#TECH: All in the human touch

AS the world shuts down to curb Covid-19, higher-learning institutions are forced to move classes online. Hyper Island, a creative business school, for instance, jumped onto the digital bandwagon and thrived.

Its Asia-Pacific managing director, Melanie Cook, said the pandemic has changed the learning experience.

At first, Hyper Island – a Swedish-based institution that has a branch in Singapore — was hit hard by the pandemic, and had to move its accredited face-to-face courses online.

Learners used to spend 20 per cent of their time acquiring knowledge and the other 80 per cent on building, experimenting, debating, scribbling and playing because it’s their core belief – learning by doing.

The move online then was no easy feat. “We decided to take a human-centred approach to uncover the problem. It isn’t about how we move our offline learning online.

“We got creative about how we can help unsettled professionals develop and learn online as the world turns inside out.

“We are constantly experimenting with our academic and business models to meet our learners’ needs in a remote-everything world.

“And we are continuously learning amid Covid-19, and that has allowed us to build a digitally-enabled school that empowers our faculty through agility and innovation,” said Cook.

People imagine that online learning requires one to spend hours staring at a screen, listening to a lecturer talking on and on.

According to Cook, it doesn’t have to be that way.

“Hyper Island has proven that learning online can be creative, hands-on, social and personal, and sometimes, even more than a face-to-face experience.

“The key is to apply mindsets, techniques and technology that unlock the full potential for learners in the digital space,” she said.

“Each learning journey is part innovation lab, part play and part application.”

CHALLENGING THE NORM

The first step to leveraging technology, ironically, has nothing to do with technology. Rather, both leaders and employees need to adopt an experimental mindset.

“In a world where an individual’s key performance indicators are all about customer experience, even in the back office, people need interdisciplinary awareness.

“They must act with agility, make decisions using data, design with humanity and know how to leverage technology.

“Hyper Island is created to do this with people using learning-by-doing,” said Cook.

“We take the best elements of thinking from business schools like Harvard, of experimenting from technology schools like MIT, and of applied creativity from art schools like Central St Martins, and bring them together for learners in a way that allows them to experience the best of all three worlds,” she said.

GAMIFYING LEARNING

In April, Gary Whitta, a screenwriter, author, game designer and video game journalist, launched “Animal Talking”, a late-night talk show hosted inside the world of Animal Crossing, which creatively broke the mould of Zoom-talking late-night hosts like John Oliver and Stephen Colbert.

Whitta, a master storyteller, uses an avatar that comes complete with a virtual studio for all his “news-of-the-day” opening monologues, a drum set for his virtual sidekick, and a couch for his guests.

Looking at the same ideology, Hyper Island is recreating its learning format, making learning as addictive as playing games.

INDUSTRY-READY

All industries are facing extraordinary disruptions, and Hyper Island sees the need for transformation more now than ever.

“From small start-ups to big corporations, I see a transformation happening iteractively, in many small cycles,” said Cook.

“Tech companies, such as Apple, Amazon, Alibaba, Zoom, Tencent, and Facebook, too, ‘upgrade’ themselves constantly. Our massive enforced learning-from-home experiment is making us educators step out of our comfort zone.

“It brings out our creative side as we help learners meet the needs in disruption, which include nurturing a digital-first mindset; restructuring processes to support aligned autonomy; developing data-driven decision-making practices; and learning to leverage technology for both established and emerging,” she said.

LEARNING SHIFT

In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the line between biology, technology and the physical realm is blurring.

Cook listed three most valuable skills for people, namely emotional intelligence, critical thinking and lifelong learning, which will protect livelihoods. “We are a long way from teaching authentic empathy to artificial intelligence, and this continues to be a human superpower.

“If you use technology to deliver on basic needs, you will succeed.

“Organisationally, we expect the future of work to be more creative. It won’t be a work-life balance, but work-life integration. We’ll be more focused.

“Admittedly, it will be challenging, with lots of pivots in new ways for dealing with conflict, anxiety and isolation.

“The workplace will be decentralised, and with decentralisation, comes complexity.

“If we can be curious, conscientious and confident no matter the complexity, we will learn to find a way through it. We will succeed,” said Cook.

Source: NST