WEBVTT

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I've been blown away by all these talks

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about rebirth and renaissance today.

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I believe

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humanity works on a cycle of rebirths

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and we are at the crossroads of a new one.

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Our lives are becoming 
more and more digitized.

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And in time, education will follow.

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As a history major,
I struggled to find a job.

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I actually ended up working
in the environmental industry

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in Kenya, in East Africa,

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working on renewable energy projects

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with a focus on biogas
in rural communities.

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This then led me to Beijing, China

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and the scene you can see behind me,

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another beautiful sunny afternoon 


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in the Chinese capital.

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I was tired of breathing in 


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this dirty, polluted, smoggy air.

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And I kept alerting my friends


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and family back home

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of what it was like to live through this.

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But they didn't really believe me.


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So I decided to look back on history.

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So armed with my history diploma,

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what events stood out for me?

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The London Great Smog, in 1952.

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12 000 people lost their lives in 5 days.

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12 000 people.

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This is the worst man-made 
air pollution disaster ever.

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And yet, hardly anybody knew about it.

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So what I decided to do, 


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was to create a fictional character,

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someone who woke up in 1952,


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had a smartphone and began tweeting.

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And he tweeted as if he was
really living the event in real time.

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But this was over 60 years ago.

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I used the hashtag "#GreatSmog"

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and I spoke in a language 
which kids were familiar with

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and they could understand.

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We got picked up by media organisations,

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we got picked up by environmentalists

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and everyone started following this feed,

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re-living this historical event.

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It was the true impact of the Great Smog,

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people didn't actually know 
what was going on at the time.

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It's only when the hospitals 
started filling up,

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people were dying of 
heart attacks in the streets,

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people were dying in 
their homes while they slept.

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And yet, they didn't quite realize 
how many people were dying.

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It's only when the morgues 
were actually full

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that they realized the true
impact of the Great Smog.

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So I created 422 tweets 
in the space of 5 days

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and I reached millions 
of people on Twitter.

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So you are probably thinking, 


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"what's the point? Why did I do this? 
What's the interest?"

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Well, I did it because history 
is still stuck in the dark ages.

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History teaching

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and it's outdated context, 
outdated delivery,

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kids are simply bored of it.

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If you want a kid to hate 
their iPad, put a textbook on it.

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It's the same with history.

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We can't just live with static figures 


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and dates and numbers.

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Kids aren't interested in that anymore.

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We need history to be brought to life,

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we need the teachers to actually use

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the power of technology and tell stories.

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This is what I strive to do everyday 
as a technology entrepreneur.

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Innovation though, is difficult.

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What we really need is to push 
for schools to have a new vision

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and a new way to be open 
and pushing for collaboration.

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Here are a few examples 
of innovators in the space

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who use technology and mix it with history

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to bring a story to life.

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One of the teachers I spoke to 
a couple of months ago, Corina,

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she works at the Steve Jobs schools

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- yes, they do exist,
in Almere in the Netherlands -

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and she told me just that,

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she said what she liked about using 
history and technology in the classroom

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is that it brought the content to life

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and engaged to students.

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It made her kids curious,

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it lighted that spark of 
curiosity inside them,

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which got them to go explore more

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and find out more about 
that historical event.

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And that's exactly... and she's right!

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Every teacher that I liked 
and remembered from history

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told me a powerful story.

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When now teachers have technology 


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to actually make this happen,

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it's very easy.

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The second example I want 
to show you is Minecraft.

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So for those of you that 
don't know Minecraft,


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it's a virtual 3D sandbox game

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where users can create these 
amazing worlds from scratch.

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Now Minecraft is great because it pushes
for collaboration, for digital citizenships

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and by that I mean

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sort of Internet ethics 
and also privacy issues.

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And it allows for people to really 
chat on there and discuss events.

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What was so great about this Minecraft

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was that it was a student that created it


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for his Latin class.

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So the student, before Minecraft,

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did not feel engaged with the content,

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he was having problems studying.

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So he created 
this Roman bath house himself.

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And from there, 
he actually learnt Latin

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and started giving tours 
to other users in Latin.

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I mean, how engaging is that

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and how inspiring is that?

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There's so much creativity there.

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My third example is a teacher

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that I look up to and that I admire,

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Enrique Legaspi.

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He's a social studies teacher in the U.S.

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And what he does is

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he actively uses Twitter 
within the classroom setting.

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He uses the tool to get students

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to collaborate on the net,
to discuss events,

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and uses one event, one hashtag.

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And he's actually found

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that students are a lot more engaged

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with the study of history.

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What he's also noticed

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is that the shy ones 
actually speak up now.

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So every student in his class has a role

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and feels part of the classroom.

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Enrique is one of many
of the teachers out there

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currently doing this in the space.

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And this is what I want to do

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as an education technology entrepreneur,

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is bring these stories to life, 


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bring history alive and make it active,

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make it enjoyable 
and fun for the students,

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get them involved.

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Unfortunately, it is
a difficult space to be in.

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And really, 
with the power of the Internet,

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millions and millions of people
are getting access to the web.

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And we can allow for this collaboration

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between students from different classrooms

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but also different countries.

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One example is,

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one which may be close to 
a lot of people in the room today,

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is the independence of Congo.

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Why can't we have students collaborating 
about this historic event together,

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on one platform, discussing, collaborating.

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What was it like for a student

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to grow up during Congo

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when it was colonized by Belgians;

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what it was like for a Belgian student

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to grow up in Belgium

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and discuss Belgium's colonization.

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Why can't we have these students

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from different countries, 
from different continents

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discussing and collaborating together?

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To do this though,

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we all need boldness, 
imagination and creativity.

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Unfortunately, our schools 
do not allow for this currently,

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so we need a new vision for schools

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to push this through.

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Our students are 
very smartphone-orientated.

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They need 21st century skills now.

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These 21st century skills

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revolve around cognitive skills,
innovation and recognition.

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And really, to do this
we need to allow students

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to really have access to technology.

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And schools need to change
the way they are being taught

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when it comes to liberal arts.

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No longer are we in an era

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where someone like 
Henry Ford wanted workers

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who were obedient, who listened


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and who didn't question.

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Today someone like 
Larry Page wants people

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to answer questions that 
haven't been solved yet,

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and he wants creators.

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But more importantly,
he wants innovators.

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And that's really what we need to push for

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when it comes to history.

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"Social media is bad,

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we shouldn't use it in the classroom."

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I am tired and I'm really fed up

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of hearing that argument 


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from top level educators.

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Let's actually let 


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the students use these tools.

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Let them get engaged with history.

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It's actually, you get them to use tools

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that are actually in need for the future.

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They don't need a textbook anymore.

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They can google something
in 2 seconds

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and figure out the answer.

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Sir Ken Robinson once said:

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"Nobody has any idea

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of what's going to happen in the future

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but everybody has 
an interest in education."

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And I think he's right.

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Those words ring true,

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especially for the future 
of the liberal arts

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and in particular history.

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A child is not born

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with a notepad and a pen anymore.

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He's born with technology 
at their fingertips.

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So, my very short talk today

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is really about dreaming
and going out there,

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and going big

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and really pushing for this collaboration.

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Making history personalised,

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getting children involved,

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getting them engaged with history.

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And that's really what I'm trying 
to push forward today.

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It's to go out there 


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and really make a difference.

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So the themes of these talks 
today has been rebirth.

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I think we should have a Renaissance

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of the way history is taught in classrooms

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across the country and across the globe.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)