Current Initiatives in the Educational Field

Last month, the University of Littoral offered a conference about education and digital culture. In such free event, the founder and director of Outliers School, Hugo Pardo Kuklinsky, shared ideas about projects he has been part of concerning the design and integration of digital- oriented products and services in educational institutions and companies. Since my blog partner and I didn't have the chance to attend the talk, we have decided to inform ourselves and become acquainted with the work of this specialist. In what follows, we will provide information about his initiative and we will finish drawing some conclusions about the relevance Kuklinsky's  ideas have in English Language teaching.

Personal Academic Background
Among Kuklinsky studies, we can  mention his PhD in Audiovisual Communication and Master in Research of Audiovisual Communication by Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona apart from a degree in Communication Sciences by Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. (You can access his CV here)

His work
Kuklinsky and his staff have worked with a number of organisations, schools and universities in Latin American and European countries. By exploring his website digitalismo.com, we could access information concerning his methodology as well as conferences and projects carried out in Argentina and other countries. In one of the videos published in the website, Kuklinsky addresses and explains the radical changes institutions (companies, schools and universities) are going through due to advancements in digital content and media. He highlights the fact that knowledge/content distribution is no longer monopolised. By means of connectivity and low hardware and software costs, anyone can build a company or business and compete with the rest of the world.

Why are Kuklinsky's ideas relevant to educators?
Although business oriented, the methodology his initiative Outliers School is based on strongly considers the role digital content and media as part of students' culture(s). A group of specialists work to design and execute innovative learning processes in educational environments. For this, design thinking, gamification and learning by doing are key concepts. During a limited amount of time the staff works cooperatively and collaboratevely with an institution to solve a particular problem.

SERO: Laboratorio Vivo: An Outliers School project
Together with the direction of Fundación Dividendo from Colombia United Way, Outliers School worked on SERO: Laboratorio Vivo in Medellín,Colombia (2016). (You can listen to and watch some of the people involved here)
SERO  was an experiment aimed at helping those students at risk of dropping build up their confidence assuming an active role in the learning process. The project had a duration of ten months and the experiment 30 days.(For a deeper insight visit ser0.org)

To conclude, we believe Kuklinky's ideas are valuable in English Language Teaching and education in general. As future teachers,we know students may find difficulties and even may question the usefulness of the contents they are taught at school causing them to lose interest and motivation. As digital content and media have meant a paradigm shift in every aspect of our society, it is necessary to start to rethink what teaching and learning may mean to us.

References: 

• http://digitalismo.com/hugopardokuklinski/
• http://ser0.org/
• http://www.unl.edu.ar/agenda/index.php?act=showEvento&id=14031#.WBbJ7i3hDIU