Difference between revisions of "Global Education Leaders’ Partnership"
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GELP argues that school systems around the world need to be 'transformed' and not just improved. It articulates this alternative vision for education as ‘C21st learning’, ‘Next Generation Learning’, or ‘Education 3.0’. | GELP argues that school systems around the world need to be 'transformed' and not just improved. It articulates this alternative vision for education as ‘C21st learning’, ‘Next Generation Learning’, or ‘Education 3.0’. | ||
| − | Technology is clearly central to GELP's vision for education | + | Technology is clearly central to GELP's vision for education. GELP is a champion of digital learning, but it also sees technology playing a more fundamental role in 'transforming' education. Technology can 'power learner agency', says GELP, citing virtual high schools where students decide when to study and how; it can allow pupils to 'pursue individual interests at their own pace' it says, and it can connect what children learn with the real world and pupils' life outside of school. |
GELP's position, therefore, is as a champion of learning that is 'pupil-led', 'personalised', and 'real-world', a vision that depends heavily on technology to be realised. It promotes schools and systems that provide such learning. It rarely appears to reflect, however, on any unintended consequences of this transformation in learning. For example, GELP promotes 'personalised learning' schools such as [[Kunskapsskolan]], a Swedish school chain that operates under the [[Learning Schools Trust]] charity in the UK, yet nonwhere does it discuss concerns about the gaps in children's knowledge from such a system, or other apparent failings of these schools (three of [[Kunskapsskolan]]'s UK schools have been rated not good by Ofsted<ref>[http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2013/12/three-academies-using-personalised-learning-developed-in-sweden-are-not-good-according-to-ofsted/ Three Academies using personalised learning developed in Sweden are not good according to Ofsted], Local Schools Network, 2 December 2012</ref>) | GELP's position, therefore, is as a champion of learning that is 'pupil-led', 'personalised', and 'real-world', a vision that depends heavily on technology to be realised. It promotes schools and systems that provide such learning. It rarely appears to reflect, however, on any unintended consequences of this transformation in learning. For example, GELP promotes 'personalised learning' schools such as [[Kunskapsskolan]], a Swedish school chain that operates under the [[Learning Schools Trust]] charity in the UK, yet nonwhere does it discuss concerns about the gaps in children's knowledge from such a system, or other apparent failings of these schools (three of [[Kunskapsskolan]]'s UK schools have been rated not good by Ofsted<ref>[http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2013/12/three-academies-using-personalised-learning-developed-in-sweden-are-not-good-according-to-ofsted/ Three Academies using personalised learning developed in Sweden are not good according to Ofsted], Local Schools Network, 2 December 2012</ref>) | ||
| + | |||
| + | Nor does GELP question the impact technology has on standards: Study have shown, for example, that students in virtual schools perform significantly worse than pupils in regular schools, with poor test results and dropout rates. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Most telling, though, is GELP's silence on concerns over the commercialisation and privatisation of education through technology. [[Kunskapsskolan]], to take one example, is a profit-making company, and the model of teaching it provides, where students learn predominently independently, is cheaper than conventional, teacher-led schooling. As GELP's [[Valerie Hannon]] notes: 'A burgeoning edtech industry envisages wholesale disruption through the explosion of cheaper, more powerful (and mobile) learning technologies placed directly in the hands of consumers.' | ||
===Strategies for reform=== | ===Strategies for reform=== | ||
Revision as of 22:22, 30 November 2015
Global Education Leaders’ Partnership (sometimes referred to as Global Education Leaders Program), or GELP is a group of education reformers operating in and across countries, with a particular focus on pushing the digitisation of learning.
GELP was initiated in 2009, and then funded and, until 2011 managed by, the technology giant Cisco. It should be seen as part of a much wider effort by Cisco (and other technology interests) to reform education systems around the world through technology (see Cisco profile for more of its lobbying for education reform).
Since 2011, GELP has been run by the UK-based Innovation Unit.
It says it is ‘dedicated to reimagining the future of education at a global scale’.
Contents
A Cisco project
GELP began life as a series of ‘white papers’ for technology multinational Cisco.[1]
According to Cisco, it 'launched the Global Education Leaders Program (GELP) in September 2009 to challenge and support education leaders ready to implement the vision outlined in the white paper Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century.[2]
The publication, published the previous year, was described by Cisco as 'only one contribution to the flood of new thinking that is coursing through education systems in every part of the world.' Following this, Cisco brought together 'opinion leaders, educators, and politicians from developed and developing nations' to discuss its education reform ideas. 'Our aim is collectively to refine a vision for 21st century learning, and to gather the best and most powerful insights into how that vision can be realized,' it said in 2008. Cisco's thinking was subsequently published at: www.transformglobaleducation.org (no longer live; accessible via Wayback).
According to Cisco, the core ideas of Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century were initiated by the company's internal education strategists, but it also worked with, among others, Michael Barber and Tony Mackay. It also consulted with CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking), P21 (Partnership for 21st Learning), and ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) in the US.[3]
In July 2011, Cisco transitioned ownership and management of GELP to the the Innovation Unit.
Lobbying for education reform
GELP describes itself as a ‘community of key education system leaders, policy-makers, thought-leaders and world-class consultants collaborating to transform education at local, national and international levels.'
Main objectives
GELP lists its aims as:
- 'accelerate and sustain transformation' in the education systems in which it works;
- develop 'transformational capacity' in education 'system leaders' in these countries;
- define and lobby for its vision of '21st century' education; and
- manage the network of education leaders and 'change agents' pushing reform around the world.
Where it works
To date, GELP has worked with policy makers in the following jurisdictions[4]
- Finland
- Brazil
- India
- South Korea
- Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
- England
- Victoria, Australia
- British Columbia, Canada
- Ontario, Canada
- New Zealand
USA
- New York City
- Colorado
- Kentucky
- Council of Chief State School Officers Innovation Lab Network of US states.
According to GELP, every six months GELP teams from countries around the world gather to share ideas and compare notes. It says that the first three years of the programme were spent building this community of reformers and refining their 'vision for the future of education'. More recently the focus for GELP and individual country teams has been on 'dealing with practical challenges as they move from ideation to implementation and transform their education systems for real'.[5]
Vision for education
GELP argues that school systems around the world need to be 'transformed' and not just improved. It articulates this alternative vision for education as ‘C21st learning’, ‘Next Generation Learning’, or ‘Education 3.0’.
Technology is clearly central to GELP's vision for education. GELP is a champion of digital learning, but it also sees technology playing a more fundamental role in 'transforming' education. Technology can 'power learner agency', says GELP, citing virtual high schools where students decide when to study and how; it can allow pupils to 'pursue individual interests at their own pace' it says, and it can connect what children learn with the real world and pupils' life outside of school.
GELP's position, therefore, is as a champion of learning that is 'pupil-led', 'personalised', and 'real-world', a vision that depends heavily on technology to be realised. It promotes schools and systems that provide such learning. It rarely appears to reflect, however, on any unintended consequences of this transformation in learning. For example, GELP promotes 'personalised learning' schools such as Kunskapsskolan, a Swedish school chain that operates under the Learning Schools Trust charity in the UK, yet nonwhere does it discuss concerns about the gaps in children's knowledge from such a system, or other apparent failings of these schools (three of Kunskapsskolan's UK schools have been rated not good by Ofsted[6])
Nor does GELP question the impact technology has on standards: Study have shown, for example, that students in virtual schools perform significantly worse than pupils in regular schools, with poor test results and dropout rates.
Most telling, though, is GELP's silence on concerns over the commercialisation and privatisation of education through technology. Kunskapsskolan, to take one example, is a profit-making company, and the model of teaching it provides, where students learn predominently independently, is cheaper than conventional, teacher-led schooling. As GELP's Valerie Hannon notes: 'A burgeoning edtech industry envisages wholesale disruption through the explosion of cheaper, more powerful (and mobile) learning technologies placed directly in the hands of consumers.'
Strategies for reform
- While it's absolutely essential that thought leaders debate what learning should look like, how schools should operate and even what education is for in this century, we should at the same time and with the same degree of seriousness discuss how we get there; how we effect transformation from the education systems we have to the education systems we want and need.
GELP has developed strategies for transforming education systems, which are used by the network around the world. These are outlined in a 2013 publication, Redesigning Education, which, GELP hopes, will be used by countries as yet untouched by GELP, to reform their education systems.
Building a 'social movement'
- German ornithologists and animal behaviorists use the word zugunruhe to describe the restlessness to move of flocks of birds and herds of animals before migration. Throughout the world, individuals and organisations are displaying this zugunruhe with regard to educational transformation.
Funding
GELP says it is, or has been, supported by the following companies and foundations: *Innovation Unit
GELP also says it ‘draws on specialist contributions from a wide range of partners, including to date [2013]:
People
GELP refers to its people as a 'faculty'.
- David Albury
- Valerie Hannon: Co-Founder of the Innovation Unit UK and founding member and Co-Chair of GELP; senior consultant to the OECD Innovative Learning Environments program; regular contributor to the World Summit on Innovation in Education (WISE).
- Tony Mackay
- David Istance
- Kathe Kirby
- Albert Bertani
- Keren Caple
- Lynn van der Elst
Steering group
- Lynn Olson, advisor on Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation US ‘college ready’ programme.
References
- ↑ What is Education 3.0, archived GELP website from 2013, accessed via Wayback Novemver 2015
- ↑ Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century, Cisco publication, 2008
- ↑ Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century, Cisco publication, 2008
- ↑ GELP, Cisco website, accessed November 2015
- ↑ Page 11, Redesigning Education: shaping learning systems around the globe, Innovation Unit for the Global Education Leaders' Program, 2013
- ↑ Three Academies using personalised learning developed in Sweden are not good according to Ofsted, Local Schools Network, 2 December 2012
