In this episode, Bian Li speaks about her own experience and the sector-wide boom of EdTech during the pandemic and its potential long-term effects. She also speaks about the rapid and global changes to education and training, and on the overall perception of learning. There is mention of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technologies to improve the facilitation of learning and the exponential growth towards such changes in the world today. The episode ends with a deep discussion about the future of skills and how hyper customisation of learning will become the norm in the not-too-distant future.

Bian, a REX Karmaveer Global Fellow and 40 under 40, is the founder of The Hungry Lab; a global online platform empowering the next generation of innovators and problem-solvers through its online ReSchool for the Future, Social Enterprise incubator and ReThink Tank to harness emerging tech for good. She is a futurist, an authority in the SDG space, and regularly comments on the intersection of technology and education.

“The root cause (in the misalignment of education today) is that parents are hurting, but they do not know how to do anything different as they are in a flawed economic and societal system .” — Bian Li

“And suddenly even grandparents in India started seeing digital education as something that was valuable for their grandson or grandnephew.” – Dev Aditya

“We need to open our minds, and open ourselves to new ways of understanding and viewing the world. It is not only ahead exercise but a heart exercise.” — Bian Li

In this podcast you will listen to:

• Get to know Bian, her time when she was stuck in India for 7 months due to the pandemic, and her extensive background as a futurist in the reskilling and upskilling space.
• The growth and sudden acceptance of EdTech due, despite being phenomenal, we are still in the early stages.
• The future of skills and learning and where it is going.
• What are the skills of tomorrow, the right skills, and ways of learning that match the jobs of tomorrow?
• The loss of human creativity resulting from archaic teaching and learning systems that exist today and the immediate need to replace such systems.
• How COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of EdTEch especially in South Asian countries.
• For parents, they need to ask questions and learn to learn.
• Bian’s acronym of STEAM and its importance in the future of human upskilling and ability.
• The use of AI in reskilling and upskilling learners and how it can free up human beings by giving us the freedom from mundane tasks to allow us to become more creative.
• Bian introduces listeners to her ice-berg metaphor, about the future of education and skills development, and about 'Learning 4.0'.
• How everyone having and showcasing their own expertise is a natural future of work.
• How the future is about hyper customisation of learning and content.

‘ProjectOI Podcast’ is registered under Otermans Institute and encourages credible discussions on the future of education, training, and human ability. The views presented by guests are their own and do not represent the views of the registered organisation or its members. New episodes are out on www.oiedu.co.uk and other streaming channels every fortnight.