June 4, 2023, 9:00 AM
June 4, 2023, 9:00 AM
Actors and opinion leaders in education from around the world will meet in Santa Cruz – between June 14 and 16 – at the “IV International Forum on Higher Education: Technological innovation and governance”, promoted by an alliance led by the Franz Tamayo University (UNIFRANZ), the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education (OUI), the Network of University Administrators (RAUI) and the National Association of Private Universities of Bolivia (ANUP)in order to generate spaces for analysis and reflection in times of constant changes in society due to the accelerated progress in science and technology.
Lluis Pastor, a doctor in journalism and an expert in educational innovation, assures that we live in a fast-paced society, where we experience the enormous inflation of information, in which we must differentiate between what is useful or not for our interests, where multitasking is valuedin which we do not give real time to optimize results and finally where rapid learning is prioritized.
“The good thing is that we live in society where knowledge comes to the fore, this is a brutal change compared to other moments (…) it is an essential element that is in our DNA and that will determine how we human beings will be in the coming times”, affirms Pastor.
The educational innovation expert believes that it is important to work on the way of teaching: “the teacher’s lectio persists in front of students, for an hour and a half, which remains unchanged for more than a thousand years. We must modify the learning models, make them unique according to the purposes of the institutions (…) and think about the future in a coordination between artificial intelligence and the human contribution”.
The theme is on the table, we must debate, open alliances to analyze the state of the situation and strengthen the governance of education in the region, the IV International Forum on Higher Education will be the appropriate setting to discuss ideas that allow us to face the challenges to reduce the digital divide, train global citizens, improve educational quality, bet on inclusion and sustainability in Bolivia, Latin America and the world.
We firmly believe that education has the power to transform lives and that it is an engine of social mobility, for this reason our interest in generating this space for reflection and exchange of experiences, learning and good practices, says Verónica Ágreda Arq. DESA, rector of Unifranz.
“We have references that inspire us to make these alliances, such as European universities, such as the case of Mondragón, which has a corporate governance model that was born in the industry and which now has presence in Mexico, Colombia and Saudi Arabia; or the Institute for the Future of Education of the Tecnológico de Monterrey that promotes education throughout life and has a laboratory in Singapore; or the Foundation for Education and Culture of Chile that associates universities and technical training centers; there are also technology-based educational ventures that promote virtual education, use artificial intelligence and other technologies. They all have something in common: they are breaking the paradigms, the geopolitical barriers and generating new scenarios and dialectics in education”, points out Ágreda in time to highlight the alliance that makes the Forum possible.
Francesc Pedró, Director of the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, Luis Riveros, President of the Academic Council of RAUI America, Guy Haug, one of the leading European experts in evaluation and development of universities and education systems superior, David Julien, Executive Secretary General of the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education (OUI) and Pedro Covarrubias, Secretary General of the Education and Culture Foundation of Chile, are some of the personalities that will be part of the IV International Forum on Higher Education.
“It is time to bet on technological innovation and new models of governance in Education with the purpose of dividing and sharing attributions and obligations between educational authoritiesinstitutions that promote it, teachers, parents, school principals and of course the students”, points out Ágreda.
The meeting will be attended by national authorities of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, rectors of the country’s universities, directors of schools, academics, opinion leaders and all those citizens who want to be part of the transformation of education in Bolivia. To participate you can register at the following link: https://foro.unifranz.edu.bo/ .
innovation in education
Aracely, a student about to graduate to go to university, assures that there is a before and after in education: “I like that now there are many more sources of information and more things to discover, we have more places to explore. For example, before they asked you for something and you had to review books, newspapers, among others. Today you can visit various sources on the internetresorting to your own experience under the microscope, is almost at your fingertips”.
The pre-university looks to 2030 with a technological education and robotized, with access to the majority, with virtual whiteboards, which, although they exist, today are not very common in the population. He thinks that changing traditional notebooks for knowledge experience, while having fun, could help improve knowledge management: “today they measure us if we memorize the correct answers and they punish us if we take out our cell phones, which is not always to see the answers, but to see what answer options are in the topics, compare them and analyze them”.
Gael –6-year-old student– wants education to be more digital by 2030 with robots that help to look closely at everything what they tell in history, with less homework, with teachers who also let them have fun.
The student is not far from innovations that today begin to shine as tools in the teaching and learning process, is the case of EdTech Sima Robot, the educational social robot, capable of interacting naturally with its users, through voice, gestures and movements to develop activities.
Sima Robot motivates children to learn by talking and playing with activities designed for facilitate learning in areas such as communication, languageliteracy, mathematics, among others and will be presented within the framework of the Forum in Santa Cruz.
Along with robotization and the use of artificial intelligence to optimize educational processes, the forum will also address topics such as: new challenges, lifelong learning, the globalization of universities in Latin America, innovative teaching models and learning in the classroom, the implementation of educational programs outside the classroom through the STEAM model, the construction of an educational ecosystem for the transformation of the futurethe challenges and opportunities for the internationalization of Higher Education institutions in Latin America, among others.
The forum foresees the realization of the Regional Assembly of the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education (OUI) of the Andean Countries, the RAUI America international seminar “High institutional management, of the universities of Ibero-America”, the presentation of the International Advisory Council of Unifranz and the forum on educational innovation.
OUI Regional Assembly – Andean Countries
Within the framework of the forum, the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education (OUI) will hold its Regional Assembly – Andean Countries (in hybrid mode) in order to present the institutional priorities of the OUI for this year, both at a general and regional level, as well as to receive contributions and comments from its member institutions from Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru.
“We are pleased and proud, as members of the OUI, a benchmark for the academic community of the Americas, that the regional assembly have Unifranz as its headquarters. By being full members of the organization, we are part of the community that welcomes more than 5 million students, 500,000 teachers and 600,000 support staff members,” said the Rector of Unifranz.
