How teachers can become better equipped to solve the global challenges we are facing?

Märt Aro, education innovator, provides some tips and tricks for the educators all over the world

Märt Aro has dedicated his life to innovation in education.

His dream is to “enable access to high quality education to everyone globally”, because, he believes, this is “the easiest way we can have a better society”. In Märt’s view, we already have the necessary means to make this happen – it’s all down to creating the proper structures for coordinated action.

Märt has co-founded three platforms: Dream Apply (a student application management system), Nordic EdTech Forum N8 (a forum of education innovation companies in Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and Teach Millions (a joint website for Nordic ed-tech companies who donate their products and services for online learning during the COVID-19 lockdown).

In his Teacher Booster video, Märt challenges the status quo of existing education systems, “designed in the 1850s” – a time when workers put in long, routine hours, and were not expected to think creatively, build team synergies or solve complex global problems.

Märt invites us to consider two questions. The first is whether our education systems are up to date with the requirements of the twenty-first century, with reference to the top ten skills identified by the World Economic Forum. The second question is even less straightforward. Märt suggests we should be asking it yearly, in fora specially dedicated to it, and in contexts where the answers are translated into someone’s formal responsibilities. “What is the purpose of education in the twenty-first century?” asks Märt.

Education technology is not an end in itself, nor can it provide an answer to Märt’s questions. However, it may hold some of the answers to how learners and educators can become better equipped to solve the global challenges we are facing. Märt mentions digital learning assistants, flow theory and Virtual and Augmented Reality as possible tools for educators and learners.

If you are curious to hear an education innovator’s vision for the future of learning, we invite you to spend the next 13 minutes with Märt Aro:

This video is part of a series called the Teacher Booster – aiming to do exactly that: give educators everywhere a boost, as the world braces for a second lockdown. In this series, education innovators from both the EU and the ETF partner countries share their “trade secrets” with the global community of teachers and trainers.

The Teacher Booster videos do not provide three quick tips, or five easy steps to being a better teacher. They invite you into each speaker’s private space, where a real exchange of ideas can happen.

The Teacher Booster video series is a product of the the European Training Foundation’s Creating New Learning (CNL) initiative, which “explores how successful developments in education (…) can be multiplied, transferred and sustained.” From innovative trends to grassroots models, CNL collects resources and ideas on how education and training professionals can support new ways of learning. These new approaches to education and training must be better suited to the current state of the world – at all stakeholder levels. The Teacher Booster series is also supported by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.