Learning the Value of Democracy

No matter what you do you are actually in education!

Editor’s note: This is part one of a two part article.

I have been privileged over the past 7 years to seat at the front row of the education transformation global agenda.

Combine that with 18 years of teaching in 4 countries and 30 years of digital transformation, where it really happened, and you get an overwhelming confusing perspective where the linear progress meets the exponential possibility.

I now know that we can shape the future by transforming the way we teach and learn today at scale.

I am fully aware that new technologies not only replace what we did in the past, they extend and expand the life long learning experience that happens anywhere, anytime.

There are still so many things to learn from learning. I would like to focus this reflection at a critical learning dimension:

Learning the value of democracy.

I have recently been involved in researching educational methods and technologies from the Scandinavian countries.

After an interesting meeting with Bjarte Rørmark from Oslo Kommune where he reviewed the principles of their education transformation journey after a significant impulse in 2006. He outlined the increased focus on developing basic skills and knowledge promotion through outcome based learning:

In the Subject Curricula they focused at developing five basic skills which were  integrated and adapted to each subject.

These five skills are:

1. The ability to express oneself orally
2. The ability to read
3. Numeracy
4. The ability to express oneself in writing
5. The ability to use digital tools

Norway’s education strategy

Achieving equal quality through facilitating the technology and presuppose equal use

How does a new model of education impact democracy?

Popular engagement and participation need to be sustained to make a substantive difference to the quality of democracy.

But, can that be accomplished if the educational system has different objectives than the achievement of equal quality or the development of skills only for a few?

The Nordics have used edtech platforms for a while (platforms like  www.itslearning.com ) which are not well known outside of Europe, they bring not only a fresh perspective into the use of technology in the classroom, but a design and functionalities that prioritize the right elements for and education that is truly transformative:

Next page- The seven transformative elements and Education needs to learn its lesson