2023 AIA/CES Conference Session Participation Form »
Cole Webber
Cole Webber is an inventor, author and ‘comprehensivist’ (the opposite of a specialist). At 22, he is the author of four books and holds patents in multiple countries. He has spoken internationally at over 30 events in 5 countries, including as keynote and at a TEDx event. He has worked on numerous design projects including the design of 23 schools. He has served on scientific advisory boards to international organizations, and his work on design, anthropology, construction, and education, as well as his short fiction, has been published. His company won the Canadian federal government’s COVID-19 Digital Clearinghouse challenge and received $1.3 million in grants to develop technology to improve lean resiliency to supply chain and scheduling issues.
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Education in 2070
With the new economy more profoundly operating on knowledge and information than ever before, education should be more important than ever. Yet conventional structures are failing to provide the world with what it needs, with the vast majority of employers being dissatisfied with graduates. What does the new economy nee? What opportunities does it provide to transform the education system, unlike what we have ever seen before? Will our new way of preparing our young and young-at-heart of the world exist beyond teachers, books, brick and mortar schools, Universities, and even the government? Can and should education become an individual process? Can an education service be offered at both advantage to consumer and profit for provider? Can we provide the best education yet seen for free, to anyone in the world? And, most importantly, how?
Taking in trends from the world economy and how we use information itself, Cole will provide a highly speculative but always grounded view of manifestations of ‘education’ which may come to exist 50 years from now, and how these may come to be. What will need to happen? A panel afterwards, moderated by students, will work with the audience to collaboratively hone the practicality of the visions. How can we open the doors for all to the best education ever offered – all in the next 50 years?
Learning Objectives:
- Broaden the idea of who will access school buildings of the future, and why.
- Examine the trends demanding education to be changed within the short term, and how these trends will affect what organizations are involved in the education system.
- Define the functions school buildings must provide, and where their functions can be outsourced.
- Examine innovative building and organizational techniques to reduce the cost of school buildings and the education services offered within.