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Scaling up humanitarian education: my presentation at the European MOOC Summit

Events, Presentations

I’ve just published my presentation (25 minutes with slides) about the urgency of scaling up humanitarian education on LSi.io. This is a recording with both slides and my narrative, that looks at a number of issues: Training like it’s 1899 – and why we need to think about learning beyond training The need for scale – some indicative figures What is broken about humanitarian education VUCA – What has changed about the nature of knowledge and why it matters IGO/INGO MOOC models – things to consider LSi.io is the new web site for Learning Strategies International, a talent network for people who yearn to help solve the ‘wicked’ learning problems of the humanitarian sector. Right now, the network is by invitation only. Just send me a message if you’d like access to the presentation. Link to European MOOC Summit presentation (for LSi.io members)

Meet Barbara Moser-Mercer, the lady who did MOOCs in a refugee camp

Interviews, Video, Writing

I first heard her described as the “lady who did MOOCs in a refugee camp”. It was completely ambiguous what that meant, but certainly sparked my curiosity. Barbara Moser-Mercer is a professor at the University of Geneva and a  cognitive psychologist who has practiced and researched education in emergencies. I finally caught up with her at the Second European MOOC Summit.  

VUCA

MOOCs for international and nongovernmental organizations

Events

International organizations already deliver training at a massive scale, but they do it mostly the old-fashioned way – one workshop at a time. The urgency of scaling up learning, education and training (LET) is real: with 320 million people affected by climate change-related disasters in 2015, 30 million deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and many more such grim numbers, it is clear that the challenges need to be met at scale. This morning’s session (9h–10h30, C101) at the European MOOC Summit on MOOCs for international and nongovernmental organizations will look at workplace learning in IGOs, INGOs and NGOs. Here is the line-up: MOOC now, not later: Sheila Jagganathan is  Senior Learning Specialist and Program Manager of the World Bank’s e-Institute. On January 27th, the Bank launched its first MOOC on the Coursera platform with 10,000 participants. Based on a global report published in 2012 that asserted “a 4°C warmer world must be avoided”, it aims to discuss …

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LSi.io interviews Plan B’s Donald Clark: Universities and humanitarian organizations in the Age of Disruption

Events, Interviews

Donald Clark is an education innovator with no institutional ties to refrain him from telling it like it is. He answers three questions from LSi.io‘s Reda Sadki: Zach Sims at Davos referred to university brick-and-mortar structures as the “detritus” of a bygone area. Agree or disagree? We all remember Sebastian Thrun’s predictions about the impending concentration of higher education. Why does it feel like it’s just not happening? A key insight about MOOCs is the significance of suddenly connecting millions of adult learners to faculty previously bunkered down at the top of their ivory towers. Can you tell us more about your analysis on the significance of MOOCs? The humanitarian sector faces growing challenges, yet we continue to train like it’s 1899. How would you approach such a ‘wicked’ learning problem? Interview recorded at the Second European MOOC Summit at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland on 11 February 2014.

The MOOC Tornado

European MOOC Summit: What looks tasty – for organizations thinking about transforming how they learn

Events, Writing

This is a quick overview of what I found of interest for international and non-governmental organizations in the program of the Second European MOOC Summit – possibly the largest and probably the most interesting MOOC-related event on the Old Continent – that opens tomorrow at Switzerland’s MIT-by-the-Lake, EPFL. The first interesting thing I found in the program is that it includes an instructional session, titled “All you need to know about MOOCs”. Indeed, the more I meet and talk to people across a variety of international and non-governmental organizations, the more it is obvious that the so-called “hype” has remained circumscribed to a fairly narrow, academic circle – despite international media coverage and a few million registered users. That makes it both smart and relevant to offer a primer for anyone attending the conference who is discovering MOOCs, before they get plunged into the labyrinth of myth, paradox and possibility that …