For the past two days, I had an opportunity to participate in the very first Internationalization of Higher Education Platform (IZNHEP), organized by OHEC and Mahidol University, aiming at sharing and discussing futuristic issues and IZN.
Here are what I've learned from the first keynote speaker ka:
- The first keynote speaker was Prof. Al Sacco, Dean of Engineering from Texas Technological University. He was the one who brought us out of this world kaaa! He worked as a NASA's astronaut and took 2 trips to space, spending 31 days altogether! He shared pix of earth from space for us to observe that developed and less developed countries through the glittering lights with more advanced ones having more energy to turn on lights while many others were dark. He called it, 'Enlightened vs Un-enlightened worlds' and added that much more help is needed.
Having had direct experiences in the areas of science and technology, he realizes that current ways of teaching could never catch up with the speed of progress and so for his students, he said all had to 'learn how to learn' in order for them to be able to live their life in the future of uncertainty. I was really glad to hear him mention about the 'A' in 'STEM' as 'STEAM' and for him there must be a 'blend' of intelligence and integration of humans and human society'.
On the whole, there're two major aspects to share further ka.
1. His school has managed to develop confidence in students, lead them to learn how to learn, and to have courage to take educated risks with systems thinking and from international exposure for at least 6-8 weeks of exchanges while recognizing students' mixed learning styles (not all will go for MOOCs) and offering learning spaces.
2. He projects that these are the four key areas to focus into the future: energy, infrastructure, engineering and medicine, and water.
More to follow ka!
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