We have discovered that English language dictionaries are like gold in northern Rwanda. People from the NBCS community have kindly donated enough money for us to distribute 95 dictionaries. Interestingly, the school leaders are as desperate for them as school students.
The Greenway Centre - new Design Studio at NBCS opened April 2012
The Island - a classroom furniture make-over for Year 1 & 2 at NBCS.
There is a clear movement occurring in education globally right now – a movement that is seeking to shift the epicentre of educational paradigms from an industrial-era experience to something more relevant to the ever changing and dynamic contexts of the 21st century. In the first decade of this new century, much great work has been done articulating what 21st century skills might be – www.p21.org is a great example of this.
My focus is the key importance of spatial awareness in redesigning spaces for learning. I hope the second decade of this century will be marked by an awareness that redesigning spaces will be as important to change processes, as describing the new skills deemed necessary for learning and career creation in the last decade. I will focus on our journey of change as a case study for education redesign.
Read More“Every society that has prospered has done it through trade and not aid. Africa will be no different. Charity doesn’t incentivize. It stifles innovation. It causes chronic dependency. Africa’s contribution to global trade is 1%. If that were just 2% it would bring far more annual revenue to the continent than all the aid Africa receives in be year.”
Great read about start up from Rwanda: lots of advice and useful commentary:
Can Coffee Kick-Start an Economy? (New York Times, April 6 2012)
I love this because it is a great example of why education needs to change its end point focus in the developing world if we are to really help break poverty/subsistence cycles. Education needs to shift from colonially imposed ‘academic outcomes’ to entrepreneurial job creation skills and that has the potential to empower. If this strikes a chord, we’d love you to join SCIL at our global summit in northern Rwanda late May.
Co-Founder & Chief Learning Officer
Learnlife, Barcelona and Worldwide
Founder & Director
Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning (SCIL)
Principal
Northern Beaches Christian School
