Preview – Innovation in Education

Posted on: Thursday 23 June 2016 1:11pm by Eric Huang

We asked CMC Session producer Eric Huang to outline his plans for his session about breaking the boundaries of the classroom.

‘Innovation in Education’ brings together case studies of new projects and a panel of professionals to discuss balancing education, entertainment, play and real-world engagement, and how they plan to turn lesson plans into children’s media brands and platforms of the future.

Children’s media organisations, from multinational giants to VC-backed start-ups, have sprung up around the world to tackle the problem of how to engage kids with school subjects and how to make learning interesting in a world in which their lives are spent on screens offering instant entertainment, information, opinion and social interaction.  How can the classroom compete? How can school subjects come close?

Serious gaming, edutainment, stealth learning – they’ve all been buzz words and maybe they carry a sense that there is only one way to tackle the engagement issue.  But in reality it’ll be multiple methods building a portfolio of new practices in and out of school that wins the race to rebuild education in the 21st Century.

My challenge was to make a session which expresses that. To take a wide sweep of what’s new and exciting and draw some conclusions from it. How are teachers using technology to engage classrooms? How are live events and play used to compliment book and rote learning? How can the wider media and entertainment sector leverage companies working in the education sector to reach students and teachers in schools? And what are the business models?

Speakers include:
Alice Lacey CEO and Founder, now>press>play
Jan von Meppen CEO, LudInc
Matt Parkes Senior Manager, LEGO Education UK
Katie Roden Lead Consultant, Seven League

Innovation in Education Wednesday 6th July 2016, 14:10 – 15:10, Showroom Cinema 2