23.01.2018

Digital Technology will revolutionize education! Or not?

"Finis origine pendet", defines the educational strategy of the first incorporated high school in America, Phillips Academy, which is now the leading Preparatory College. Latin, it stands for the 'end depends upon the beginning' and was crafted by its founder, a strict Calvinist Samuel Phillips Jr. stating "Youth is the important period, on the improvement or neglect of which depend the most important consequences to individuals and the community."
The moderator: Dr. Kaspar Bänziger. Speakers: prof. Peter Lorange, Natasha Lance Rogoff, prof. Cedric Dupont, prof. Florin Baeriswyl, Noah Samara, David Shrier.
The Caspian Week is grateful to the Phillips Academy for allowing us to use their noble Motto for our week in 2018 in the context of how important early collaboration between the different stakeholders is for achieving a successful outcome. Today we take universal access to information as granted. However, this has not always been so. A quick excursion into the past helps us to understand and value the privilege to learn a universal language of numbers, words and to think independently, experiment-, exchange- and question exiting thought.

Mobile telephony and cheap access to international data opened up radical new markets for education. Today, everybody with a computer and smart phone can learn from such online educational platform such as the Khan Academy for free. However, with the new gained possibility of universal distribution come also a possible danger of abuse and a new form of information distortions with the possibility of indoctrination of thoughts against humanity at large. Also, a perceived universal access to education seems to marginalize the access to higher Western quality education due to cost leaving many in debt for years to come. The United Nations have defined Goal 4 to promote inclusive-, quality education and a motivate life long learning.
The moderator: Dr. Kaspar Bänziger. Speakers: prof. Peter Lorange, Natasha Lance Rogoff, prof. Cedric Dupont, prof. Florin Baeriswyl, Noah Samara, David Shrier.
This panel addressed education across all levels:
  • Nutrition is the key for better education!
  • Will cost for quality education continue to rise or is digital the solution?
  • Are we abandoning liberal education?
  • How can we form professionals in a digital world?
  • Can we keep up with the pace of technological progress?
  • How can we steer a company in a increased volatile market?
  • Can we deploy digital education for emerging markets efficiency?
  • What policies are necessary to leverage the novel innovation in education?
  • What is better? A vocational or liberal education for the future?
  • How can we prevent 'silo' thinking and acting?
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