< Previousgoals, but persistence, or grit, doesn’t come naturally to everybody. It requires a certain character and mental toughness to be persistent when things aren’t going your way, and others around you are throwing in the proverbial towel. The mindset of persistence is one that I believe can, and should be, taught from an early age, especially if it’s tied to helping a student pursue their passions, and realise their dreams, and there are countless examples of where persistence has paid off and played a vital role in helping people change the world. RESILIENCE With so many things changing and changing fast not only can it be over whelming but it can be exhausting which is why one of the most important traits individuals must have in the future is resilience and the ability to get things done and get through things despite the odds. RESOURCEFULNESS There are many times in our lives when we need to be resourceful, whether it’s when we’re stranded on a tropical island in the middle of the great Pacific ocean with nothing to eat but sand, or building new products and companies. From my perspective as an entrepreneur I also believe it’s an undervalued trait that’s often under practised, other than, of course, on away day team building exercises. STORYTELLING Step back far enough in time and storytelling was an art, literally, murals of great expeditions and fantastic tales were painted onto the walls of the caves of our ancestors tens of thousands of years ago. As complex language developed these cave paintings became the backdrops to the stories our ancestors told beside the camp fires that over time became the primary way knowledge was passed down through the generations. Today we could argue that these cave paintings have been replaced by today’s own digital murals, like the ones streamed live to us by the Insta’s and Tiktoks of the world, that help individuals tell stories in new ways. While this pictorial format of storytelling has somewhat survived, albeit in a radically different form, storytelling to groups around the camp fire has by Notes: 160311institute.comand large vanished, replaced by games consoles, social media and television, and other modern day distractions. The result of which is that the art of storytelling itself has also been, at best diminished, and at worst lost. That said though, ironically, even as storytelling itself fades as both a family and social art form, as adults we are constantly reminded of its power, to create action, empathy and vision, which in today’s society are no less important than they were all those millennia ago. In fact in some respects we could argue that storytelling is now more important than ever - whether it’s to sell an idea or point of view, a product or service, or to bring people together. It’s time to bring storytelling back and evolve it for the modern age. TIME MANAGEMENT Often left off of lists time management is arguably one of the more crucial skills that employers, in all sectors, have always valued, and that will be no less true in the future - especially in a world where we are more likely than ever before to be bombarded by constant distractions and technology notifications. Notes: 161311institute.comEMERGING TECH IN THE CLASSROOMS INCE WE’VE looked at the fundamental soft skills that all students should have in order to gave them the best chance of succeeding in the future let’s have a look at the technologies teachers can use in the classroom to help pique students interest and help them reach peak potential. From virtual classrooms and digital avatars, to 4D printing and neuro- stimulation devices, let’s dive in. 3D PRINTING 3D printers are a makers best friend, helping students of all ages bring different ideas and worlds to life in ways that were unimaginable just a scant five years ago, and 3D printers are revolutionising manufacturing, both inside and outside of the classroom, at a global scale. In a way we can say they’re helping turn the classroom desks in front of you into the factories of tomorrow. And that isn’t an understatement. While it’s often all too easy to think that 3D printers are only capable of printing inorganic objects, made, for example, of plastic, I’d also like to take the opportunity here to highlight that today they’re being used to manufacture inorganic products, such as furniture, jet engines and sneakers, organic products, such as food and replacement human organs, and hybrids of the two types. As a result I would strongly encourage educators to look into the future of this revolutionary technology in more detail and think bigger and bolder. 3D printers and their newer cousins, such as 3D Bio-Printers and 3D Holographic printers, will continue to help students move from concept to the manufacture of physical objects with relative ease, which is a distinct advantage for students who are learning about design and technology, particularly when it comes to testing and visualising the limitations and constraints of particular concepts and ideas. After all, being able to play with and interrogate physical objects can make it easier for students to spot and debate mistakes in their designs, for example, in the design of a bridge or building. This allows them to gain valuable problem solving skills in a creative, hands on way that would be otherwise near impossible, and when they spot errors in their designs they also have the technology they need to create and trial new ones at speed. The benefits of 3D printers in the classroom though don’t stop there 163311institute.comthough. They can also help bring many other subjects to life too including Biology and Chemistry, as well as Geography and History. Imagine, for example, being able to explore the ancient ruins of Pompeii or the hydrological landscape of the Himalayas using physical models, or disassembling different chemical compounds or exploring the make up of individual living cells. And all of that’s before we get onto the topic of more altruistic endeavours that could include projects to create new prosthetics, and many other things besides. As 3D printer technology and its related design software become increasingly advanced and capable the number of things that students will be able to create and manufacture will be unlimited - it’s amazing what you can create when you have a factory on your desk. 4D PRINTING Just as educators are starting to get used to the idea of being able to 3D print objects in the classroom a new technology, 4D printing, is starting to appear on the scene. Related to 3D printing 4D printing adds another dimension to the manufacturing process - time. As we begin to see the development of new types of materials and new design and manufacturing processes 4D printers will let students go even further than they can with 3D printers by allowing them to print objects, such as robots, that self-assemble themselves and work straight out of the printer. Cool eh!? ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Without doubt Artificial Intelligence has the potential to be one of the most beneficial technologies used in education, but it could also easily become one of the most contentious and divisive. As AI’s abilities improve over the years and decades to come, which they will and at an exponential rate, it’s likely that there will be a cacophony of technocrats advocating that the technology is used to replace teachers at scale while at the same time moderates advocate a middle road where AI’s help augment teachers and the learning process. Either way, and whichever route individual schools and school districts decide to take, new AI powered adaptive learning tools, that help students learn Notes: 164311institute.comat their own pace and in their own individual style, while helping deliver appropriately timed personalised interventions, will proliferate in the years to come. Running parallel with these conversations and new learning aids though there will also be advocates promoting the idea of using AI as a broad brush tool to monitor students behaviours and academic progress both inside and outside of the classroom. While these conversations have great merit they also have the potential to introduce concerns about the privacy and welfare of students. As the debates rage on though one thing will be certain, in the years to come AI will be used more, not less, within the academic environment. As a result we must all do our best to ensure it is used ethically and for the benefit of all with full transparency built in from the outset. AUGMENTED REALITY Augmented Reality is another technology that has the power to transform students learning experiences in new and exciting ways by bringing them to life in front of their very eyes. For example, imagine being able to explore and interact with the inner workings of the human body, or a dinosaur, right down to the cellular level in real time, or imagine exploding apart rocket engines with your fingers and being able to zero in on the individual chemical reactions in the combustion chamber before finally releasing your finger and letting the reactions kick off and shoot the rocket into virtual space. Done right AR has huge potential to help transform the educational experience and sow the seeds of curiosity and imagination in a way that, again, was unimaginable even just a few years ago. BEHAVIOURAL COMPUTING The way we all interact with the devices and machines around us will continue to evolve in the years to come as we increasingly ditch our traditional computer interfaces in favour of new behavioural ones that we communicate with using simple biometric cues and our voices. A revolution that’s been decades in the making Behavioural computing, or Affective computing as it’s also sometimes known, especially when we are referring to machines that can replicate human emotions, will Notes: 165311institute.comfundamentally change the way we interact with technology and our relationship with it. These are also, over time, going to be the same interfaces that are integrated into many of the new adaptive learning tools I mentioned earlier, and while advances in behavioural computing will ultimately benefit all of us in the medium term they’re going to present students with new cognitive and emotional challenges. On the one hand as students increasingly find themselves interacting with AI and their “synthetic personalities” on a more regular basis they are going to have to learn how to get the best from their interactions with them, and on the other hand, over time as these synths, as I’ll call them, get better at tailoring their persona to the individuals they’re interacting with students could suddenly find themselves emotionally engaged and invested with them. Think, for example, of your own interactions with some of today’s behavioural interfaces such as Alexa, Bixby, Siri, and others, asides from having to learn how to communicate with these new digital assistants effectively it’s also likely you’ve had at least a couple of humorous altercations with them. As these synths and their conversational capabilities improve the way students communicate with them, and their relationship with them are going to change, and while adults will likely be adept at coping with these changes it’ll be very different for a 5 or 8 year old. These synths aren’t just voices in a machine, they’re personalities - personalities that sing us songs and entertain us, and that stoke our emotions, and the better they get the more we’re going to have to think about how we tackle the so called ghost in the machine. NEURO-STIMULATION TECHNOLOGY As humanity continues to unlock the mysteries of the human mind, from the way it works and forms memories, to discovering new ways to leverage its plasticity for our advantage, we have recently reached the point where we are now able to both download and stream, as well as upload, thoughts and knowledge. Furthermore, as Brain Machine Interfaces, and the other technologies that support them, such as Artificial Intelligence, improve, and are embedded into more everyday devices, such as Virtual Reality headsets, we are increasingly finding new ways to train our minds more effectively, and retain Notes: 166311institute.comsignificantly more information for longer. The upshot of which means that students cognitive and tactile capabilities and skills are significantly heightened and improved. ROBOTICS In the past the word robot referred to one thing - some form of mechanised automaton that was more likely to be found on the production line than in the home. Fast forward to today and the word encompasses a variety of different technologies that take a multitude of different forms. Robots are no longer just pure hardware, they’re also now pure software, in the form of avatars and bots, and they’re no longer all hard, some are soft. But that’s not all. Some are hybrids, made from both organic and inorganic components, and some are the size of a house while others are the size of individual molecules, and yes, just in case you were going to ask molecular assemblers are now real. The world of robotics has come a long way since its early days, and that’s before we start talking about the arrival of robots that can communicate with humans telepathically, or robots that, through a combination of AI and cloud computing, have hive minds. As robots become easier to build, and become more intelligent and capable, students are going to find themselves confronted with opportunities that very few though possible, whether it’s creating Lego robots that move around a track or DNA and molecular robots that can form miniature factory assembly lines and build complex compounds. VIRTUAL REALITY Virtual Reality is a technology like none other, one that can make learning truly immersive, especially when it’s combined with hepatic feedback technologies that provide real time tactile feedback in the form of gloves and other apparel, as well as other complimentary sensory technologies. As VR continues to evolve with resolutions and the volume and variety of content increasing over time the beneficial impact it will have on the field of education would be very difficult to doubt. Notes: 167311institute.comBUILDING SCHOOL X-LABSW HILE THE subjects and subject matter that schools have taught down through the ages have morphed and changed over time something that’s remained consistent is the use of real world examples and experiences to augment and enhance student’s learning experiences. However, as the global rate of change continues to accelerate, and as the world becomes increasingly competitive, complex, and connected, I believe the way these experiential learning models are woven into the curricula also needs to change, and significantly. As a result, as science fiction like technologies increasingly become science fact, whether it’s the appearance of 3D and 4D Printing, Biological Computers, brain controlled prosthetics, Creative Machines, Deflector Shields, Holograms, In Vivo Gene Editing, memory editing, uploading and streaming, Molecular Assemblers, Nanobots, Neural Interfaces, self-coding and self-evolving AI’s and Robots, Tractor Beams, and hundreds more, I’d strongly argue that schools must significantly increase their student’s exposure to these and other exponential technologies, and actively promote an entirely new way of learning, working, and thinking. After all, it’s difficult to provide students with practical hands on experience with futuristic products and technologies that haven’t been fully commercialised yet, or in some cases even invented. To fill this gaping gap this is where I believe the introduction of school X-Labs, as I call them, gives schools a prime opportunity, today, to combine their traditional experiential learning models with more leading edge entrepreneurial, experimental and theoretical teaching, in an environment where educators and students alike can discuss and explore the technologies and innovations that will transform everyone’s futures, and their implications, without boundaries, and with impunity. Ultimately this approach, I believe, stands the best chance of preparing students with the hands on critical thinking and skills that will prepare them for whatever the future, and technology, throws at them. INTRODUCING X-LABS X-Labs is what I regard as the simple, but inevitable, evolution of yesterday’s traditional school lab environments combined with futuristic and corporate accelerator twists, built on the foundations of a student first philosophy 169311institute.comNext >