Russell Hobby, CEO at Teach First and Elizabeth Anderson, COO at the Learning Foundation, celebrate International Teachers Day across the globe, and discuss the ever-changing but vital role that technology plays in the delivery of education. Watch the recording below.
Teach First is a charity that is concerned with poverty in its most general sense. We’re looking at a future at the moment, where about four million of our young people in this country are living in levels of poverty at a time when the world is becoming even more uncertain. Obviously there are lots of forces behind that but what we’re interested in as a charity is how we can make sure that educational outcomes are not predetermined by poverty. That young people can get the education they deserve, get the chances and opportunities in life that they deserve, as well.
I think there are two angles to digital access. One is consumption – can you read, view, see the kind of things that are available? And very often you can do that on a very basic device. You can do that on a mobile, and most people do have a mobile. But there is so much more to making the most of the internet than just consuming what other people create. If that’s all we’re doing I don’t think that’s a very attractive prospect.
I don’t want to create a generation of consumers of other people’s content. I want to create and support a generation to create their own content, who are producers, active participants and are in the debate. Who are using the internet to spread their own views, create their own content, build their own businesses, and engage in their own hobbies and pastimes. But I think you need you need more than basic access to be able to do that.
Catch the rest of the discussion in the webinar recording above.