We are facing a crisis in education. Education simply hasn’t kept up. Teaching methods, teacher training, the stuff we’re learning and the ways we measure success are outdated. This should change. Education matters.

Last week at a PwC conference in New Zealand, Nick Mowbray*, director and president of Zuru, an incredibly successful toy business founded in New Zealand and now based in China, called for an entrepreneurial infusion into education. Looking at Switzerland and the Nordic countries – similar in size to New Zealand, Mowbray said “They have loads of global brands and global companies, and we have very few. I think it’s how we can create these global companies, and it starts earlier, with education.” Mowbray said digital, social and entrepreneurial skills were the new requirements for success, but many New Zealand children were getting an education “from the past”.

“So it’s just the basics of how do I make a product, how do I make a service, what is my channel plan, what is my marketing plan, what is my sales plan? All of these basic skills could be taught in school from a young age.”

A recent article in Forbes by Daniel Newman looked at six digital trends in classrooms:

  • the introduction of Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality,
  • the move away from BYO device policies,
  • the redesign of classrooms with help of SMARTboards and SMARTdesks,
  • the use of artificial intelligence,
  • personalized learning, and
  • the gamification of learning.

There are schools which are already implementing these technologies. Take virtual reality. With the help of different apps teachers are now able to bring the outside world into the classroom. This is where learning becomes immersive, collaborative and fun.

Innovative learning models are the way of the future. Unfiltered, which I chair, is disrupting business education through its video-based programming for getting up-close-and-personal with business leaders.

Already we can see that the use of these modern technologies in education is working. But there’s one very important prerequisite for the success of these programs. Teachers have to embrace it and support it. I like how The Economist phrases it: “Closed-mindedness has no place in the classroom.”

*This is a company boilerplate worth pinning on the wall: Founded in New Zealand in 2004, ZURU has become the fastest growing international toy company in the U.S. market. The company has flourished since its small beginnings in a garage, and the company is now made up of 500 team members building ZURU’s brand across the globe, and employing over 7000 operators. ZURU brands are distributed and marketed in 121 countries. Driven by innovation and marketing, ZURU strives to create a standard of excellence in its product engineering, marketing and distribution practices.

 

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Kevin Roberts

Kevin Roberts is founder of Red Rose Consulting; business leader and educator; author and speaker; adviser on marketing, creative thinking and leadership.

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