The Learning Curve | Innovate through Collaboration
While competition has long been seen as the driving force of progress and innovation, collaboration is starting to take center stage.
This is especially evident in the tech industry, where open-source projects and ecosystems are thriving.
The shift from competition to collaboration could have profound implications for both the tech sector and society at large.
This last week I attended GM Barcelona 2023 and felt like I was in a privileged position to see what was happening behind closed doors.
At a glance:
Something to watch: The Khan Academy and the Future of Learning
Something else to watch: Leveraging New Tech to Preserve Heritage - Casa Batlló
Tools to try out: Personal favourites from GM BCN 2023
Something to watch: The Khan Academy and the Future of Learning
The Khan Academy is based on working together with some elements of competition and gamification. It encourages users to improve their skills by competing with each other. They use leaderboards and challenges to do this.
But this competition doesn't pit people against each other. Instead, it's a collaborative competition that helps users learn and improve together.
The Khan Academy and similar platforms will offer better learning experiences with the rise of AI.
Users compete against each other, but Khan Academy doesn't compete with schools or other platforms. Instead, it wants to help and work with these institutions by offering free, excellent educational materials, that can coexist with other learning tools.
Other organisations have adopted Khan Academy's model. The European Commission's OpenupEd platform is like Khan Academy. It offers free educational resources for everyone to use. OpenupEd's main focus is European higher education. It was developed with over 50 European universities and organizations. It has received praise for its ability to remove obstacles to higher education and encourage collaboration and innovation in Europe.
With the progress of new technology, we must think about the advantages and dangers it may bring to education. The new possibilities can help students, teachers, and schools collaborate better. Chatbots can provide personalised support to teachers, and also assist students in collaborating on projects and giving them feedback on their work.
In Sal Khan's TED talk, "How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education," he explores the potential benefits. Khan talks about how AI is used in education and provides an optimistic outlook. Well worth 15 minutes of your time.
We all have to fight like hell for the positive use cases” Sal Khan, Khan Academy
Something else to watch: Leveraging New Tech to Preserve Heritage - Casa Batlló
Casa Batlló collaborated with Refik Anadol to make "Casa Batlló: Living Architecture." This unique artwork uses live NFT technology to show real-time climate data, turning the famous facade into a constantly changing masterpiece. Anadol's collaboration with Casa Batlló isn't just artistic; it's socially impactful too. A portion of the auction proceeds went to support neurodiversity initiatives, showcasing the power of art and technology to drive social change.
This collaboration epitomises the fusion of heritage preservation and cutting-edge technology.
Listening to Gary Gautier explain this action at GM BCN was a true privilege. Between you and me, his talk left me with goosebumps. Whilst I don't have a video of his talk, I will leave you with the stunning video of "Living Architecture" visually mapped onto the facade of Casa Batlló.
Tools to try out: Personal favourites from GM BCN 2023
If it didn't come across clearly above, the Casa Battlo use case of these new technologies left me with goosebumps. It wasn't the only talk at GM BCN that left me feeling hyped for the future.
In no particular order of preference, here are some more things that had me going wow over the last few weeks:
Check out the demo video on the Wonder Studio website. A tool that automatically animates, lights, and composes CG characters into a live-action scene. They do the heavy lifting while you focus on the storytelling.
Create your own virtual space with Spatial. I danced toe to toe with my imposter syndrome during the coffee break at GM BCN, networking with true innovators. Looking for a solution for a project a bit closer to Manresa, I was introduced to Spatial's capability to showcase images in a virtual space, with no need for digital wallets or NFTs. Take a look at one I'm constructing.
If you use ChatGPT (don't worry, I won't tell anyone unless you want me to), then you must download this extension that Mar Fernandez generously shared in her inspiring talk.
Conclusion:
If you got this far, thank you.
Today, we showed how culture is shifting from competition to collaboration, and why working together yields better results. We looked at how Khan Academy is shining the light for the rest of the education industry. We also saw how cultural institutions can leverage new technology to inspire. We also have access to some thought-provoking tools that have the potential to shape how we work.
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