Category Archives: Uncategorized

Altschool is a room. A magic one…

A team of talented engineers who previously worked at google, helped by great designers and amazing educators had the idea to create their dream school and just launched it last year in San Francisco.

What is a dream school in the 21st century?

A school with micro-classrooms where children can feel empowered through learning from their classmates as well as from their teachers. A school where every students received a personalized education and which adapts the curriculum not only to core national standards but to the community and children’s needs. A school where playing and traveling are synonyms of teaching. A schools where parents are certain that their children will learn the skills they need to happily make their way through the world. A school where technology is present but doesn’t cloud the space. A school were the arts and the real-world are considered central. A school where there is continuous research and a good use of the data collected in the classroom to always improve teaching tools and methodologies.

A school where you are not only allowed but encouraged to be and become yourself.

A school we all wish we went to…

https://www.altschool.com/

Welcome to Mountain View in the Silicon Valley, well not exactly…

Welcome to the Nasa Campus. Here, every summer for a few years now takes place one of the most advanced leadership programs worldwide and truly a one of its kind experience. Google and the Nasa join forces to assemble a class of very high profile individuals from all over the world, experts in energy, sciences, technology, business, education, healthcare, environment, philanthropy, etc. The best minds get selected and even get to pay to attend this 3 months exceptional course in the Bay Area.

The Singularity University has a mysterious aura but yet is a very open minded organization, I guess it just goes to fast, to far which makes it blurred to most people. Some would even prefer it to be transparent. Yes, SU addresses very important matters our world is facing or will soon be confronted with. SU is all about new frontiers. Humans being immortals, Viruses spreading under control, Space conquest, etc. Standards are high here because the topics are key. SU aims at impacting 10(exp 9) people. The rule stating that 20% create the 80% is applied here: SU wants to empower the 20% of most capable leaders to create and thrive for humanity to have a chance at a better future. Participants get to learn about the most advanced technologies and ideas orienting the way we live. They form teams and soon have to become active doers and propose a project based on everything they learned. They combine their skills and strengths, some tech, some design, some business, some field expertise and there they go to change the world.

Knowledge is an aim to become a mean. SU is about the future to impact the present. SU deals with tech to better serve humans. Ideologies are of course present and taken very seriously, but to know what to do you need to be in the know.

Limits will be interesting to analyze… as SU doesn’t seem to comprehend that concept, for the better?!

http://singularityu.org/

Would you give up 18% of what you will earn on your first year?

Seems like a lot right? Well, not if you went to the App Academy in San Francisco and became a highly qualified full-stack developer in 12 weeks and now just got hired by a leading tech company with a 6 digit salary. Luck can be provoked but you have to work hard at it and that is exactly what they offer you at this innovative school.

If you are passionate by tech, if you have an interest in code, but you have no clue of how to enter the sector this is a program for you. The return on investment is impressive. You will prep, you will prove that you have potential and then you’ll be trained, accompanied and trained until you are ready. How could will it be when you will know how to build Facebook or Twitter?!

Everyday you will have a one hour class and then you will work with your team-mate until comes the dark. You will face many problems, you will not know, you will despair but everything will always be solved. If you are a quick learner and have a maker profile, this might be your next best investment and passport to the bright new tech world.

Enjoy?!

http://www.appacademy.io

And yet, Declara seems to be « only » another elearning platform… nothing new in the EdTech industry when you are familiar with it right?! Well the company just raised about 30 million dollars and I can now assure you that its investors made a very wise choice.

Bold ideas aren’t necessarily shiny but there are the ones really able to change habits and lives. And that’s what Declara is about.

It started with one life that dramatically changed one day when a drunk driver hit Ramona Pierson, Declara’s co-founder. She spent 18 months in a coma, wake up eventually but had to learn how to see/speak/walk again. How do you learn to be human? She found out that in fact learning is one of the most fundamental human characteristics. She went on to study neurosciences and now founded Declara with a fantastic and very high caliber team to share all these state of the art findings with people, organizations, and the world.

Declara is far from being a usual elearning platform. The company aims at changing the way the world learns, not because we don’t know how to but because we forgot why and what for. Its approach blends neurosciences, hightech, design and advanced pedagogy. It speaks to politicians addressing human capital issues, to business professionals needing to improve their organizations’ learning systems to better manage talent, to educators wishing to better use new learning tools and methodologies available to them in the 21st century, and it speaks to you, looking for answers about who you are, what you want from life, and how to achieve your objectives and reach out to your dreams.

Declara adapts to its users and helps them to adapt. That’s the key. In a globalized world, we need to navigate through challenges and to identify lucks. We are now forced to learn skills fast and build on our experiences and previous knowledge. Declara’s unique technology is discrete enough to really empower you and yet strong enough to enable you. Declara provides you with a personalized, trans-media, learning path. It tracks all your educational data to make sure the next experiences will really add up and match your profile. It helps you think ahead while wisely reflecting on your previous achievements. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what you do and where you are from. It addresses your human core and helps you deploy it for your own benefit and the ones of your organization and community.

Finding out how good you are has no prize.

Finding out how you can improve, not only resumes but lives, is now possible. And that’s priceless too!

Love it

https://www.declara.com

Meet Alec, a very talented edtech professional working at a big tech company in San Francisco

Alec thinks ahead. Alec also thinks about people. And that’s why he urged his company to use game to facilitate users experience of the creative programs the company is producing and selling.

Indeed, technology doesn’t always make your life easier. Specially when you don’t understand the tools you are supposed to use and which where created to make your life easier. You open the program and you soon end up staring at your computer not knowing where to start or how to deal with the app.

Well, that’s when games come into play. Alec and his team are designing short, fun and easy games to help users learn how to make the most of these creative programs. Let the little monster or the coffee place help you understand how to use buttons and functions. Soon, you feel much more at ease and the games are quite addictive too!

Combining design, online gaming and business acumen results in successful tools for customers. I’m sure we will see many more companies moving towards fun instructions for use, I most certainly hope so!

Elearning platforms are the new trendy marketplaces where you let your brain do the shopping.

Yet, it is difficult to find the one matching your exact needs at the exact moment you need an accurate piece of information. It is also difficult to find a platform that will accept you to share your expertise, while being certain that the other contributors are indeed talented and knowledgeable about what they are posting. And finally it is disappointing to only find platforms with either only written or only video learning material.

Well, Learnist has a solution for each of these difficulties. And more!

I was looking for a trans-media, peer to peer, very qualitative elearning platform and I am so glad I found it.

On Learnist you are certain to find the most relevant information from across the internet on the specific topic you are interested in. Say you want to learn about design, you will get access to blogs, articles, videos, books, conferences, events AND real people who can answer your questions and give you real insight on the matter. Accessing content is not a problem any more, finding the right answers and structuring them is the real issue that Learnist has been tackling.

Learnist created the learning board and asked talented professionals to curate these boards to make sure that the content you will be provided with will be of the highest quality. The platform is simple to use, efficient and beautiful. You only wish there was more to fit your exact learning profile and a tool to help you build a coherent path through the material…

https://learni.st

Dear Mirror Networkers,

Asia has been a wake up call.

Singapore showed me how education can be promoted, groomed, tailored, managed, and placed at the center of a nation’s development strategy in every possible way.

Cambodia showed me how education remains the most basic condition for individuals to be free, to have a chance at leading their lives independently and for a group to become a community and eventually a country.

Technology and soft skills are key both in the developing world and in advanced places. They are key to unlock people’s potential to design the future and adapt to a very fast-paced world. Asia is buzzing, Asia is doing, Asia is planning ahead. But Asia questions, Asia doubts, Asia has trouble finding its balance.

In no longer then two weeks, I touched the sky and I experienced the ground. Over this first Asian step of the Mirror Network summer world tour, I was lucky enough to meet with teachers, consultants, entrepreneurs, counselors, musicians, students, voluntary workers, business people, people working in administration, in the public and private sectors, in schools, companies and ngos, people of all ages and from very diverse backgrounds and nationalities. A huge thanks to all of them for welcoming me, sharing their stories and passion and teaching me that education is indeed the corner stone of our societies, especially now when we are all enquiring why.

Why learn? Why teach? Why accelerate people and projects?

We are used to providing answers, through science, through religion, through dreams and actions. Thinking about the answers makes us feel more safe and in control of our destiny. The Y-generation started disrupting this well establish model. Now whys are everywhere and there are the reason for more and more people to push new frontiers trying to find new answers. It all results in an abundance of answers that we find difficult to prioritize, link, organize.

Maybe the 21^st century should be about asking questions? Maybe we should be less afraid to ask even if we are not getting an immediate answer? Maybe the path towards a world more balanced and at peace lies in our ability to ask the right questions?

What would be your first question?

Mine is: what is happening in the US that is radically changing the way education is conceived, delivered and improved?

And I am about to find out, starting with San Francisco!

Please go to the Mirror Network Facebook group to read about all Asian discoveries and see the pictures.

With joy to start off your week,

Léa

If only I had access to such a great service when I was a student…

Chegg is THE student hub in the US and helps them with all the things they could struggle with. They enable students to buy and sell their text books so there is no waste in time, material and money. Chegg also enables them to find the help they need with their homework. And Chegg helps them make the biggest leap of all, the jump towards employment, by providing them internship and career opportunities.

Finding your right path is hard, specially if you are not particularly well connected or making your way through your studies on your own. Well, you won’t feel alone anymore. From the pragmatic details to finding your dream job, Chegg will help you sort it out.

http://www.chegg.com/

What if learning had an obvious and direct meaning?

What if from everywhere in the world you could have access to the world’s best courses?

What if the most prestigious academic institutions opened their doors for you to learn to your full potential?

What if interdisciplinarity became reality and you ability to navigate through knowledge and life was recognized?

What if you could take part in a new kind of learning community, get useful feedback from your peers and professors?

Well, let the « if » disappear and start thinking only about the « what » you are going to achieve thanks to Coursera!

Welcome to the 21st century where learning is a right and will become your must because you can and because you enjoy it. Any job now demands that you keep up with the new skills and tools that will make you and your organization more competitive and active in the global markets. Learning is no longer limited in time or space and Coursera’s founders and investors created this online elearning platform to make sure you do not miss any opportunity. More than 60 million dollars have been invested and Coursera now partners with more than 700 institutions around the world. Coursera works hand in hand with researchers and professors to provide learners with a high quality experience online. They help their partners produce amazing video content, they also build discussion forums around the courses to enable you to connect with other participants, and they even make sure the activities linked to the courses will be useful to you and that you will be able to easily apply what you leaned.

Everybody now talks about MOOC and Coursera was the first to launch the movement with the world at heart. Its links with Stanford and the vibrant Silicon Valley EdTech scene only reinforce its potential to shape the future of pedagogy. You can learn in your language, on any kind of topic, you might want to get a certificate for the course you chose – on not, you register and wait for the course to start. Step by step you can build your own very personal curriculum online and mix interests, teaching styles and content coming from the whole world. One guarantee, you will only get the best.

You are one easy click away to scaling up your profile and expectations – hit it!

https://www.coursera.org

The future is a concern for all of us. It can be fascinating as well as scary but thinking about the future always leads you to think about your present and where you want to take it.

The Institute for the Future is an independent, non-profit research organization with a 45-years track-record of helping individuals as well as organizations shape their future. Based in the Silicon Valley, the team brings together cross-disciplinary skills from the social sciences, public policy, technology, and the creative arts. Together they create and share innovative insights to solve complex challenges. 

They have been working on the future of education and produced: a map called « From Educational Institutions to Learning Flows », specific studies on the future of work, data on tech for kids and developed the amazing concept of « Extreme Learners ». 

Our society is changing because the way we relate to knowledge, to others and to the world is changing. IFTF gives us excellent tools to understand where all this is going and will most certainly help you think, if not find your way forward!

http://www.iftf.org/

http://extremelearners.iftf.org/