All aboard for the new world of education

By Bernard BELLETANTE, Dean of emlyon business school.

A few days ago, Skema announced it had entered into partnership with Microsoft, confirming the digital transformation of the world of education. emlyon business school entered this new world in January 2015, when it signed an exclusive and global partnership agreement with IBM. Today, students, professors, collaborators and other stakeholders (partner companies, schools, governing bodies etc.) interact within a digital environment, favouring new types of collaboration and new pedagogical approaches. A guided tour of the school of the future.

Education today is based on the same principles that were established three thousand years ago: a teacher passes on knowledge to students in a given space and time. Digital technology has blown this model apart.  The rhythms, methods of diffusion and dimensions of education are changing. The new-generation of schools is breaking down walls, time, solitude and silence. Gone are the nights when you had to revise alone in your room. Students can now learn together; they are connected no matter their location, no matter the time. Lecture theatres are becoming obsolete as we begin to favour interaction in collaborative spaces – be they real or virtual.

The education of tomorrow will create sharing and promote a multidisciplinary approache; it will move away from theory and into the tangible world. It will also develop a taste for uncertainty and will train “Makers” i.e. individuals and teams who take action and bring their projects to life. The student will no longer belong to their institution –the school- rather, they will become a member of a community that corresponds to their various interests, professional aspirations and which surpasses the boundaries of the academic world. In the digital world, we take a collective approach, which raises questions about the current systems of grading and awarding qualifications, which are extremely focused on the individual. We have now entered into a logic of continual evaluation within schools and out in the social networks. The stamp of approval and quality is no longer the qualification rather, it is the reputation. Just like the hotels rated on TripAdvisor: the comments are more important than the number of stars or the name of the chain.

Up to this point, we have been as the captains of a barge navigating between two well-known and clearly-defined river banks. Now, we must develop in our students the desire to explore and embrace the unknown.

Creating a new-generation learning environment with IBM

The ‘Smarter Business School’ project, co-developed by IBM’s teams and emlyon business school is unique in the world today. It enables us to tailor our teaching, using the latest digital technology, and to make it available 24/7 from anywhere in the world via PC, tablet or smartphone. The students work in an environment that is open to the rest of the world, with the possibility of interconnecting knowledge on a global scale. They have fewer lessons in lecture theatres and benefit from a blended learning approach; a combination of distance learning and classroom teaching. They acquire theoretical knowledge on-line (e-learning systems, virtual classrooms, on-line exchanges with their tutors 24hrs day) and then come on site to deepen their understanding of the theory and to put it into perspective during interactive sessions and group work under their professors’ guidance.

This new learning environment has been entirely conceived to develop the ‘Makers’ approach. It helps to stimulate the students’ creativity and the realisation of projects. Entrepreneurial initiatives are developed based on collaborative working tools and data analysis, giving students optimal possibilities for sharing ideas, market studies and team work. From a pedagogical point of view, the Smarter Business School’s solutions enable each student to develop their own personal path to learning; one that corresponds to their specific needs. emlyon business school is a co-developer of digital solutions, an innovations beta tester and an ideas agitator when it comes to the potential of augmented intelligence technologies. As emlyon business school heads towards the new world of education, it carries its students, start-ups and institutions with it; together they ride the digital wave towards new horizons.