Future of Education event Metta HK

We had a very successful talk last night at Metta in HK, on the subject of the Future of Education. This is of course a subject many people are trying to work out and deal with, one of the main problems is student engagement in classrooms, if they don't see the relevance of what they are being taught to their future needs. This was identified in a survey conducted at a high end International school in HK by Own Academy (www.ownacademy.co) a HK based company that is looking to new approaches to education, and with whom Polkuni HK are now working with to help formulate these new approaches for the HK market with a Finnish element.

The talk was given by Natalie Chan (Founder of Own Academy), our good friend Niko Lindholm, program director of xEdu (www.xedu.co) and myself. One of key messages was there is a cultural difference between HK and Finland when is comes to the educational culture. HK is much more about competition in the education system and Finland is much more about collaboration in the education system. Despite this there are still many things we can see in the Finnish system and the evolving edtech sector in Finland that would be beneficial in the HK education market. One example would be MIGHTIFIER, an edtech product from Finland that helps children give positive feedback at a peer to peer level but in an anonymous way. In trials in Finland this product has been shown to reduce bullying and to improve the mood and attitude of the class. The benefit of addressing the social and emotional needs of the students is it helps them to be more effective at an academic level, something that is always given a high focus in the present HK approach.