Digitisation and globalisation have made it necessary to rethink our education and cultural policies. Technology companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google are investing more and more in educational activities, while trends such as massive open online courses (MOOCs) are bringing into question the need for classrooms and face-to-face exchanges with teachers. Charitable organisations, such as Khan Academy and Coursera, now offer free educational content online.
This year, the Frankfurt Book Fair Literacy Campaign – LitCam and the Frankfurt Book Fair have invited a number of education experts to analyse these trends, and to attempt some predictions about the future of the education sector. Meanwhile, active, tech-based learning in conjunction with current issues, such as climate change, expeditions or “self-help”, make up the programme in the Classroom of the Future (Hall 4.2). Here, school pupils, parents and teachers can find out at firsthand about the future of learning.
This year will see the first ‘International Summit: Challenges in Education and Culture Policy’, hosted jointly by LitCam and the Frankfurt Book Fair. The programme includes discussions with international ministers and experts about a range of current topics and challenges: the financing of education and culture; securing the support of private institutions and companies; inclusion and integration. This event will take place from 10.30 am to 3.00 pm on October 8, in the Congress Center.
In his keynote speech, the respected education expert, Professor Pasi Sahlberg of Harvard University, will examine the latest challenges emerging in the international context. Malta’s Minister of Education and Employment, Evarist Bartolo, will then join Professor Sahlberg in discussing today’s wave of migration and the integration of refugees in the cultural and educational programmes of their host countries. The talk will be chaired by Matthew Anderson of BBC Culture.
Also speaking at the International Summit will be Yoo Jeong-Bok, Mayor of Incheon in South Korea, and Androulla Vassiliou, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Sport, Media and Youth. Italy’s Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini, and Georgian Minister of Culture and Monument Protection, Mikheil Giorgadze, will join Dr Bruno Gross, CFO of the Goethe Institut, and Frank Bolten, Head of Corporate Citizenship, Samsung Germany, for a round table discussing the question "How important is private funding when it comes to mastering the challenges of the future?"
The CEO Round Table on October 10 from 9.30 – 10.30 am, Forum Education, will take as its title: ‘Perspectives in Education: Across Boundaries – an Education Melting Pot?’ This discussion will involve Song Min Woo, CEO of English EGG, Korea, and André Palme, Managing Director of DSOP Educação Financeira, as well as Fadi Khalek, Vice President Higher Education & Applied Learning, Pearson Education, and Dr René Tristan Lydiksen, Managing Director of LEGO Education Europe.
Do technological applications bring better learning results? What is the real value of free education services? And how important is the physical presence of teachers in an increasingly virtual learning environment? A range of education experts will address these and other questions at the LitCam Education Conference on October 10, 2014 (2.30 – 5.30 pm, Hall 4.2, Dimension Room). In the session ‘Teaching Girls to Code’, Linda Liukas of Rails Girl will demonstrate that programming can be fun – and that it’s an important cultural technique of tomorrow. Santeri Koivisto of Teachergaming will talk about the use of educational games in the classroom. Other contributors will include Michael Jay of Educational Systemics, Artur Dyro of Learnetic, Mark West of UNESCO and Klaus Holoch of Cornelsen.
During the Book Fair, other LitCam events will be held in the LitCam Cultural Stadium (Hall 3.1 B 33). Interested parties can find more information about all the events, panel discussions and conferences at www.litcam.de.
In just two years, the Classroom of the Future has developed into the major attraction in Hall 4.2. Under the title ‘Beehive of Knowledge’, the Classroom offers school pupils a varied and interactive programme. Here, teachers, parents and, above all, the pupils themselves can experience at firsthand how digital media, electronic devices and experiments can enrich the classroom experience. In the Classroom of the Future’s editorial office, children will be able to exercise their creativity, while training their writing and media skills. In a wide range of experiments on the subjects of sustainability and the planet Earth, they can investigate, for example, how noise and pollution are affecting the animals that live in the oceans. Also on the programme are the use of digital atlases, gathering satellite data and ways of using the interactive learning platform ‘Space4Geography’.
