Over 300 school owners, administrators, academic and information technology heads from all over the Philippines converged at De La Salle University Taft for IGNITE 2017, a three-day education innovation conference presented by Globe Telecom to inspire design thinking, innovation, and transformational change in schools.
The conference featured a series of expert talks, workshops, exhibitions, and activities carefully curated and customized to spark exciting fresh ideas that may help solve the needs and challenges of schools and the new generation of students.
Guest speakers included Globe chief executive officer and president Ernest Cu who talked about building a digital nation and Google Philippines country head Ken Lingan who expounded on the importance of innovating in the digital age. Globe chief technology and information officer Gil Genio, SAP’s Rey Paragas; College of Saint Benilde president Br. Dennis Magbanua, FSC; and Mynd Consulting founder Myrna Padilla also spoke at the conference.
“The current challenges that schools are confronted with are varied and complex given the changing needs of students especially the new generation who are widely exposed to technology such as the Internet. This inspired us to come up with IGNITE 2017 to share with school representatives new perspectives, new tools, and new approaches on how to do creative thinking and problem-solving like the way top companies do it,” said Michelle Tapia, Globe advisor and head of Education Strategy and Innovation.
The move is in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 to “ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning” which is necessary in improving people’s lives and ensuring sustainable development. Education is one of the key focus areas of Globe Telecom’s sustainability efforts in line with its vision to usher in a digital nation.
Late last year, Adobe Systems, Inc., an American multinational computer software company, released a study, “GenZ in the Classroom: Creating the Future” which underscores the increasing importance of creativity and technology in shaping future careers.
The research showed that of the more than 1,000 US students between ages 11 and 17 and more than 400 Gen Z teachers surveyed, 75 percent would like an increased focus on creativity in the classroom. In relation to this, 60 percent of educators look for more opportunities for hands-on learning in their classrooms while 52 percent wish to evolve the teaching curriculum. At the same time, 93 percent of the students and 73 percent of the teachers view technology as important for career preparedness.
Thus, to prepare both teachers and students for 21st century learning, the three-day conference particularly explored design thinking or human-centered design, which uses logic, imagination, and intuition to find meaningful solutions to complex problems. Through the workshops on design thinking, the educators were taught how to empathize with the students and understand their needs, look for patterns and insights, experiment and explore possibilities, refine their ideas, test, and deliver.
Conference attendees also enjoyed the technology expo along with exciting giveaways and prizes from IGNITE partners Apple, Power Mac Center, Google, Q Software Research (QSR PD), I am Cardboard, GSA, and Samsung. The tech expo also highlighted education innovations from Epson, Akinto, Felta, Globe Labs, Mynt, Ritmo Learning Lab, and JeepNeed. IGNITE 2017 was also supported by D2L’s Brightspace, Marketing Partners, PBEd and COCOPEA.