely applicable in many educational contexts.

While these innovations stem directly from the digital transformation, others that require changes to traditional models and practices of transmitting knowledge are more timidly present in primary and secondary education environments, but there are a growing number of these approaches in more innovative and disruptive contexts, with a more interesting expression in higher education.

We would highlight the approaches and methodologies of project-based learning, flipped classroom, role-playing and design thinking, which allow students to apply their knowledge and skills in the development of projects that require the integration of knowledge from various areas. These practices also allow them to develop organisational, collaborative and management skills, which are fundamental to their careers, placing the student as the main agent of learning, with the teacher playing a role as mediator and facilitator of the educational process.

The ease with which we access information and educational content in this digital age may, on a more superficial analysis, make us wonder what the role of educational institutions will be in this new reality. They will always be the physical space where people meet, interact and exchange experiences. They will always be a fundamental centre of education, regardless of the existence of online ways of conveying knowledge.

The great innovation lies in building campuses open to the community where various stakeholders come together and interact, such as organisations from the education system at the various levels, foundations, companies, organisations from the entrepreneurial ecosystem, public sector bodies and civil society organisations, which must play an active role in the design and operation of the campus in its various aspects, especially in aligning the curricula taught with the reality of today's world, implementing innovative practices and promoting lifelong learning.

Portugal presents good examples of these innovative communities, and the challenges are still great, but so are the opportunities, as it is positioning itself as a key player in the global education sector.

Read article in portuguese here.