Yesterday morning, Learning Creates Australia kicked off our launch activities by hosting the first in a series of virtual conversations. Over 150 attendees joined us to hear international experts share their perspectives on learning and systems transformation.

During the event we trended on Twitter (see what everyone was saying here) and key insights from the conversation were illustrated in a graphic by our visual scribe, Kate Baxter (you can watch it scribed-live here):




Above is a recording of the event and below you will find a link to share, a summary of who we heard from and our response to the many questions you asked, as well as key information on how you can get involved and stay connected to the work.

In the coming months we look forward to bringing you more of these virtual conversations to hear from a diversity of perspective and experiences relevant to our work, including the voice of young people, communities, educators and industry. Sign up to ensure you hear about them first.


Recording

If timezones weren’t on your side yesterday (or you needed a sleep-in) you can watch a recording of the conversation here: https://youtu.be/oo358cJ3zx8


Who we heard from 

Our first virtual conversation included contributions from:

Valerie Hannon -  a radical voice for change and global thought leader. Valerie inspires systems to re-think what ‘success’ will mean in the 21st Century, and the implications for education. She is the co-founder of Innovation Unit and of the Global Education Leaders Partnership. She  works with the OECD’s Education 2030 program and her last book, THRIVE, will appear in a 2nd edition in 2020.

Michael Stevenson - an innovation and strategic advisor for government. Michael is currently leading the development of the long-term PISA roadmap and helping high performing countries develop tomorrow's education systems. He is Senior Advisor for PISA at the OECD in Paris.

Dr. Milton Chen - a leader in educational innovation. Dr Milton Chen's work explores the effective use of media and technology; teacher and parent education; real-world curricula; and partnerships between schools, universities, businesses, libraries, and museums. He is Senior Fellow and Executive Director, of Emeritus at The George Lucas Educational Foundation which produces the Edutopia.org website on innovative K-12 learning.

Dr Rebecca Winthrop -  a senior fellow and co-director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. Dr. Winthrop’s research works to promote quality and relevant education globally, including exploring how education innovations can leapfrog progress, particularly for the most marginalized children and youth. Rebecca’s most recent book is Leapfrogging Inequality: Remaking Education to Help Young People Thrive.

Hayley McQuire  - a proud Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman. Hayley is co-founder of the National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition and an Advisory Board member of Learning Creates Australia. 

Anthony Mackay AM - an expert advisor to OECD, UNESCO, Asia Society and WISE. He is President and CEO of the Washington DC based National Center on Education and the Economy. Anthony is Co Chair GELP, Deputy Chancellor Swinburne University Melbourne, and Board Chair of The Song Room and Board Director of High Resolves Global and Schools Plus. Anthony is also the co-convenor of Learning Creates Australia.

 

Your questions and how to get involved

In 75 minutes yesterday, you filled up our Q&A chat with hundreds of insightful questions and comments and we spent the remainder of the day sorting through them in detail. Thank you for the interest and curiosity you have already shown in the work of Learning Creates - please keep them coming!

Some of the questions you asked were around the focus of our work, our approach and the role we play as Learning Creates Australia. A lot of this detail will be captured on our website - learningcreates.org.au - and explored through content on our blog, This Learning Life. 

The vast majority of your questions however, were significant ones - ones we are constantly asking ourselves - How will we redefine success? Is success even the right word? How do we give young people better control and authorship over their own journeys? What is the role for young people, educators and community in shaping future policy? What role will technology play in changing the landscape and shaping pathways? What will be the intersect with our equity challenge?

These aren’t questions that we can answer on our own. We are committed to exploring these in collaboration with you, alongside other young people, educators, parents and the business community through our Social Lab. We have partnered PwC Australia to guide the Social Lab process, YLab will ensure young people are front and centre throughout our work with a diversity of voices reflected and with the University of Melbourne to inform and evidence new approaches to defining learning ‘success’.

If you are keen to be involved and contribute your skills, experience and expertise in any way please let us know.

Many of you were also keen to understand more about the other launch activities happening across the month and in particular, how we will ensure young people are leading contributors to the work. Other launch activities happening this week include:

  • A roundtable with young people and community members to design our approach in engaging them as decision makers and co-designers of the Learner’s Journey project 
  • Launching our first student challenge which has been imagined by young people. We will ask young people to share their current experiences of learning and ideas for change.  
  • The launch of This Learning Life Blog where young people, parents, educators, community members and experts will share their insights, experience and expertise. You can sign up to receive our newsletter here.

Stay tuned for more details on future webinars where we will hear from students across Australia, from communities, educators, and industry leaders.

We look forward to working with you to ensure Learning Creates Australia.