ES
The enlightED Virtual Edition 2020, the third edition of the Espacio Fundación Telefónica’s world conference on education, has presented a selection of the best practices in the school, university and corporate environment, many of which have been implemented during the months of lockdown brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With a new virtual format, enlightED has brought together the most relevant international experts and thinkers in several conferences to share solutions and analyse the challenges that COVID-19 poses to learning, teaching and working.
The panel entitled ‘Yo, alumno’, moderated by Pablo Gonzalo, head of the digital culture area of Fundación Telefónica, featured the participation of Joaquín Rodríguez, Director of Design, Innovation and Technology at SEK Education Group, who rejected the idea that was established more than a century ago that students could be a mere warehouses of knowledge that someone uncritically transferred to them.
“Students need motivation and learning based on their interests”, affirmed Rodríguez, who encouraged students to learn by looking for first-hand knowledge, to be actively involved in discovery and action, learning from their mistakes and obtaining mentoring or feedback from teachers, something he believes is fundamental.
The director of Design, Innovation and Technology at SEK also spoke of the capacity for innovation that the intellectuals of the independent teaching institution had a century ago, who laid the foundations of the education that exists today: “They advocated opening the school of two realities, the natural environment and society.”
As Rodríguez pointed out, currently the role of the internet is fundamental in the development and evolution of education, even for young students who have not done well academically in their schools. “All these students that are dissatisfied, who fail at school and drop out… they are all in informal learning communities on the internet, where they sharing specific objectives, whatever they may be [ …] and in the community they support each other, there is a lot of feedback, exchange, a lot of correction, but always in the best possible way with the view that each one personally develops their abilities”, he recounted.
“I think we are on the verge of a gigantic change, there is sufficient evidence that the Internet, well used, can help us to ensure students are connected, actively engaged, work cooperatively, and who do not need standardised tests or continuous exams, but rather a continuous formative assessment where the evidence of learning is collected progressively, and all this is ultimately based on an equitable system that ensures that each and every student reaches their maximum potential”, summarised Joaquín Rodríguez.
Also taking part in this panel discussion were Inés Huertas, Big Data expert and coordinator of Rlady Madrid; Bernardo Crespo, academic director of the digital transformation programme at IE “Executive Education”; and Juan Zafra, director of the magazine Telos and professor of Communications at the Carlos III University.
