In mid-June 2019, HundrED’s Head of Global Research – Christopher Petrie – gave a keynote at the opening ceremony of the 3rd Learners’ Innovation Forum on Education (LIFE) in Shenzhen. The bi-annual two-day event attracts over 1500 education professionals in China and is packed with workshops, presentations and other interactive activities from experts in education. Since 2015, the Learner's Innovation Forum of Education has been held every two years; this year was the third Forum, and it was themed around Innovation: Seeking the Nature of Education. Its purpose was to promote innovative practices and approaches in education, primarily for Chinese speaking educators.
Organized by the 21st Century Education Research Institute, LIFE is a Beijing-based initiative that integrates research, advocacy, and action. LIFE refers to education for the growth of life, education relevant to life, and education as lifelong learning. The institute collaborates with some of the top thought leaders and organizations in the field of education innovation. It aims to unite all social forces to cultivate a diversified ecological education environment in China.
Christopher’s keynote was translated into Chinese and presented key insights from projects conducted by HundrED’s research team. Findings from the recent research by HundrED’s CEO Lasse Leoponiemi were highlighted, where it was found only 7% of education innovations globally are funded by capital investments. He also gave an overview of the initiatives HundrED are actively involved with to positively change education on a global scale. Some notable education innovations were weaved throughout the talk that were selected for HundrED’s Global Collection and Spotlights, including: Engineering Brightness, Design for Change, and HEI Schools.
This keynote was followed by the well known Professor at the University of Kansas- Yong Zhao (pictured below) - who presented major barriers and enablers of educational change in their context, as well as the opportunities and issues associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education.
Christopher said that he felt “privileged to be invited to speak at this event" and "was impressed by the passion and excitement from the educators there”; he was also “inspired by the amazing practices and technologies presented”.
In particular, he noted there were many interesting insights on overcoming the challenges of rural education in China and the future of education with AI.
HundrED is always looking for multiple opportunities to share about our innovations as well as learn about global education needs. If you would like to invite HundrED at your event/conference, email Pukhraj Ranjan, Head of Community at pukhraj@hundred.org