Today, when preparing all my gear to write the next saga: “How do I wish a country´s president to be?”, I thought of sharing with you a few final thoughts about my last saga “Integral Education: Strategic Challenges and roadmap ahead”. These thoughts are about the roadmap for integral education (as a summary of the saga).

• In my aim to show you the roadmap key elements for a transformation of the educational system, we focused only on the Ph.D. programme as an example of how to do the roadmap. But the roadmap has to be vertically integrated with the rest of the education levels (early childhood, primary and secondary). 
• I show you the key elements of Ph.D. transformation roadmap attached to my proposal for a new Ph.D. design of the next 500 years. Nevertheless, this new doctorate model is just version 1.0 and needs to be reviewed and validated by countless other experts. In addition, the financing of this Ph.D. transformation roadmap was not shown. I will be happy to write about it in a posterior saga.
• The Integral Education is a concept beyond our jobs or business endeavors. We need a transformation of the educational system not because of new technologies in place, but because we need to evolve for the future to protect the next generations from the dangers of our wrong decisions, including those decisions related to technological gadgets which can hurt kids and teenagers or the next crop of them. And this future has to be seen from an integral and integrity point of view putting humanity at the core.
• Any of the past industrial revolutions were based on the invention and occurrence of machines outside the human being to make our life easier. All the engines, tools, devices, computers, or motors were outside our body and many times so big that we couldn´t carry them in our pocket. Nowadays, the new emerging technologies in place, are and will be of the size of microscopic levels, and we can move with them in our sacs. Some insane scientists are trying to insert them into our bodies too. Technology mobility and the Internet has changed everything. In consequence, our education system has been shaken at the roots of it.
• In the past, we relied upon a learning knowledge process to teach us to think, to do things and make decisions. Our educational system was designed as a process to learn and get insights into our minds (in whatever field we wished to excel). Nowadays, people have more faith in the information found in their Smartphones, than in the current Educational System. For example, let´s see just one example in our quotidian life: Smartphones as a representation of these new revolutionary emerging devices or tech gadget. The smartphone has stopped to be a telephone for communicating, and it has become our pocket global resources library.  Smartphones and other similar tech gadgets as Alexa, Google Assistant or Amazon Echo are showing us at our fingertips how they can be smarter than us by using artificial intelligence applications. Many children believe this is normal, and are learning to rely on a device, not on their own judgment. They don´t even think about stuff anymore. The education model in these children has been swayed just because of this new gadget. Ahhh… Guess what? this gadget is mobile (it goes with us everywhere, including the bathroom).
• A new generation of people (from Millennials below) believes that education is simply to rely on smartphone information or data to make decisions. Wrong! A new crop of leaders is emerging believing the trap that new technologies are the content of education, and this is a catastrophic mistake in our thinking frameworks. New technology technically is simply a methodology to access information, but new emerging leaders particularly from the Millennial generation and below, are confusing the methodology with the content. Why is this happening?
• A new generation of people accepts that bibliotheques (libraries), books, professors and classrooms can be dismissed simply because they can access the class material at their fingertips anywhere and everywhere. Why is this happening?
• A new generation of personages conceives that a Smartphone can replace 3 years of early childhood PLUS 6 years of Primary School PLUS 6 years of Secondary School PLUS 4-5 years of Undergraduate Degree at a University and additional years of Master or Ph.D. degrees. This is insane, to my point of view. Why is this happening?
• The educational system has to be transformed, not because of the Smartphone and new tech gadgets. It has to be transformed because we need future leaders to know to discern before even designing their products and services. Leaders which can be balanced and can say no to things which seem to be trendy but are not beneficial for the long run. In addition, we need a new generation of balanced people who can pour integral content into the Internet. Many information or input that is shown in our mobiles are fake news or are lousy data (not proven by the evidence). All aforementioned has to be replaced with good material, of the high caliber of respect for life, of precious reflections for nature protection, of integral and integrity substance for the benefit of the new generations, of high-level of reflection and fairness for the humanity.
• Teachers or educators need to be re-educated in their thinking capacity. We need to separate each element: The framework of teaching is one matter. The content offered by the teachers is another component. The methodology is another thing (new tech gadgets belong to this area). The tech gadgets used to teach are other ingredients. Do not confuse technological gadgets with content, the tools alone are just rubbish if the professors content and soft skills are not updated with an integral framework. Professors need to be proficient in their content skills, show care for nature, for humanity, care for books and des Bibliotheques. Professors need to teach with a human fairness perspective.

We need a new generation of business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders who practice reflection and critical thinking, who can create sustainable and integral business models in the future. People who believe in God, ethics and who will help the world to be a better place for everyone living here. We need people who can stand up and say NO to business value propositions which are not good for our own existence. Our mother Earth is the only one we have, and the future of the next generations depend on our actions of today.

Thank you.

Photo sources: All from the blog http://as-cosy-as-can-be.tumblr.com/

Disclaimer: All the presentation slides shown or hand drawings on this blog are prepared by Eleonora Escalante MBA-MEng. Nevertheless, all the pictures or videos shown on this blog are not mine.  I do not own any of the lovely photos posted unless otherwise stated.

Published by eleonoraescalantestrategy

Corporate Strategy Artist, San Salvador, El Salvador View all posts by eleonoraescalantestrategy