What an amazing array of speakers with such interesting perspectives and insights! The LEGO IDEA conference is held each year to emphasise the importance of play - play to learn, play to create and play to innovate.
First speaker was Nicolai
Molkte-Leth, founder of True North Camps, Denmark. He reminded the conference that:
"The greatest danger for most of us is not that we aim
too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it"
So, out of fear, we
make our goals more average and when they are average, we are not inspired.
We could play life in a higher league. We should be dreaming
of a possible future and when we imagine it,
we can create it.
He encouraged everyone to get out
of the comfort zone. When we hit the
outer wall of the comfort zone, we hit our habits and our beliefs.
But that is where the learning zone is.
If you step too far you get in to panic zone. But you can make a panic zone in to a comfort
zone if you take small steps to reach there.
Highlight for me was Sugata
Mitra, Prof of educational technology at the school of education Newcastle Uni,
UK. Look for him on TED Talks. He spoke about the
future of learning and posed the key statement -
"With
broadband access to google you can pretend to be educated."
He has conducted substantial experiments over the past years to identify why when you live further out from the city, the quality of
education falls dramatically and why when you are in a lower socio-economic category, the quality is also lower.
The hole
in the wall experiment took off. He wanted to explore what
would happen if you give children in a slum a computer. He built a
sort of ATM in the wall of a very poor suburb in India. Children
started to browse on the computer. They did not know English and had never heard of the internet.
Wherever the experiment was tried, children would start playing games. When Prof Mitra returned 9 months, they then asked
for a faster processor and better mouse.
They taught themselves English in order to use the tool. In 9 months, children learnt how to use the
computer according to what an average office worker could do.
Conclusion -
When children have interest, education happens. Groups of
children using the Internet can achieve educational objectives on their own. Children learn best in self
organised learning environments.
How far
can this type,of self organisation go? asked the Prof.
Can they
teach themselves the biotechnology of DNA?
He set up an experiment designed to fail.
He downloaded
information on to the computers about this complex medical topic. He put it in English
and they could not speak English. He pre-tested them and they understood nothing. He left
them for two months.
They did
not give up on it. They in fact went up
30% in terms of knowledge and English use.
In the English system however, they would still have been seen as a failure.
So He sent a
teacher in to tell them how fantastic they are = the grandmother method as they
tell us how wonderful we are.
Scores
jumped to 60 percent .
There is
a way to level the playing fields in richer and poorer areas and the 'granny cloud' system for schools is still used where the granny volunteers are beamed in via skype to disadvantaged communities.
Groups of
children can learn anything by themselves. Provided
they can read and understand what they read and that they know how to believe in their potential.
We need questions
which turn people on. Children work in
a domain where they want relevance.
The curriculum
is seen as uninteresting and irrelevant. Exams are seen as
uninteresting and relevant to get a job.
If your
education system sits in those two boxes, you are doomed to failure.
Children
love the interesting and irrelevant quadrant. Humans
love this. Move education in to that box
and then you have made it. Education
will be something that just happens. How
do we move in to that box? This is where the
future of learning lies!
If we extrapolate this to the adult learning environment, there are also some very useful insights in terms of how we deliver training programs. It places the emphasis far more strongly on groups that are self-organised and that teach themselves.
Mads
Nipper, EVP of
the LEGO group spoke on Cultures
of creativity.
How does
creativity in different cultures work?
The
learning institute has done substantial research in to the future of learning
and also the cultures of learning. The founders of Google played with a lot of bricks that could have inspired them when they were
young.
Technology
is such a huge revolution. Because there is
a digital world, will the physical bricks vanish?
Mads says - No as it is hands on and minds on!
How do we
put all of this creativity in to the global context? Think about the notion of systematic
creativity = Make sense of the world through using the tools of the bricks. They are an
interconnected set of parts. Everyone
can put the bricks together in different ways so that it means something to someone.
There are low entry
levels. Anyone can get started no matter
of cultural background. People know what
to do even if they have never seen a brick before.
The bricks are a medium
for mastery. We never cease to be amazed by
what can be built.
They give us the
ability to create something out of nothing.
The building with bricks supports children in a culture of making things. Most children around the world have nothing.
It has
infinite possibilities. It is about something where you can combine and
integrate ideas.
LEGO provides the belief
in the potential of children and adults and their natural imagination. Playfulness is a basis for cultural
development. The more things that are
playful to express a culture, the better.
There is a belief
in the value of creative play. Dreams
and imagination is important and creative play is an expression of cultural
values.
Playing with LEGO bricks provides an
environment of experimentation. It allows
different ideas to be tried out and experimented with. This in turn encourages a culture of experimenting and
allows for failure. This is universally
valuable.
Play through the bricks grows
with the person and Lego
grows socially beyond the person. It
bridges cultures to empower communities of creativity and collaboration.
Creativity
and play is culture. For all cultures.
Closing keynote was on - The
meaning of innovation. Turning
STEM in to STEAM.
John
Maeda - President Rhode Island School of Design. John is the most brilliant man who has remarkable insights.
"Blast
away at it! Get it done!", William J Mitchell. Don't
think, just make it. Don't think too
hard and just jump in. He said that we live in such a world of VUCA - volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. We need the antidote of insight, understanding
and clarity and agility.
We need all kinds
of thinking to help each other. People are
now crossing boundaries all the time - Designers and scientists. We no longer should be thinking out of the box - we need to be thinking at the edge of the box because in that way we can integrate thinking from different spheres
It is up to us to play
well. Have a look at his website - http://stemtosteam.org/ for more insights in to how breakthrough innovation comes from adding art and design to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education and research: STEM + Art = STEAM.
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| Jacquie Llyod Smith and LEGO® Legend Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen |
Besides the conference, we were also treated to a fascinating tour of the LEGO museum that stores the organisation's history. LEGO is still a family owned business and has a strong and proud history from humble beginnings as toy makers of wooden toys. There was then the move in to using the plastic moulding machines - but not to create full plastic toys but rather to create bricks that children would use to build their own toys. There were many nay-sayers around 1947 who said that plastic would never be as good as wood.
"Our
strength comes from concentrating on the idea.
Dig deep, range wide - and the ideas will come." Godtfred Kirk Christiansen 1965, second generation owner of Lego.
LEGO has as its mission to "nurture the child in each of us."
LEGO is the only
toy that is always right - because you made it!
The guiding principle of all their production is - only the best is good enough. Is that not a remarkable credo to live by!
