 Hello everyone, I'm here at Moodle Moodle Global with our keynote speaker, Andrea Inamorato. Hello. Hello. It's lovely to have you and I have to say I so enjoyed your presentation. The title was Educating for the Future, the Transformative Power of Openness. Thank you. Yes, wonderful. I thought it might be nice to follow some of the threads of your keynote because it was fascinating. And I really loved the way you talked about this move from individualism to collectivism. Could you tell us a little bit about that? Yes, sure. I was talking a little bit about this change we've had in society, you know, from a more authoritative way of behaving, you know, respecting institutions, you know, like for example, before we used to be told that we should marry in our 20s or that we should follow the profession of our parents or have a job for life or for our sexual orientation, whatever that is, it was very much set, you know. And those discourses do not hold exactly the same, in the same way anymore. So there's a kind of a change in the social order in that sense, which can cause a little bit of confusion. But that's a characteristic of the post-industrial society, you know, the society living nowadays, post-industrial, digital. So individualism is one of those characteristics. Of course, there is a capitalist drive to it, but to a certain extent, we all enjoy the possibility of having our tastes catered for. So you can have your trainers done to your taste, you know, your beard done to your taste, and all of those possibilities that are that relate to market, but also this opening up of the way of we think in society, all the choices that we have nowadays makes us more individualistic, let's say, but it's not necessarily a bad thing, right? But now, at the same time, there is this shift towards collectivism or what I call tribalism, because although we like to be respected as individuals and having our needs catered for as individuals, we also like to belong, to belong to our tribe or to find like-minded people, to find the people that have the same political orientations, for example, or similar opinions to us, because it's easier, it's so much easier when we relate to people that think like us, you know? So to me, there is a paradox in there how we have society, you know, with both, you know, with this individualistic perspective, at the same time, collectivists, but I think that the point of it, if I may say, is that when you use social media, you know, and that's the point, the relationship between technology and education and the role of educators, really we tend to see all of the same, because once you give a like into a post, you know, the algorithms will start showing you the more of the same stuff that you said you liked, you know, they think it's your preference, and therefore you can be really caught into seeing a lot of the same and believing that the world is about that, that everybody thinks like you, you know, so it kind of creates a silos, and I think that we need to be very much aware and try and look for the contradictory, try and engage with the different, and part of it, I think, is the duty of educators to help students, to help society in general, to see, you know, that that's what happens when you engage with social media. Yeah, I mean, more than ever, people have been, people are using social media platforms, and as you say, with the algorithm, we have, the content is prescribed, and that's a really nice thought that we have a new responsibility as educators to help people think critically. Would that be right? Absolutely. So it's not only about teaching people to use technologies or making technologies available or increasing their digital competence, but most of all, in my opinion, is to help them think critically as to why they're using technologies, what for, you know, and what it means for them in their day-to-day lives and their interaction with society and their immediate contexts. Yes. And how does that connect to the triple transitions that you talked about in your presentation? Yeah, I mentioned the triple transition. Initially we talked about a lot of the twin transition. It's something that we see in most European documents, and that's the twin transition is about the digital transition, no more digital competence, a society driven to the use of technologies more and more, and also the green transition, everything that has to do with climate change, climate adaptation, more consciousness towards ecology, so on and so forth. So those are the twin transitions. The third one that we call the triple transition includes the previous two plans, the societal changes. It includes the change in society. And again, that's where educators come in, right? Because it's about helping people to understand the context, this complexity of systems that we live in nowadays. No, you have a never-changing world, immigration, war, climate change, jobs of the future, a number of different aspects that we have to deal with that are specific about the post-industrial society. You know, so the societal change is to make that leap also in the way we think, and being able to think critically. And that's where I think digital humanities play an important role in philosophy, history, everything that can help individuals think critically, problem-solving skills, all of those skills become as important as technological skills nowadays. And you believe that formal education institutions have a role in progressing that knowledge transfer and the societal component of that. Absolutely, absolutely. And I would add to that, not only formal education, but also institutions that are dealing with non-formal education, no? So when we talk about MOOCs, massive open online courses, open courses of all sorts, everything really collaborates to further bringing that idea that we need more critical thinking overall. So I would think that open education bridges formal and non-formal learning, right? So both types of institutions, types of practices should come together, yeah. Yes, because future-proofing skills is, of course, about developing micro-skills that equip people for work in this current time and in the future. Do you agree? Absolutely. I think you said it all, future-proof skills, no? Because then it's not only about the technology of today, because it may not be the same technology tomorrow, technology changes, they change very fast, no? So we have to keep up with technological advancement. But when you are equipped with those social skills that are future-proof and they have to do with behavior, with critical thinking, problem solving, it's much easier to navigate this fast-paced society that we're living in, try and find a space there, our niche and reduce anxiety and deal with complexity. Yes. This complex world. Absolutely. And you gave some great examples. I liked the Metaverse psychiatrist, so a job of the future where we exist in a Metaverse, but we need the psychiatric help to manage, as you put it, coming back into the real world, perhaps. Exactly, yeah. Yeah. So open education, does it fit, it fits across a few of those transition areas, I think, both technology and social, perhaps? Yes, absolutely. I think that nowadays, more and more open education has been carried out via technologies, because we're talking about open licenses, open online courses, they are all technology-based, all sorts of technologies, micro credentials for MOOCs, blockchain registered, so it's really about, although open education does not necessarily need to be carried out through technology, you can think that you can have an open licensed text that is printed out and delivered in a classroom, in a community, and that would work as well, right? But, yes, we tend to think of it as driven by technologies nowadays, no? So to me, open education is key to foster transformative innovation, because it's about knowledge sharing. So we are sharing more knowledge, transfer knowledge sharing, so we are kind of providing the backbone of this transformative innovation that we very much wanted to see, and the more we manage to link open education with many different things, such as, for example, courses that are needed for upskilling, re-skilling the workforce, not just as an example, the more we provide value to open education, the more people can relate to it as something, as a powerful tool for transformative innovation. Absolutely, and in order to progress the model, it strikes me, or struck me as you were talking, that there's probably multiple layers, so both at the political level, you know, organisational level and individual level, and you are advocating in or across all those areas, I think. Yes, because we keep saying that what we need is an open education ecosystem, you know, and everybody has a role to play, really students, teachers, headmasters, politicians, ministries, everyone. And we tend to see, even through our research, that when you combine button-up and top-down actions, that's where you have the most successful initiatives, right? So you can think of an individual becoming an open learner. So if you are an open learner, you go out there on the web to look for courses that you would like to take to improve your skills, to help you upskilling or re-skilling, because you are aware those courses exist, and, you know, and if you are an open educator, you'll probably, you'll like to try and release your content whenever possible in an open way, openly licensed with a proper open license. But if you are, for example, the rector of university, you could perhaps come up with a mission, a strategy, or a vision for open education throughout the university, encouraging lecturers to release their content, giving them support, encouraging publication as open science, you know. So I think that it's when we put all of those things together, top-down and open-up, that we make it really successful movement. Collective responsibility. Exactly, exactly. I think that's a lovely place to finish. I know many people want to talk to you. So thank you very much. Thanks to you, Abby. Appreciate your time. Thanks.