Cheers to a successful Innovation Symposium on 21st Century Learning!

9th November was an eventful day for me. Though mentally exhausted from a full day of training the day before, I was totally invigorated listening to speakers such as Dr Bonnie Cramond and Mr Bernie Trilling (The Bonnie and Bernie Show as they humourously call themselves), who gave insightful presentations on the importance of creativity in education, and learning the 21st Century way.

Dr Timothy Stearns, Co-Founder Kids Invent!

The other speakers were: Dr Timothy Stearns (Co-Founder of Kids Invent! and Executive Director of the Lyles Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship); Dr Lyndon Jones (Founder Chairman of The Association of Business Executives); Mr Bernard Lim, a facilitator of Focus-On-The-Family's "Parenting with Confidence", an active advocate of the fathering movement in Singapore, and father to 3 gifted children; and Mr Teh Chong Mien, Vice President for Sales at StarHub's Enterprise Business Group.

Joining us as our official media partner was Asian Geographic Junior and The Read, who graciously gave away hundreds of their magazines to the very lucky kids who came to the Science Centre that day.

The key message from all speakers was clear... creativity in the new age is an essential tool in surviving whatever the future throws at us. Be it in education or in business.

We need to empower our children, and ourselves, with the right tools and mindset right now through learning 21st Century Life Skills.

It is no longer the era of rote learning. Literacy and numeracy, while still important in education, is starting to take a back seat as creativity and innovativeness slowly takes centrestage to cope with the stresses of the new information age.

Powerful thoughts to lead us as we face head-on the rapidly transforming landscape of the future.

 

Bernie Trilling interacting with the audience during the Q&A session.