I've been blown away by all these talks
about rebirth and renaissance today.
I believe
humanity works on a cycle of rebirths
and we are at the crossroads of a new one.
Our lives are becoming more and more digitized.
And in time, education will follow.
As a history major, I struggled to find a job.
I actually ended up working in the environmental industry
in Kenya, in East Africa,
working on renewable energy projects
with a focus on biogas in rural communities.
This then led me to Beijing, China
and the scene you can see behind me,
another beautiful sunny afternoon
in the Chinese capital.
I was tired of breathing in
this dirty, polluted, smoggy air.
And I kept alerting my friends
and family back home
of what it was like to live through this.
But they didn't really believe me.
So I decided to look back on history.
So armed with my history diploma,
what events stood out for me?
The London Great Smog, in 1952.
12 000 people lost their lives in 5 days.
12 000 people.
This is the worst man-made air pollution disaster ever.
And yet, hardly anybody knew about it.
So what I decided to do,
was to create a fictional character,
someone who woke up in 1952,
had a smartphone and began tweeting.
And he tweeted as if he was really living the event in real time.
But this was over 60 years ago.
I used the hashtag "#GreatSmog"
and I spoke in a language which kids were familiar with
and they could understand.
We got picked up by media organisations,
we got picked up by environmentalists
and everyone started following this feed,
re-living this historical event.
It was the true impact of the Great Smog,
people didn't actually know what was going on at the time.
It's only when the hospitals started filling up,
people were dying of heart attacks in the streets,
people were dying in their homes while they slept.
And yet, they didn't quite realize how many people were dying.
It's only when the morgues were actually full
that they realized the true impact of the Great Smog.
So I created 422 tweets in the space of 5 days
and I reached millions of people on Twitter.
So you are probably thinking,
"what's the point? Why did I do this? What's the interest?"
Well, I did it because history is still stuck in the dark ages.
History teaching
and it's outdated context, outdated delivery,
kids are simply bored of it.
If you want a kid to hate their iPad, put a textbook on it.
It's the same with history.
We can't just live with static figures
and dates and numbers.
Kids aren't interested in that anymore.
We need history to be brought to life,
we need the teachers to actually use
the power of technology and tell stories.
This is what I strive to do everyday as a technology entrepreneur.
Innovation though, is difficult.
What we really need is to push for schools to have a new vision
and a new way to be open and pushing for collaboration.
Here are a few examples of innovators in the space
who use technology and mix it with history
to bring a story to life.
One of the teachers I spoke to a couple of months ago, Corina,
she works at the Steve Jobs schools
- yes, they do exist, in Almere in the Netherlands -
and she told me just that,
she said what she liked about using history and technology in the classroom
is that it brought the content to life
and engaged to students.
It made her kids curious,
it lighted that spark of curiosity inside them,
which got them to go explore more
and find out more about that historical event.
And that's exactly... and she's right!
Every teacher that I liked and remembered from history
told me a powerful story.
When now teachers have technology
to actually make this happen,
it's very easy.
The second example I want to show you is Minecraft.
So for those of you that don't know Minecraft,
it's a virtual 3D sandbox game
where users can create these amazing worlds from scratch.
Now Minecraft is great because it pushes for collaboration, for digital citizenships
and by that I mean
sort of Internet ethics and also privacy issues.
And it allows for people to really chat on there and discuss events.
What was so great about this Minecraft
was that it was a student that created it
for his Latin class.
So the student, before Minecraft,
did not feel engaged with the content,
he was having problems studying.
So he created this Roman bath house himself.
And from there, he actually learnt Latin
and started giving tours to other users in Latin.
I mean, how engaging is that
and how inspiring is that?
There's so much creativity there.
My third example is a teacher
that I look up to and that I admire,
Enrique Legaspi.
He's a social studies teacher in the U.S.
And what he does is
he actively uses Twitter within the classroom setting.
He uses the tool to get students
to collaborate on the net, to discuss events,
and uses one event, one hashtag.
And he's actually found
that students are a lot more engaged
with the study of history.
What he's also noticed
is that the shy ones actually speak up now.
So every student in his class has a role
and feels part of the classroom.
Enrique is one of many of the teachers out there
currently doing this in the space.
And this is what I want to do
as an education technology entrepreneur,
is bring these stories to life,
bring history alive and make it active,
make it enjoyable and fun for the students,
get them involved.
Unfortunately, it is a difficult space to be in.
And really, with the power of the Internet,
millions and millions of people are getting access to the web.
And we can allow for this collaboration
between students from different classrooms
but also different countries.
One example is,
one which may be close to a lot of people in the room today,
is the independence of Congo.
Why can't we have students collaborating about this historic event together,
on one platform, discussing, collaborating.
What was it like for a student
to grow up during Congo
when it was colonized by Belgians;
what it was like for a Belgian student
to grow up in Belgium
and discuss Belgium's colonization.
Why can't we have these students
from different countries, from different continents
discussing and collaborating together?
To do this though,
we all need boldness, imagination and creativity.
Unfortunately, our schools do not allow for this currently,
so we need a new vision for schools
to push this through.
Our students are very smartphone-orientated.
They need 21st century skills now.
These 21st century skills
revolve around cognitive skills, innovation and recognition.
And really, to do this we need to allow students
to really have access to technology.
And schools need to change the way they are being taught
when it comes to liberal arts.
No longer are we in an era
where someone like Henry Ford wanted workers
who were obedient, who listened
and who didn't question.
Today someone like Larry Page wants people
to answer questions that haven't been solved yet,
and he wants creators.
But more importantly, he wants innovators.
And that's really what we need to push for
when it comes to history.
"Social media is bad,
we shouldn't use it in the classroom."
I am tired and I'm really fed up
of hearing that argument
from top level educators.
Let's actually let
the students use these tools.
Let them get engaged with history.
It's actually, you get them to use tools
that are actually in need for the future.
They don't need a textbook anymore.
They can google something in 2 seconds
and figure out the answer.
Sir Ken Robinson once said:
"Nobody has any idea
of what's going to happen in the future
but everybody has an interest in education."
And I think he's right.
Those words ring true,
especially for the future of the liberal arts
and in particular history.
A child is not born
with a notepad and a pen anymore.
He's born with technology at their fingertips.
So, my very short talk today
is really about dreaming and going out there,
and going big
and really pushing for this collaboration.
Making history personalised,
getting children involved,
getting them engaged with history.
And that's really what I'm trying to push forward today.
It's to go out there
and really make a difference.
So the themes of these talks today has been rebirth.
I think we should have a Renaissance
of the way history is taught in classrooms
across the country and across the globe.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)