NEO Academy Podcast: Recent Episodes
NEO Academy
A compilation of our #NEOideas and #NEOchats!
The short-form podcast for the treadmill or the coffee break! Provocative #NEOideas and insights from the world of education in under ten minutes. A new idea every week!
The deep dive conversations with movers and shakers from the worlds of education and leadership. Future trends, big ideas, disruptive innovations, and people with something to say. Stay connected and get inspired with #NEOchats weekly.
Featuring from The PIE Live Boston, we're exploring a transformative journey fusing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. As a speaker, at the event, Alejandra engaged with the audience by guiding them through the following question: How can institutions future-proof their strategies by harnessing AI and CRM to elevate both student and staff experiences?
In the ever-evolving landscape of knowledge and expertise, the dynamic force of collaboration and shared experiences emerges as a priceless asset. Within the geNEOus team, the art of exchanging ideas, tools, and resources is a passion that drives us. Today, we extend our arms to our wider community, eager to illuminate a path strewn with the gems of our collective wisdom.
We are excited to share a collection of our team members' favorite resources. These span a wide spectrum, from books, blogs that have sparked transformative shifts in thinking, to online tools and apps that have streamlined our workflows and productivity.
Whether you're seeking to expand your horizons, enhance your skills, or simply find a new source of joy, we are confident that you will stumble upon an array of treasures resonating with your aspirations.
As the summer sun starts to shine brighter, it's the perfect time to revamp our marketing playbook, especially for us in the education sector. Let's face it, the hot spot to catch potential students and their families right now is social media. But what if we added a twist to the old story and brought sustainability into the mix? Let's delve into how we can merge Paid Media and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into a turbocharged strategy.
Creating a well-structured paid media strategy during the summer can give your educational institution a competitive edge, specially for those students and parents who haven't still made a final decision for the upcoming intake. It is key that your institution has strong visibility during this period, and an effective paid media campaign can shed a spotlight on your institution, making it a top choice.
As we continue on a digital transformation path of international education, community building platforms are proving to be an unstoppable force, revolutionizing the way international students experience learning. The paradigm has shifted from the traditional classroom-centric approach to a more holistic strategy that nurtures an environment of inclusivity, connectedness, and consistent support. Trust and genuine connections are not merely buzzwords but pillars of these thriving communities.
These spaces are a treasure trove of resources not just for future learners, but also act as engagement hubs for current students and evangelization platforms for alumni.
Last week was definitely one to remember! Yes, this was the week of the NAFSA: Association of International Educators 2023 Conference in Washington D.C.
Our Founder & CEO Alejandra Otero had the pleasure to be a panelist alongside Piet Van Hove, Nannette Ripmeester and Daniel Ponce-Taylor as they explored an emerging topic which is becoming a hot-button issue in intled: SDGs in Higher Education Marketing: Essential or Just Another Ingredient?
Way back in 2005 the United Nations mobilized the forces of education with a powerful call to action. The “Decade of ESD” (Education for Sustainable Development) triggered lots of activity on a global scale, to ensure that education could play a more conscious role in developing the mindsets, skills, attitudes, and behaviors of a sustainable society beyond 2030.
Are you in education marketing or student recruitment? Despite the handy “M&R” phrase, we meet so many colleagues who talk of each component as two entirely separate planets.
Given how competitive things are in education, we think it's vital for education institutions to understand the link between marketing and recruitment and to make sure they are working and communicating hand in hand.
If we go back to basics and define the terms, marketing in education refers to the strategies and tactics that educational institutions use to promote themselves to prospective students, parents, and other stakeholders. Recruitment, on the other hand, refers to the process of attracting and enrolling new students to the institution.
Even stripping them back to their elemental forms, they completely overlap. While to some, marketing and recruitment may seem like two different things, they are both part of the same process: catching new students' attention and enrolling them.
Marketing and recruitment have more in common than we might think. Both require a deep understanding of the target audience and the ability to connect with them on a personal level. In both cases, it's all about building relationships and creating a sense of community. Both also require a keen eye for detail, whether it's analyzing data or reviewing applications.
So, are their differences really so significant in reality?
We returned recently to the UNICA report, entitled New strategies of marketing and recruitment of international students, for a second look. There are often things we miss, or gloss over, on the first readings of these reports, and we are glad that we revisited this one.
There is a piece by Aswin Lutchanah, Social Media Manager at the University of Luxembourg, which caught our eye, because we loved the simplicity of it. The topic was Empathy Marketing; something we have seen a lot more attention being paid to as new generations arrive at our institutions, accentuated by the drivers of the post-pandemic educational landscape.
Empathy is complex, but fundamentally it is the glue to social cohesion and often overlooked as a unique force in the way we communicate with and engage new students.
By 2025, Millennials will make up nearly 75% of the global workforce. Gen Z-ers born in the mid-1990s are already graduating from higher education and reshaping the world of business. (The cool) universities are now turning their attention to the next generation: Generation Alpha. With the rise of a more tech-focused world, as well as changing social and cultural values, who is now knocking at our doors and what do they want?
Millennials are just so 1995, but they are the ones who have driven the major recent changes to workplace culture, spearheading the so-called “Great Resignation” and demands for a different way of doing things post-pandemic.
Before we have even really adapted to this and internalized what it all means, along come Gen Z, who are determined to outshine the Z’s by bringing their personal values into their work. Gone is the “work persona” with the Z’s, who want to be themselves wherever they are. Already there is a brewing clash with top-down formal, hierarchical and high power-distance organizations.
With both these generations fully embedded in the workplace and Gen Alpha not too far behind, education institutions need to take action now to attract and retain them as workers and, of course, as potential students.
What comes to mind when you think of the word ‘entrepreneurship’? Scrappy start-ups turned Silicon Valley unicorns? Wealthy one-offs like Mark Zuckerberg or Richard Branson? Or even a Gen Z tech whiz making millions from their bedroom? Whatever you think of, it probably relates to growing a business and making money. But what if we told you that the skills of an entrepreneur are just what higher education institutions need to be focused on, right across the learning environments? This is not because we believe everyone deep down wants to run off and start their own business, but because those skills are just what they need to cope with the ever-changing nature of our modern working world.
Prevention is the best medicine. We've all heard this at some point in our lives, and it’s not just about green-juicing your way to glowing health. From our physical health to our professional lives, taking proactive steps to prevent problems from arising is alwayspreferable to waiting until they become too big to handle. This is especially true when it comes to teams and institutions that work under pressure, which is pretty much all of our sector!
Opening ourselves up to the learning experiences in every interaction, project, relationship, decision, and outcome would be a true superpower, but it is actually quite a tricky thing to do.
However, even if we are not actively thinking “what can I learn from this?”, that does not mean that we are not being influenced and shaped by our experience of others. In fact, we sat down this week to reflect on just who has shaped us as an organization, and as individuals. As we pass our 6th birthday, and into this geNEOus world, we look back, forward and around us for how others influence us.
We have dropped enough hints, so here is the news: NEO Academy is over.
No, not like that. Well, kind of, but not really. We need to explain. Can we tell you a story? Nobody gets hurt, we promise.
How many of you are the same person you were six years ago? Not many, we would bet.
Most of us undergo changes all the time in response to different things: who we are around, what we experience, what we learn about the world and ourselves; all of it creates an evolutionary state of being, if we are open to listen and reflect. The changes might be small, but they add up over time.
Does it feel like "cheating"? This is an interesting point for reflection and growth, as the arrival of AI in our sector is truly disrupting every aspect of our jobs. If a "robot" can write a lot of our copy, do keyword research, benchmark competitors etc., does that make us feel redundant or liberated? What exactly is the "creative" part of our job, and what would we do more of if we had more time freed up?
We prize innovation. Findings ways to "work smarter not harder" are always welcome, or so it seems to us. What happens to the ego when we find ways for clever hacks to do the heavy lifting in our everyday professional roles?
Last week we wrote about ChatGPT, as an introduction and a reflection on where the tool might develop in its capacity. However, we realize that it may all still seem a bit distant, and disconnected from our everyday reality of the professional world.
ChatGPT4 is coming in 2023, and will make the current version look like a cute toy. It can write a 60,000 word novel from one prompt, and will disrupt a great many industries. Sundar Pinchai, CEO of Google, said in 2018 that "AI is one of the most important things humanity is working on. It is more profound than, I dunno, electricity or fire". If ever there was an inappropriate statement to water down with "I dunno", that was it. ChatGPT would not have made that slip.
Does that seem real? Overwhelming? Well, then let's bring it a little closer to home, to you, the education marketing professional. And let's broaden out from ChatGPT just a bit, to include the full range of tools in the current suite at OpenAI. That would include not only ChatGPT, but also Whisper (speech recognition tool) and Dall-E2 (image generator).
Do we strike you as late adopters? The Education Marketing consultancy who are helping institutions adapt to new technologies, new channels of engagement and the arrival of Generation Alpha? Surely not.
But kind of. Do you ever see lots of hype around a movie or TV show, and it actually puts you off watching it? It feels like, if you watch that movie when the noise is at its peak, all you can hear is the voices of others, and you can't find your own.
We've been in on ChatGPT since it first opened its robot arms to the public, but we just haven't felt like talking about it yet. So much hype has surrounded it; from the "end of education" to the "collapse of the human creative process".
It is neither of those things. If anything, it is the death of Google and the final death blow to old-fashioned essay-based assessment methods. However, in terms of creativity, it is simply another stimulus in the way we employ human intelligence, and AI is nothing without us.
We feel like people are starting to find a more sober analysis of ChatGPT on offer now, as we start to see the possibilities of it all, and also to simply embrace that this change is already here. We will be dipping into ChatGPT from a few angles over the coming months, as well as looking more broadly at OpenAI, the company behind it, and AI in general for a broader overview of course.
So if you were looking for a short article on ChatGPT that doesn't use the word "apocalypse", then you've come to the right place.
Those at the forefront of innovation in Higher Education are always on the lookout for ways to enrich the learning experience for students, and appeal to new generations of digital natives who are open to new things.
One technology that has recently caught the attention of universities is extended reality (XR). But what exactly is XR, and how is it different from augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)?
Upskilling, reskilling, and cross-skilling are terms that are becoming increasingly prevalent in today's fast-paced and ever-evolving job market, and that means we in education need to think about how we are responding.
As we recently discussed in our NEOchats with Nannette Ripmeester, there is a growing skills gap between higher education and the labor market, and the way we support students to develop new skills, both within and beyond their time with us, is of critical importance.
Those at the forefront of innovation in Higher Education are always on the lookout for ways to enrich the learning experience for students, and appeal to new generations of digital natives who are open to new things.
One technology that has recently caught the attention of universities is extended reality (XR). But what exactly is XR, and how is it different from augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)?
The world of marketing is in a bit of confusion right now, and it's really not its fault. We have all by now heard that third party cookies are set to be eliminated by Google, and given that two thirds of internet users are doing it on Chrome Browsers, that amounts to a de facto elimination of cookies entirely. Given the way we track engagement currently, this announcement had us all rushing to learn about FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), TOPICS, and ZKA (Zero Knowledge Advertising) before the whole thing changed in 2023.
Every single year, many of us sit down to reflect on the 12 months that have just elapsed, and the 12 in front of us. How well did we do on our own personal scale, and what can we learn and take forward to move towards the things we want to achieve? The beauty and tyranny of the blank page in equal measures.
But we have been here before. The year before, and the year before that. Some things we have managed to change, and others we have not.
We were going to write about the personal development or Self-Help (SH) books which really inspired us this year, but we had a nagging sensation that there is just more to this. And there is.
Picking up a SH book is not going to help you on its own. There is no shortage of people telling you that they are pointless, misinformed or one-sided. But then we do meet that person who tells us their life changed after reading the 5am club or nonviolent communication.
So what's the deal? At NEO we are hugely passionate lifelong learners, and so we value all forms of professional development, but we equally recognise that there are strategies to everything which help you get the most out of something. Reading a crime novel has no real strategy; you read it, you finish it, or you don't. We don't have to do anything with the story, except perhaps to ruin the book for one of our friends after we accidentally (sort of) tell them the ending after a couple of sangrías.
Reading a SH book, or even choosing to read it, is really different and needs a bit of thought, so let's dig in shall we?
"I just have a gut feeling" is an expression you would probably not expect to ever hear in such a data-driven environment as marketing, but we have heard it often. Where we need to rely on a gut feeling, there is clearly an absence of data, and so instinctive actions based on experience and an understanding of the market come into play.
With so much at stake for ROI from strictly monitored budgets, this can be a huge risk, especially because no data to make the decision means no data to track its efficacy.
So why is this happening? Yes, it is true that education institutions are often large and decentralized, with systems and processes that do not always join up and talk to each other. Manual processing of information can be siloed, with team members not always aware that information they are capturing is of great importance to others in the team.
However, short of a process overhaul, there is very often a simpler way to make better data-driven decisions and measurements. Yes, we are talking about attribution models; in other words, ways to figure out what the exact touchpoints are which lead to conversions.
Have you heard of UNICA? This organisation is a Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe. They are unique because of their focus on the 41 capital cities of Europe, largely due to them being hubs of innovation and development in close proximity to the seats of political power and influence. In short, they want to help these universities to "support decisions and policies that contribute to the creation of a Europe based on social understanding, global collaboration, and sustainability."
UNICA hosted an important event yesterday, and we were there. The UNICA PR & Communication group met for its 10th annual gathering, and this time the focus was on looking at how the pandemic (and many concurrent socio-technological shifts) impacted the way that we recruit and communicate with international students.
If you know us by now, you will know that this is right up NEO street, and so our Founder & CEO Alejandra Otero was there, to give a talk entitled "From myth to opportunity: why understanding Gen Alpha and the Metaverse matter".
So why exactly does it matter? Well, there are four important areas this talk covered, and while they are contextualised by data and theory of change that will impact the way universities recruit and communicate, they also cover extremely practical ways to actually adapt to this change and to future-proof our sector.
Oh, wow. There is a lot in this, isn't there? Let's unpack it right at the start, We have had the same doubts ourselves many times: Our team can learn to do so many things, so why not just upskill them to do something rather than contracting someone external? How can I trust the external company anyway, and won't they just try to keep us dependent on their services? And this whole "gig economy" things is surely not something we really want to promote, because building team and talent in-house is the socially and strategically responsible thing to do.
All valid, and understandable. Like all things, however, there are shades of grey here, and other ways to look at the situation. We are reminded of a colleague of ours who is opening a new café business. In May 2022 they took possession of the premises and decided to keep costs low by doing all of the decor and renovation themselves. They had to learn how to sand floors and plaster walls, and all on top of an already busy life.
Instead of opening in July 2022 to catch the peak tourist season, they are on track to open in November, after paying rent for 6 months with no revenue. They worked out that had they paid professionals to do the work in May and June, the café would have been open on time and generating business throughout the summer months. Of course hindsight is always crystal clear, but there is a lesson in there, so let's deal with these doubts one by one.
Social media is obviously an important means to engage with prospective students for Higher Education. However, each individual channel is a distinct tool in and of itself. As someone will doubtless remind you when you post holiday snaps on LinkedIn: "this is not Facebook".
We are just back from the fantastic event that is ICEF Berlin, the flagship event in the ICEF calendar and a very important meeting point for ideas, colleagues and new connections.
NEO likes to get fully immersed in these events, and we want not only to learn and absorb new ideas, but to be part of the conversation about what we think is important in the future of our sector.
In the spirit of adding to the conversation, NEO Founder & CEO Alejandra Otero was invited to take part in a talk and panel discussion alongside ISIC - International Student Identity Card's Jodie Kilian and TrainHub's Jimmy Battaglia, moderated by ICEF's Ross Holmes. The theme was one which we've been exploring more and more on our journey of being a purpose-first organisation: digital student identity, and how to balance the integrity and ethics of marketing engagement with the results we need to remain competitive.
A 2022 report by LinkedIn began with the CEO, Ryan Roslansky, stating that there is a "massive shift underway in the global economy". He was not only talking about the "great reshuffle" where business models and ways of working are being totally upended, but also about the need to green the economy and for education to support the development of the green skills that are needed to do this.
Green skills, this report tells us, are the skills needed to make economic activity environmentally sustainable. The examples it gives of the most prominent green skills are in things like renewables and environmental systems like pollution prevention. This is what so many people think of when someone says "green skills", and feel that it only applies to jobs like engineers tinkering with wind turbines.
Nannette is the director of Expertise in Labor Mobility and Founder of the Career Professor app, with a wide-ranging experience between higher education and the labor market.
In this NEOchats, we ask Nannette about the gaps between education and employment, and why we need to broaden our perspective on what "employability" means.
We also dig into the circular approach to student recruitment and retention through the most organic method-making sure graduates are supported to achieve their own goals and to understand the value of the skill set they have already developed. In a VERY fast-paced and volatile labor market, these clear insights will be of interest to colleges and universities, marketing and recruitment, and those working in alumni networks and employer liaisons.
In our world of education marketing and recruitment, the EAIE needs no introduction. Since 1989, this member-driven organisation has striven to be the "European centre for expertise, networking and resources in the internationalisation of higher education". But while we are all very likely familiar with the organisation itself, how many of us have attended one of their annual conferences?
Here is a challenge for you: name something you did in your education which felt like you were genuinely applying your learning to a real world scenario. Hopefully you are fortunate enough to think of one or more examples, but most of us will not. We learn in school, college, university, and then we work in the "real" world, but they are separate entities.
There are internships as part of courses, projects with companies or NGOs, and numerous other initiatives to try to de-silo the learning and get it out into the community around us in a symbiotic way. Many of these, however, can feel a bit scripted or too formulaic. Are we really in the real world? Will this company actually maybe do something with our findings or suggestions?
Wait, what? We are supposed to be on holiday and the LAST thing I want to do is listen to anything related to my work. We hear you, absolutely, but these are not heavy, and nor are they "worky". Not really. Not at all, in fact.
For those of us who find the world of education to be a career, passion, calling and hobby rolled into one, here are five great recommended beach listens that spark imagination, reflection, learning and development, to help us become better versions of us. Oh, and they are all highly compatible with cocktail-sipping, we promise.
The metaverse is going to change education. Virtual reality is going to deepen and enrich learning. AI is changing the way we adapt and personalize learning. We are very aware at NEO Academy, that every time we make these statements, and explore what they mean for institutions, that there is a bias and a slant to the perspective. All of this is only true if you have access. The Global North largely does, and the Global South often does not, and therefore access to the means to enrich education through technology will only deepen the divide and reinforce existing inequalities.
3.7 billion people globally are not online, and imagine what those people are losing as jobs and communities move online, MOOCs and virtual learning communities ramp up, and employers increasingly accept micro-credentials and digital learning portfolios in place of formal academic learning pathways. The internet is not the solution to everything, uses huge amounts of energy from largely unsustainable sources, and all the rest of it, but does create opportunity that should at least be available to everyone should they choose it.
Here is a question or two for you. To what extent would you agree with the following statements:
A: Humans are social and emotional beings
B: Education has a responsibility to help us develop the social and emotional aspects of who we are
How many of us are still figuring out how to be ourselves? To drop the mask, to be ok with things, to identify the things we want to change about ourselves and understand where they came from? How many of us wished we had had more support in learning to be more compassionate to ourselves, more empathetic with others, more able to regulate our self talk or emotional states, and more skilled in navigating the triggers of difficult discussions?
Parents do the best they can, of course, but there is no way of really measuring, supporting or ensuring consistency of approach in the way they support the social and emotional development of their children. That will require a greater level of societal awareness and so it has to start, like all things, from education. The approach which addresses this gap is generally called Social Emotional Learning (SEL).
How can we meaningfully engage students in institutional strategy? It's a question that has been on the minds of educators for years, and one that is more pressing than ever in today's climate of stakeholder empowerment and enfranchisement.
The answer, of course, is not to ask them to read the minutes of board meetings or sit through PowerPoint presentations on analytics. Nor is it to create ad hoc "town hall" meetings where they are asked to provide input on issues that have already been decided. This gives the illusion of engagement, but the inauthenticity is pretty transparent.
So what do we need to do instead, to create opportunities for students to contribute their unique perspectives and experiences at every stage of the strategic planning process? Can we really ensure that our institutions are truly responsive to the needs of all stakeholders? How can we in marketing and recruitment play a part?
Aside from location, which is pretty hard for institutions to change, what are the factors which really influence applicants' decision on which business school to attend? The thing is that the top three factors are relatively unchanging:
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The quality of the learning and reputation of the school
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The cost
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The employment prospects after graduation
That is unlikely to be surprising, but what does surprise us at times is just how hard business schools work to compete on the same things, instead of finding their way to standing out more.
Back in 2014, Irina Bokova, then the Director-General of UNESCO, launched the UNESCO Roadmap in 2014 for a Global Action program on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
Bokova began this document with a foreword, which made it clear that for humanity to survive the coming decades, and move to a way of life that could be sustained, tinkering at the edges of our system would simply not do. Bokova called for nothing less than a "paradigm shift" in the way we work, live, and consume resources.
That's a big, bold statement. A total rethink of everything we are doing is pretty scary. Our economies, societies, and ways of traveling, consuming, and powering our lifestyles have to become something totally different. This is not just switching to electric cars and cutting down on the beefburgers, but something much, much more.
Virtual Reality is more than gaming and 3D movies. A growing number of K-12 schools, colleges and universities are investigating the educational potential of VR. But how does VR actually work? How can it be used to facilitate learning?
Neuroscience has a lot to say about how our brains learn in virtual reality. When we put on a VR headset, we're effectively transported into a digital world. Our brains receive visual, auditory and other sensory input that trick us into thinking we're somewhere else. This is known as immersion.
Immersion is key to VR's educational potential. When we're immersed in a virtual environment, we're more likely to pay attention and engage with the content. We're also more likely to remember what we've learned. That's because immersive experiences activate the brain's memory circuits, which helps us encode and store information.
Join us in this episode of #NEOchats as we meet with Simone Ravaioli, Director of Global Ecosystem and Innovation at Parchment, and expert on all things micro-credential! We talk about how Higher Education can embrace, trust and verify this approach to learning, and how it benefits both institutions and learners.
Tell me about yourself. The dreaded question that beckons an effective answer in order to enter employment, study, or even a romantic relationship. But how do you really capture a sense of who you are and communicate it?
Some people begin by talking about work or study, but that is really only a fraction of the whole. Sure, your qualifications are an important part of your life story, but what about all the other learning experiences you've had, which don't fit on the page? Even describing the things you've done can be difficult in terms of how they connect to the skills that those experiences developed.
Our lives contain so many learning experiences, and shorter, focused learning episodes which we may have done in a variety of settings. How can we evidence these and present a more complete picture of who we are and the path we have taken?
The LinkedIn Profile structure has had a good attempt at helping us do this, but the verifiability of these claims is also a challenge. How many times has someone endorsed you for a skill you are either not sure you really have, or would prefer not to be the one people remember you for? We need something a bit more developed, and micro-credentials are ready to take that role.
It seems like just the other day we were talking about the struggle many K-12 institutions had in adapting to online, blended, or hybrid learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. We are very aware, that virtual high schools and K-12 offers partially or wholly in the metaverse are not about to happen overnight. We are not even saying that they should happen.
What is clear, is that this transition is taking place. Check into it, and you'll see that the schools dipping into immersive virtual learning environments are not as rare as they were, even a year ago. This is happening, and from where we are standing and observing, it seems to be picking up pace.
So what might that transition look like, and why would we want to go this route? What's in it for learners and institutions? Let's start by asking what it's all about!
For a long time now, education has been changing. That change has been too slow for some and too quickly for others, but it is happening nonetheless. Moving from education 1.0, where learning was dictated to us, we are now moving to education 3.0, which coincides quite neatly, and not just coincidentally, with Web3.
Today we are live with Cornelis den Hartog, Co-Founder of 2022 #PIEoneerawards finalist Goin’ Connect, a social networking platform that helps prospective students find and build connections before attending.
Did you go to university or college? Whether or not you did, you likely know someone who has gone, and it is also pretty likely you work there now, if you're reading this. Whatever the case, perhaps we can all agree that starting a major new phase in your life like heading off to university is actually quite a serious and challenging time for many of us.
Oh sure, the Hollywood movie scenes have shown us countless students packing their cars and heading off to college with undented optimism and perfect teeth, to arrive and slot seamlessly into sororities and immediately sipping beer from red cups at Chad Hogan's party. For some, that is the experience, and that's great, but what is the reality?
Welcome to #NEOchats Live with Alejandra Otero to talk about the kind of training content and approaches she feels are best suited to today's admissions, marketing & recruitment professionals.
We're discussing: the experiences we have had in professional training sessions, in general, but also specifically in M & R, the good, the bad and the ugly what Alejandra has learned about what works
What way Alejandra approaches training in planning, implementing, and following up?
What are the hallmarks and non-negotiable, and what are the open spaces where we can adapt?
What kind of topics and approaches do today's M & R professionals need most? what are they not getting and why?
The training session begins. Pens rest at an angle on a sheet of paper, ripped hastily from the notebook of a better prepared colleague. The Wi-Fi is playing up again. The PowerPoint appears, aims, objectives, logos and content. We listen, interact, take notes, and maybe laugh a little. There's usually water, and a croissant if you're lucky. Triangular sandwiches are always provided.
In the wake of the events of the last two years, it’s no surprise that resilience is the quality that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are highlighting as crucial to their recovery post-pandemic. We’re seeing this need for flexibility, sustainability, and growth being recognised at an organisational and cultural level, but it’s crucial that universities and colleges look at building resilience in their students too. So how are HIEs supporting students to navigate continuing change and uncertainty? What does a student-centred approach to resilience look like in practice? To answer that question, we must look past any buzzy, box-ticking associations and think about what we really mean when we talk about shaping successful, resilient students.
Eddy is an economist who found his Ikigai in sustainability and regeneration. He joins us to share his fascinating path from the world of the linear economy and traditional definitions of "success" to a more purposeful and self-aligned path. As Co-Founder of Emagine Life, an expert on rethinking economics, a lecturer at KdG, and a TEDx speaker, Eddy has some fascinating and wholistic insights on how the world might find a new path forward. Optimistic, accessible and inspirational, join us as we check in with Eddy during his sabbatical in South America to learn, share and grow with the communities around him.
We live in interesting times. Just at the very moment when our survival hangs in the balance as a species, we are beginning to wake up a little from the idea of constant growth and "progress" that has been drilled into us from birth. We measure this progress in GDP, not happiness, and not wellbeing, and so many of us are disconnected from the spiritual, reflective sides of our authentic selves, as we earn more, consume more, buy more.
This week we are joined by Priscilla Lavoie, Entrepreneur, Investor, Sales & Marketing Professional, and a person with a lot of experience in the world of education. In this current climate of teachers and education professionals moving to edtech and entrepreneurship, and an increasing number of learners looking towards the entrepreneurial pathway through life, how are we doing at supporting this? What do we need to know and learn, and how do we get there?
In our NEOchats with Rony Germon PhD, CEO of Kwark Universities, we really had our eyes opened. It is one thing to be writing about the future of education, and that that future is really already here, but when you really see a virtual campus like MetaKwark, and talk to someone who is helping to make that happen, it really hits home. This is happening.
This week we are joined by Rony Germon, PhD, Managing Director of Kwark Universities. Rony is an expert on all things Metaverse, so join us today as we explore this new world, with its challenges and opportunities for business, education, marketing, innovation and learning.
Microsoft's Chief Exec Satya Nadella has laid it out for us, when he said that the Metaverse means bringing together the physical and digital worlds. An article on 101 Blockchains dispelled the idea that the metaverse is a single place, or that it can only be accessed via virtual reality, saying "The metaverse is not just any single virtual world you experience with VR. On the contrary, it will be a shared and persistent virtual world complementing the real world."
This week we are joined by Dan Wood; an expert in Esports in education. What exactly are Esports? Join us to find out!
How often do we hear adults – parents, caregivers, teachers – telling young people to put down whatever device is seemingly surgically attached to their hand and join them ‘in the real world’? What if we told you that, in some classrooms, young learners are being told to do the exact opposite? Welcome to the world of esports in education, where online gaming isn’t just being used to foster cooperation and creativity in the classroom; it’s opening doors to whole new careers for Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
This week we are joined by Emma Vallely of PVL; an organisation striving to revolutionise mental health in the workplace.
Emma joins us from Glasgow, Scotland, as we discuss how a culture of wellbeing be developed and supported within organisations.
We also discuss the particular challenges of building such an environment with remote teams... Is it the same principle as building such a culture in a physical environment?
Join us!
We always start with letters, so let's switch up and start with numbers.
- Of all the employees that worked from home during the pandemic, 27% have stayed fully online. (Owl Labs)
- 59% of remote teams work between 2-5 time zones. (Buffer)
- Remote job posts on LinkedIn more than doubled between 2020 and 2021— from 6% to 14%.
- More than two thirds of workers feel they are as productive or more productive in working from home (WFH) (Chicago University)
I can't believe I'm saying this, but NEO is five years old this month!
Like many, we get a little reflective on birthdays, and while reflecting on this amazing 5-year journey and all the learnings we've had, I've realized that the core principles we believe in haven't changed at all. In fact, they've become stronger.
Today, I want to share this NEO manifesto with you, knowing that it will help us as a community on the journey to find a way forward together and to keep values and sense of purpose intact. It can be done, and it is worth it. Manifesto is a big word for a human-sized consultancy, but we've never been shy.
This week we are joined by with Janet Ridsdale, education strategist, learning guide, and community advocate from Calgary Canada.
We talk about resilience. What is it, and how can we support learners and educators to develop and sustain it?
Perhaps most interestingly, Janet tell us how technology contextualizes this process.
When the ‘new normal’ is just your ‘normal’ As early as March 2020, the phrase ‘new normal’ was being used to describe the uncertain phase of the near future we were inching towards. It’s a phrase we’ve come to know as a vague blanket term that attempts to soothe fears and transition us from the ‘old way’ of doing things and into the world as we find it now – even if no one knows exactly what that ‘new’ world is quite going to look like yet. But what if you weren’t around during the old way of doing things? What if this ‘new normal’ is simply your ‘normal’? This is exactly what millions of young learners around the globe are experiencing right now.
Is there, as the head of Eton College feels, a gap between standards of teaching at secondary and Further / Higher Education? Sure, the environment is different, expectations are different and perhaps, in the traditional system at least, the "higher" we go in education the more emphasis there is on what the learner does, than on the educator themselves. Perhaps.
This week we are joined by with Jacqueline Lloyd Smith, Founder of the Strategic Play Group and Master Trainer of Lego Serious Play Methods.
We discuss what insights Serious Play might give us about the way we learn best, the way we solve problems, and what people can discover about themselves. We also dive into what creativity means to Jacqueline, and what misconceptions there might be about it.
Does Serious Play have something to offer the mainstream education system? How might that work?
Join us!
The OECD Director for Education and Skills has stated that Creativity is a "key skill" for "complex, globalised and increasingly digitalised economies and societies". Sir Ken Robinson racked up 72 million views (and counting) with his talk on how education is, in fact "killing" this critical skill through over structured, rigid-assessment driven environments. So if both are to be believed, and we'll say right here that we do, then we have a problem.
This week we are joined by Sue, Faculty Chair of the Digital Marketing Certificate Program at the University of South Florida Muma College of Business. We discuss what is changing in digital marketing education, how agile we can be in meeting evolving learning demands, and how the fields of sustainability and the new Web3 world are impacting what people need and want. Join us!
Freud? Who doesn't know him? But how about Edward Bernays? He's the nephew of Sigmund Freud, and is one of the most influential people that few outside of marketing have heard of. He is often credited with the thinking behind the modern consumerist culture we know so well. He brought in the psychology to advertising and marketing, courtesy of the influence from his rather better known uncle, and changed things forever. What was previously a marketing world purely of features and benefits, appealing squarely to the rational mind, Bernays brought emotion, identity and desire to the fore.
Sustainability is when current generations can meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Simple, right? The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals have nice clear delineations, and lovely icons that set clear targets with a nice aesthetic. So all we have to do, is walk a bit more, and eat less plastic, or something like that. Oh, and sell one of our less vital organs to afford that electric car. Job done
NEOchats Live with Agustin Cortes, Co-Founder of Lirn.io and Learkn.
In this very special #NEOchats where we go down the rabbit hole to delve into questions such as:
🤷🏻♀️ Where do we start?
💎 What are the basic concepts we have to understand as education professionals?
🤓 Which practical examples can we look at as case studies in the topic?
💸 How do we know this is not just another trend that's not worth spending our time and resources on?
⏱️ When can we expect a truly systemic shift towards Web 3 frameworks/mindsets?
Enjoy this week's #NEOchats as we explore switching from a Pay to Learn model to a Learn to Earn framework.
Don't panic! We know that we just got used to the mute button on Zoom, and that using Google Classroom or the institutional LMS can be a bit of a learning curve for many of us, but here comes another bunch of acronyms we might just want to be aware of.
In today's #NEOchats, we're focusing on the teaching and learning environment in Higher Education.
Claudia Tripalli teaches a wide range of subjects at Geneva Business School in Barcelona, but has a background not in education but in engineering, consulting and sustainable design.
Today, we delve into what it's like to be in the teaching environment without the formal training of an educator, and what Claudia's journey has been like in experimenting with engaging learning experiences.
What worked, what didn't, and how has that contributed to beliefs around education and what it is all about. How important is it to move away from the teacher lecturing students or just reading out PowerPoints to Generation Z!
Join us in this open and authentic chat about the real experience of "coming in cold" to teaching and finding the best way forward
"When will we ever escape the rut of outdated pedagogy?" asked an article in the Times Higher Education last week, as the UK Minister for education demanded that HEI's stick to the face-to-face lecture as the dominant model of teaching and learning.
When combining the concept of digital citizenship and focusing on Estonia as a leading country on the topic, we think of two main areas:
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Estonia's digital strategy, offering digital nomad visa and e-residency for startups.
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A concept in education where people acquire core digital and information literacy skills to help them navigate an increasingly digital society.
Through this #NEOchats with Birgit Lao, Ambassador-at-large for Education at Ministry of Education and Research of Estonia, we'll explore these 2 routes, having Estonia as an all round leader in Digital Citizenship. Join us to get ahead in the game!
Educational settings have always shared responsibility for supporting young people to participate safely and positively in their communities. If life online is to continue to blend with our offline world, it makes sense for schools, colleges and universities to take the same steps to cultivate good digital citizenship too. So, what can educators do to support and encourage this? As Reese Witherspoon asks, are you planning for this digital shift?
What does 2022 look like for the NEO Team? What are we excited about, what challenges do we face, how will we move forward and face them together, and how will we work with the community around us?
What have we learned about ourselves this year? How has 2021 been for us personally, to try to work in a challenging environment as everything shifts during waves of a pandemic, travel restrictions, changing focus of institutions, etc.
What developments, changes, trends and challenges have we seen in the world of education marketing and recruitment in 2021? How is the sector changing?
"Education for all" has been a popular slogan since the 1980s, when the World Bank launched its international initiative to make sure every single world citizen had access to education. For some, this may conjure up images of gap-year teachers bringing "western" education to sub-Saharan schools before they head back to Cambridge or Melbourne. Truly bringing education to the whole world, however, requires more than band-aid solutions.
Victoria is head of Education Technologies in iData EC, Ecuador.
Join us as we ask Victoria:
What Kipa is and how it works to improve access and connectivity to education in rural areas and communities.
How it works to partner with the ministry of education in Ecuador to achieve better education outcomes together.
What she is passionate about in the area of education, and what the mission is.
Her thoughts on the wider opportunities of Ed-tech for connectivity and closing the equity gap in education.
The pandemic has changed things for international students, and the details are now beginning to emerge as to just how that new landscape looks. ICEF monitor reported back in February 2021 that there was an increasing concern around the already acute worry over affordability, with international; students already often paying more than their domestic counterpart.
What would it look like to combine a classical education with purposeful self-directed enquiry?
The Socratic Experience is a unique online learning environment which has sparked our curiosity.
Join us in our #NEOchats with Founder Michael Strong, as we find out how Socrates and the SAT can get along just fine.
This year, we have been writing a lot about our hopes for what education might look like, to be fit for purpose in a challenging and uncertain world. We have also had conversations each and every week with people working in education, innovating and raising questions and ideas about its approach and purpose.
Have you heard of CodeOp? A tech school only for women+ (inclusive of trans and non-binary), which is dedicated to changing the culture of tech. We hesitate to use the word "movement" to describe an organisation, but after speaking to Katrina, it is clear that CodeOp is a powerful force for change that is only just getting started.
With our interest (and support for) Diversity Equity and Inclusion in education, and STEAM subjects as an agent of positive change for the future, it is not surprising that Codeop was a powerful draw for the NEO Team.
CodeOp, based in Barcelona, is a "tech school that offers courses for women+ (inclusive of trans and non-binary)... dedicated to changing the culture of tech and focus on providing our community with the support and training they need to become leaders in their field".
Paul is Leader of Innovation, Pedagogy and Practice at St Andrew's College in Sydney.
Join us as we ask Paul:
What he sees as "innovation" in curriculum and learning design, and whether the assessment we currently offer students reflects the skills they really need for the future?
What place machine learning and AI have in supporting learning for a new generation?
COP26 feels different, don't you think? The Paris Conference in 2015 was hailed as a great success, but 6 years later, we are still looking at the same story; too little too late. This time, it feels a little more serious to us, and there's more substantive discussion in all sectors about how we can support a more sustainable future.
At 14, Raheen is already a UN SDGs Youth Ambassador, Stand Up Comedian, Theater Actress, Interviewer, and International Speaker to name a few (and that's incredible).
Join us as we ask Raheen ask her:
If education is to truly change, how should it look?
How has the traditional system supported you and how has it let you (and your peers) down?
How do the SDGs come into education and what are our responsibilities as educators?
Some conferences are great for inspiration; to go away with ideas still resonating and crystallizing. Others are loftier still, where speakers point to visions of the future and ruminate on where we are headed and why. We love these conferences, and the buzz and insight they generate.
Adworld, however, is one we never miss. Adworld is about being able to take great ideas and put them into practice the very same day, and that's why we go. Here are the practical things we learned at Adworld's October 2021 conference, and why we love them.
Join us for a #NEOchats Live discussion with Komal Shah, author of "Raise Your Hand!" A Call for Consciousness in Education.
What does "consciousness" actually mean in education, and why is it something we need to address? What is about our current approach that isn't working, and what does the solution look like in real terms?
Whether or not you have read the book, this discussion will appeal to teachers, educators, administrators, learning designers, policymakers and anyone who has the feeling that something "just ain't right" in the way our traditional education systems work.
Most of you in K-12 will have heard of Learnlife. Founded in 2017, they have already made waves in the world of education, in their mission to totally transform the way we support young people to find their purpose, or ikigai, in life. In just a few short years, they have grown rapidly, expanding through partnerships internationally, and ensuring that there are personalised and flexible opportunities to learn anywhere at any time through the Barcelona Nature Hub, Urban Hub, one of their global partner hubs or even learn from home.
Campus orientation sessions where students were bombarded with information just were not working well. Similarly, attempting to build a sense of student community prior to enrollment and arrival, was something HE institutions struggled with. Join us in this #NEOchat with Declan Sweeney to learn how Campus Connect addressed the issue with the student experience firmly in mind, and how it has impacted retention, engagement and community building on and offline.
Working remotely is in the NEO DNA, since day one. Many of you out there might find this challenging, and most have been forced to work remotely during the Covid-19 Pandemic. At NEO, we chose to be remote first, and that pushes us to truly cherish the moments when we get together.
Today we are joined by Michael Iacovazzi-Pau, a specialist in Diversity and Inclusion Empowerment, and founder of Kalyana Yoga. We will be discussing the work he does in DEI, where the challenges are, where the impact can be made, and reflecting on what education might learn from his work and insights.
Diversity and equity of access to education is essential in a just world. Here are a few reflections and ideas to get us started.
What does an education futurist have to say about the future of education? Not what you might expect. Join us on a broad-ranging exploration of the way a generalist connects the dots to sketch a roadmap for the next generation.
For those who missed our session at the EAIE 2021 Community Exchange, here are our 5 tips to bring bold change to a new world of education marketing and recruitment.
Our sector has some diverse personas, from the over-salesy to the purposeful creative, and everything in the middle. In this light-hearted article, we explore some of these personas! Can you see yourself in here? Who are we missing?
We discuss educational models, and how we arrive at our beliefs and value systems in education. We also look at how we might move ahead and start to build the culture of education we know intuitively is right.
"I yam what I yam, and that's all I yam," said Popeye, but a guy who lives entirely on spinach and tobacco shouldn't be offering life advice.
For the rest of us, how do we learn from the changes thrust upon us by 2020, and how does our sense of purpose help us embrace and sustain them?
Knocking on doors and learning to listen- how education can prepare us to take charge of our own lives
We don't recommend leaping straight into the nitty-gritty of ads, but getting started on TikTok can yield amazing results and insights for your institution, if you're willing to have a bit of fun. Here's how.
Working towards systemic change in education: "we no longer have a knowledge gap; we have a fear gap". So says Jennifer Groff, Founder of Learning Futures, researcher, innovator, and changemaker in global education. Join us in this episode of #NEOchats as we explore how do we really change the future of education.
Today we are making the case for the power of TikTok in education marketing and recruitment to connect with a new generation in ways that add a new dimension to the experience you want to convey. Don't miss part 2 where we look at how to use it to maximise engagement!
In the second of our two-part series on Generation Alpha we ask what all of this means in how we communicate, engage, inspire and stay relevant to a whole new generation of learners.
In the first of our two-part series on Generation Alpha we ask who they are, why this matters in our world of education marketing and recruitment, and what on earth a GOAT means anyway.
In a period of relentless change and uncertainty, how do we find the way ahead? How do we adapt, change, flourish and grow in such challenging times? We talk with author and psychotherapist Avigail Abarbanel about an empowering and radically straightforward way of understanding ourselves, that will transform the way we respond and react to fear, doubt and uncertainty.
The last 18 months have been unsettling, but a lot of positive changes have come from this time of broken routines and questioned norms. This can also work in your own life, and if you want to make some changes at work or at home, the trick is not to learn something new, but to unlearn what we think is normal. Curious?
Passion is amazing. Passion makes us feel alive, and passion connects us to the present moment with the joy of being. But passion alone does not cut it. Why you should find your purpose instead.
Education agents and anyone in student recruitment, this is one you need to play! In this #NEOchats with Jimmy Battaglia, Founder and CEO of Panda Portal, we discuss some huge changes in our sector and what they mean for those of us working in Education Marketing & Recruitment.
2021 has already been a crazy year in education marketing & recruitment, with major shifts, new players, new partners and a whole lot to digest. So what’s going on?
Of all the things we’ve learned in life, one thing remains difficult. How to stop. For the busy professionals out there who seem to be stuck in 4th gear, we look at how to disconnect this summer after an intensely challenging year.
The pandemic produced Pandemic Pods, which produced Micro Schools, but now we need to stop and reflect. Who are these working for, and what place do they hold in the future of education?
A podcast is a great thing, but it takes work, and the “why” has to be clear. We share why we started The NEO Academy Podcast, what our experience has been, and what comes next.
Today with Leonid Goncharov we chat about the post-pandemic approach to flexible working space and what part of the coworking ecosystem might play in that. Anticafe is the 1st coworking café where you pay by time spent and where everything else is included and is a great example of the innovations in coworking spaces.
How many people in our network work in coworking spaces, or know someone who does?
Coworking is definitely no longer just for startups & digital nomads.
Organizations are trying to respond to calls now for new flexible ways of working as their employees opt out of returning to the 9-5 in the office.
For corporates and education institutions trying to figure out the way forward, we explore why coworking really might be part of that solution.
Have you heard of Project-Based Learning? Of all the learning approaches that pass through schools, colleges, and universities, why does this one appear to have some real potential to transform education without overthrowing the current system entirely?
Creativity is not wearing bright clothes and writing poetry, and nor is it creating works of art and having amazing ideas. At least, that's not the limit of what creativity is. We talk to Creative Leadership consultant Katie Carr to find a broader sense of what creativity is and how it can show up in surprising places
Creativity often declines through adulthood; not because of any natural process, but because we perhaps misunderstand what it is and how to practice it. Let’s unpack this elusive “future skill”.
Building a diverse team- what does that mean to you? Why "diversity" is broader than we perhaps think, and why it all means nothing without inclusion.
Joining us in this #NEOchats is Alexander Tsomaia, CEO of AdsAccelerator, a course taught by Patrick Wind, Forbes 30under30!
We were really impressed by this course, having had a lot of disappointing experiences in online learning, so we wanted to chat about why this one works so well!
We also touched on how higher education and even K-12 education might embrace the cutting-edge relevance and practicality in courses like this.
For marketers and educators alike, we hope that you enjoy this as much as we did!
Online courses can be amazing, or they can be pretty awful. We look at three great examples and examine what makes them so successful. Why should we accept any less?
We discussed the Wine and Spirits programme at BSB as an example of niche university courses that really bring something inimitable to the table, and we learned a lot!
The last thing education needs is another framework, but when UNESCO, the WEF and the OECD produce them, we should take another look at the future of education. Take a look with us at three big ideas from the top.
The centrality of marketers to reputation and education brand building is quite recent in higher education, and some academics are uneasy about this. So what if they were part of the conversation?
Some of our colleagues and clients in Education Marketing and Recruitment use WhatsApp regularly to connect with prospective students. Others say it is only a personal app, not appropriate for this setting. So which is it?
Learnings from the Oulu University of Applied Sciences.
Suggestions to support an on campus to online transition.
Social interactions over academic performance?
How to start a wellbeing culture in the education system?
Are you interested in knowing how NEO started? What drives us? What are our beliefs? Take a few minutes to listen to this first episode of our #NEOchats