Jean-yves Charlier Speech - Promethean Ceo

EDUCATION: A NEW GENERATION OF TEACHERS, STUDENTS, AND PARENTS Jean-Yves Charlier – Promethean CEO www.prometheanworld.com INTRODUCTION Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to this Predictions and Broadband Summit. It is a pleasure to be here with you today to provide my insights on the challenges facing the education systems around the world and the enormous potential that digital technologies and next generation networks represent for the transformation of education. As the chief executive of one of the leading education technology companies in the world, Promethean, I hope you will my insights informative and perhaps thought provoking. Whilst it is clear that digital technologies will provide enormous potential for the learning of today’s and tomorrow’s generations, technology is certainly not an end-game in it’s own right and should only to be considered as one of several key foundations for new education systems. Furthermore, the implementation of digital technologies in the classroom and in the education systems will be a never-ending evolutionary process. THE CHALLENGE There is clearly significant pressure in every country for education to change. Globalization, economic cycles, changes in the competencies needed for new and changing occupations, to name a few, as well as the new generation of digital natives who are learning in new ways – all these dimensions are fast changing expectations of how to equip the future generations for the world of tomorrow. Most education systems around the world are being reformed. But reform isn’t sufficient and transformation of education is a must for countries to develop the talents and skill-sets required for the 21st century. And in the Western world, if we don’t challenge and transform ourselves our education systems, others will. Just imagine, five percent of the most gifted students in China

today is greater than the total population of Portugal. So for Portugal to compete tomorrow, just like any other Western country, it is essential to have a powerful education system. In the 19th century, the education systems around the world evolved to meet the requirements of industrialization. Our education curriculums are very linear as a result with a hierarchy of subjects based on a set of old programs of math, science, geography, history and language. We must ask ourselves whether these structured curriculums can meet the requirements to create 21st century talents and skill-sets and whether they can motivate our digital native students.

THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATON Before, we investigate how our educations systems should be transformed and the value of technology and next generation networks, we should reflect on the purposes of education overall. In the modern world, the education systems need to meet five main purposes. The first is an economic purpose. There is no doubt that education needs to teach the students of today for the occupations of tomorrow, in what are more global, faster and more competitive economic conditions. The old economic models are out and innovation, talent, and technology will be essential in creating the economic models of tomorrow. The second is a society purpose. Education needs to ensure that students leave the system equipped with the skill-sets to live in harmony as citizens in an ever-changing society. With higher drop-out rates than ever in most Western education systems, and particularly in the United States, this is a matter than needs urgent attention by governments alike. The third is a social purpose through the importance of creating systems whereby students learn to work together, learn with teachers, and hopefully in the future, learn more-and-more with external experts to the education system. Tomorrow’s education systems will see lecture-style classes we have today complemented with collaborative learning. In the 21st century classroom, teachers will no longer be at the front of the

classroom but much more in the centre. Education also serves a fourth purpose and that is a cultural one. We expect that education will enable our students to engage with culture through their sense of personal identity and be part of culture in a global sense, even if that might be appreciating rap culture and an artist such as 50 Cents. The final major part of education is a personal purpose. Education has to focus on personal capacity and what makes us distinct. Our current education systems have little time for anything else than a standard approach. This will have to change as personalized learning will be essential for the education systems of tomorrow. Any attempt to transform education has to take these five main purposes into account.

TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION Today’s generation of students are radically different than any other generation of the past century; they spend most of their day, except at school, immersed in technology. They are listening to music on MP3 devices, using their mobile phone, playing interactive games in a variety of formats including mobile devices and using computers to learn and interact with a stream of new social networking applications. Our digital natives expect information to be on tap, up to the minute and delivered in engaging, interesting and interactive ways. The TV is out and the internet is clearly in. Only when our digital natives attend school do they find often they are required to digest knowledge which they perceive as irrelevant and hard to understand, delivered in a slow and less engaging manner. In a recent survey in the UK, 98 percent of 12year olds indicated that they want to do well in school, yet only 38 percent look forward to going to school. Technology should not be a cause of strain on our education systems but a source of tremendous potential to transform teaching and learning. In today’s world, technology delivers the skills needed for the future and can make learning more relevant as well as increase the attention and interest of students. This in turn can lead to increases in student achievement.

As part of the investment of governments to transform education systems, next generation networks, and particularly the internet, are critical building blocks to provide today’s and tomorrow’s students with access to information on demand. They can enable teachers to prepare and manage digital lessons and assess student performance on a daily, lesson-by-lesson basis. This leads to endless possibilities. Each child could pursue the subjects best suited to them delivered in interactive ways which suit their learning styles and at a pace which is right for them. This can be achieved today by providing schools with fast, high bandwidth connectivity to the web. Internally, schools need high quality connections to classrooms and other learning spaces. This is what I call a “21 st century learning network”. Ultimately, the learning network will need to extend to the home offering students endless learning possibilities and options. Next generation networks will enable us to bring education everywhere. But a 21st century learning network is not enough for success. Significant attention needs to be devoted to what happens in the classroom, and in the future, the virtual classroom, by focusing on the teaching and learning interfaces. High-quality classroom technology is a critical foundation for the 21st century classroom enabling the power of the network to be deployed in everyday lessons through large interactive displays together with student devices such as handheld response devices or student notebooks. Promethean certainly applauds the initiatives of the Portuguese government to provide these important foundations for the transformation of the education system. Our company focuses solely on education providing feature-rich interactive displays and some of the most innovative response technology in the world today. As an example of the innovation that Promethean provides to the education world, we released last week a transformational software enabling students personalized learning through self-paced assessment services. Imagine students being able to learn at their own levels of curriculum and at their own pace. This brings some of the functionality of gaming platforms students love to the classroom environment leading to student achievement. But platforms and services are not enough we believe. We have strengthened our offering to Ministries of Education across the world by developing the largest portal for

teachers to access both teacher-generated and publisher-generated digital content. As of today, some 350,000 teachers share over 12,500 pieces of content over the world on Promethean Planet. TECHNOLOGY IS NOT ENOUGH But technology won’t transform alone any education system. An adapted curriculum to the requirements of the 21 st century is always a major foundation for a new successful education system. A new curriculum, students can better relate to and find more relevant, a new curriculum better aligned to the jobs of tomorrow, is mandatory. Furthermore, teaching methodologies will need to evolve in the 21 st century classroom. Personalized learning as well as putting the teacher at the centre of the classroom rather than in the front will be essential. Teachers will need to become coaches and facilitators in the future. But technology, a new curriculum and new teaching methodologies won’t transform alone any education system. All the technology in the world will not change schools if significant attention is not paid to those who are responsible for the quality and learning on a student-by-student, class-by-class basis. The skills and competences of teachers and their managers, the school leaders, need to be developed to enable the great potential that technology represents for education’s future. Beyond the significant training required for teachers to enter into this new era, greater recognition needs to be provided by all governments on the importance of teachers. A great deal of independent research has shown that the biggest decisive factor in the relative performance of different education systems is the quality of the teaching workforce. Teachers have to be at the centre of a successful transformation of education and the creation of the 21 st century classroom.

CONCLUSION In conclusion, we, at Promethean, welcome the debate on the transformation of education and are excited about the immense possibilities that next generation networks and digital technologies bring in creating the 21st century classroom. Achieving a vision for a new education system is important for all our children’s futures. We, at Promethean, look forward to implementing this vision not tomorrow but as of today with the broader education community across the world. Thank you for your attention.

Lisbon, July 8, 2009 Predictions & Broadband Summit www.apdc.pt

See the video here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb50k4_jean-yves-charlier-promethean-ceo-i_tech

Mr. Jean-Yves Charlier, born November 29, 1963 in Belgium, holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in strategy and marketing from the Wharton Business School. In 1987, Jean-Yves Charlier joined the Wang group in France and served in several different sales and marketing positions. From 1993 to 1995, he was responsible for the integration services division in Europe based in London, before becoming Vice-President of Wang International in 1995. In 1996, he was appointed President of the Equant group first for the integration services division and then for all worldwide group marketing, sales and services operations. In 2002, Jean-Yves Charlier joined the BT group, with responsibility for Europe and operations within the Global Services division. In 2004, he joined the Fidelity International group as Vice President and was appointed Chairman and CEO of Colt Telecom Group with responsibility for restructuring the European telecommunications operator. Since 2007, Jean-Yves Charlier has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Promethean, a company that specializes in interactive educational products and educational media for teachers.