The henna on my hands has barely dried from our trip to Doha, Qatar and now I’m off to Finland!
I was invited by Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, to participate in the Helsinki Design Lab: Education Challenge. This week, I’m in Helsinki, Finland where Sitra, together with Finland’s Ministry of Education, will host a ‘studio’ looking at the current and upcoming challenges to education in Finland, specifically, the question of dropout students in an otherwise very successful education system. This studio will be an interdisciplinary group of eight individuals from a broad range of backgrounds with each person representing a key point of view relating to education, learning, and what it takes to implement systemic changes within society. A design methodology will be used, which puts the focus on discussion through the medium of concrete proposals. The work will be lead by Darrel Rhea, an internationally recognized thinker on design and innovation. Stay tuned for a full description of this amazing trip with an incredible group of individuals…
Participants include:
- Dr. Jane Holmes Bernstein, Senior Assc. Psychology/ Neuropsychology, Children’s Hospital Boston
- Roope Mokka, Development Director, Demos Helsinki
- Maja Kecman, Senior Associate, Helen Hamlyn Centre, Royal College of Art, London
- Lai Cheng Lim, Principal, The Raffles Institution, Singapore
- Darrel Rhea, CEO, Cheskin Added Value, San Francisco
- Ann McCormick, CEO, Learning Friends Inc., San Francisco
- Dr. Juha Teperi, Director, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland