There was great excitement yesterday in the newly established DCU Institute of Education, formerly St. Patrick’s College of Education, when they hosted the Microsoft Future of Learning event. The event involved two keynote addresses: one from inspirational speaker Mark Pollack and the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella.
Mark Pollack shared his inspiring story with the packed auditorium and how he embraces challenge in life and he certainly has had his fair share of challenges.
He left us with 3 key ideas:
- To be a competitor rather than being a spectator
- To be a realist rather being an optimist
- To be a collaborator rather than being an individual
His talk finished with how he is now working with Microsoft to analyse the mountains of data he is collecting in his latest challenge to explore the frontiers of spinal injury.
The main event was organised as a fireside chat, where Professor Deirdre Butler interviewed Satya.
They discussed the future of learning and in particular the key role of teachers within digital education.
Deirdre asked Satya:
If you had a crystal ball, what will the classroom, school, learning environment of the future look like?
In his response Satya emphasised the key role of the teacher in today’s digital world:
“There can be no higher leverage activity than teaching”
“Both my parents were teachers, teaching is the purest form of empowerment”
“Educators are the purest form of empowerment. There cannot be higher leverage than teaching.”
“The inspired teacher can do anything”.
To conclude a thought provoking and powerful afternoon Satya Nadella left us with the following….
“I look forward to designing meaningful learning environments that harnesses technologies in creative and innovative ways to empower our students to “be that difference in the world” in order to create a just and equitable society for all”
Laudable objectives indeed…