Global Education & Skills Forum

Good Afternoon to all the Brain Users,  

I was supposed to tell you about this event on Monday 18th but I was so busy with my courses. 

I attended three days of this forum. We attended the first event of this forum on the day we arrived. The first event, called "In conversation with Tony Blair", was at 8pm. I along with many people attended that great event.

It was really great to see a well known leader like Tony Blair expressing his concern about education. The program began when His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan did a speech. By the way when he entered the room I didn't even know who he was. Later I found out who he was, he spoke on the issue of education most eloquently, it was really nice to see him sharing his ideas on how to improve education. It was amazing to see all these great leaders uniting on the issue of education. Now that's a start in my point of view. A great start indeed which will pave the way for future generations to come.                             

Friday, 15th March 2013 was the Welcome & Keynote Speech by President Clinton via satellite, It was moderated by Vikas Pota, CEO of GEMS foundation. His speech was the most powerful one because he touched almost everything on the topic of education. When he told about the Afghani girl who jumped from the roof and broke her back just because she was not allowed to pursue her dream to get education, it really shook me.
She almost killed herself the president said and he also said, 

"Malala won everyone's heart. But the girl in Afghanistan broke mine." 

I knew what he meant because I just felt the same at that very moment when he talked about that girl. Imagine a girl trying to kill herself because her life, which once had purpose, was now meaningless for her. Then people asked questions to which he presented the most enlightening answers. Then they presented us with a very exciting show of three singers.

While having dinner, I met this great person. His name is Patrick Dlamini, CEO and MD, Development Bank of South Africa. He was so humble and genuine. A really great, wise and inspiring man. I hope I meet him one day again. His company was the most enjoyable and shared lots of wise words with me. He also was very humorous. By looking at him, I realised how friendly Africa must be.

He spoke on PPPE at work: Learning from experience. Unfortunately I missed it but I will surely listen to him when the videos are released.

11:45 - 12:45: Higher education: where are we headed?

I was speaking on this panel about MOOCs, technology and its effect on education. Here is my presentation:

"The new generation is blessed with many things; we have the fast changing technologies in our home. I mean you name it, smart phones, smart computers etc and its now entirely upon us how to use it for learning. I was born there was a computer in my home, I remember taking my first on line course when I was hardly 2 year old ,I mean I actually learnt my Phonics from an on line free site, I  learnt rhymes, math's and science, so my education literally started on line at home. That does not mean I was not given books but I was actually given more choices to learn from and Internet was one of them, lots of activities involved in learning on line, like quizzes and games, like when I was learning vowels the woman in computer even sang poems, I used to colour the vowels, click them and I could hear the pronunciation of the words .The instant feedback you get is very important for learning and it makes learning on line fun. So Internet is the most effective tool which can actually benefit every child if used wisely. Let’s imagine I want to know some science facts, I would just go on Internet, open a browser and search. Only 3 steps required and there I have the information right in front of me. Its fast and it’s free and that’s what we need to promote, isn’t it. Free and easy access to get education, for every child and adult no matter how old the person is, where he lives, how much money they have, EDUCATION WILL REACH THEM AND ALL THEY NEED TO DO IS EMBRACE IT. This is the beauty of learning on line. You have great teacher to learn from and that too really at any age. You no longer need to wait to learn your favourite subject in your O levels or A levels. If you have interest in it you can learn it from an on line source. When I started taking courses on line I was amazed by the variety of courses, to tell you the truth when I enrolled in the artificial intelligence course I did not even know what it was about, I enrolled and later found out what it was and I also found out it was no child's play, but then I thought if I even learn 0.1 % of it, it’s learning and I learnt a lot <More than 0.1% of course>. So I was not afraid to try, so I finished it and that course actually got me interested in statistic, so later I took an introduction to statistic course and completed it with distinction. Now, the final exam was really a final exam, there was this question which I was stuck on for three long days. You know you have to search the Internet, watch the lectures again and again, so if someone thinks on line learning does not require effort or hard work, they are in for a surprise. You should have the will to learn, only then can you learn. Be honest with yourself when you are learning, coz learning without effort is not fun nor challenging, you don't learn anything like that, it's just like flipping through pages of a book and not reading anything.

Now, when knowledge is no more confined to the premises of college and universities, you can learn anything under the sun only if you have a passion to learn. Imagine knowledge is available 24 hrs a day, at the convenience of every student. On line learning has actually enabled us to learn from prestigious teachers from prestigious universities which otherwise is not so easy for every student. People dream of going to these universities and I think their dream in way has come true, now the elite universities are coming to us. I just completed a course introduction to astronomy, and if I will ask a university to give me admission because I want to “learn” astronomy, they will simply refuse and tell me, oh you know you do not have the right age, nor the background, or hey have you even done your O levels and A levels and did you even have the required subjects? In a way MOOCs have changed all of this, students can get on line and explore new courses. Now many people might say that there are many astronomy books available but I would tell them getting lectures from a renowned professor is far more interesting than reading just a book, and there are forums too where you get to know many other people. Now many young students are getting access to these subjects and well not in my life of these 12 years could I have imagined that I would learn astronomy at the age of 12 but here I am! There is no barrier for a keen student. If you remove these barriers, learning will become easy and more accessible. On line learning has opened up the gates, so walk right in, and explore your interest. 

As I told you, all these classes have forums where you can interact with your fellow students and have healthy discussions about your course. My own experience of these forums is very positive; I was helped many times whenever I had a problem understanding anything. Students all over the world act as one big global classroom and help each other out. Just Imagine the impact of such classroom and the process of learning and imagine its impact on our society, it’s unbelievable. Now it's the duty of the parents to instill that hunger of knowledge in every child. Tell the children that it's a beautiful feeling to have knowledge, give them access to knowledge, facilitate them, give them choices and help them explore it and young generation will not disappoint you. OK now being a girl I want to represent all the girls in the world who somehow or the other have been unable to get education and I want to tell them, that’s your chance now, whether you are a house wife or a working mother, or you are a student, get on line and educate yourself. Imagine what the world could be where billions of women have the knowledge of physics, philosophy, or history."

Ok if you wanna see all the participants go here to their facebook ID.


P.S.
I loved the fact that African countries also participated in this global event. The change is there.

Khadija Niazi
We need only one revolution and that is an educational revolution.