Topnotch speakers grace annual Smart leadership summit

MANILA, Philippines - Three renowned speakers shared their insights on the future of education and the role of technology in the recently concluded Smart Schools Leadership Summit, organized by leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc.

University of Michigan’s Dr. Charles Severance, Maria Ressa of Rappler, and Ishan Gupta of India addressed the gathering of university presidents, deans, teachers and student leaders in what was considered the biggest inter-school summit on emerging global technologies and developments that impact on education.

“Education is on the brink of massive change, powered by digital technologies such as the Internet, smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices and the growing range of cloud services. These are already disrupting and transforming industries like telecommunications. Soon, it will impact education and we are excited on how digital technologies can further help re-shape and empower education,” said Smart chief wireless advisor Orlando Vea.

The event gathered some 270 participants from Smart’s partner schools and universities, including university presidents, deans, faculty members, and student leaders. To accommodate partner schools in Cebu and Davao, the summit was also broadcast via live stream in PLDT-Smart offices in those cities.

Severance, who also teaches on Coursera talked about the future of education during the summit. Coursera is an online learning platform that provides courses to anyone for free in partnership with leading international educational institutions.

“The global developments for education are going to move very quickly because we’re so connected that it does not take a long time for ideas to travel between continents, between cultures,” said Severance.

“The great thing about Coursera as an online learning platform is not only that people from all over the world can attend our classes online for free. It’s also that for the first time, teachers get to share best practices. We learn from other teachers how to teach better via Coursera,” added Severance.

Rappler’s Ressa spoke on social media and how it can be harnessed for social good.

“Social media is playing a major role in giving students a voice in shaping public opinion,” said Ressa.

Meanwhile, Gupta of EduKart.com, one of India’s leading online education portals, discussed technopreneurship, where technology is increasingly playing a role in shaping the global economy.

Idea Space Foundation, Inc. (ideaspace.ph), the non-profit incubator arm of the First Pacific Group of which PLDT and Smart are part of aims to help budding technology entrepreneurs develop innovative solutions and transform these into successful commercial products.

It is currently calling on aspiring technology entrepreneurs to submit their idea for a technology business to its national competition, which closes on January 7, 2013. Ten top tech ideas will receive up to P5 million in investment funding and incubation for six months.