The Faces of Future Education: World Teacher’s Day 2016

Today, the 5^th of October, is World Teacher’s Day.

As a technology company, Samsung Electronics is devoted to preparing the next generation of innovators with the digital and soft skills they need.

Samsung Electronics is just one piece of the wider global network of businesses, governments and civil society supporting teachers and working towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4: to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

Education in Europe

In Europe, one of the biggest issues is high youth unemployment.

Following the financial crisis; too many young people are at risk of being left behind without the skills that their future jobs demand. Education systems sometimes struggle to respond to the changing needs of employers and teachers often lack the support and confidence to adapt how they teach to match the increasingly digital world.

This is why over the last three years, Samsung Electronics has partnered with over 19,000 teachers in Smart Classrooms all over Europe to equip them with the hardware, software and training they need to empower the next generation.

Therefore, on World Teacher’s Day, Samsung Electronics wants to celebrate the teachers who have broken down barriers and gone beyond expectations to use technology to change the face of education.

Erwin Oertli, Switzerland

Going from a zero-wifi school to a lighthouse of digital education, Head teacher Mr. Oertli has broken down many educational barriers!

Based on their experiences as Samsung Citizenship partner in Unteriberg, 2000 Samsung tablets were rolled out to the students and teachers across the district, but the schools still needed to train the teachers in a short space of time.  Head teacher Mr. Oertli knew, that teacher training is the keys for a successful implementation and saw an opportunity to completely switch around the school learning experience.

“I asked students from Unteriberg to do a tech savvy training for teachers to help them understand their devices”

Erwin Oertli is an early adopter and has successfully trained 200 teachers in the biggest 1:1 tablet project in Switzerland.  He is an inspiration to how flexibility and creativity can ensure students never miss out on opportunities to use learn digital skills.

Benjamin Seelisch, Germany

Transforming a school with no wifi and limited funding into a school using the latest technological innovation; this teacher has been taking Neues Gymnasium Rüsselsheim, a secondary school near Frankfurt, on a digital journey since 2011.

Benjamin Seelisch has worked tirelessly to convince the headmaster, find funding and sponsorship to develop this Lighthouse School. The school now has 350 tablets in daily use and the school has won many awards. This teacher continues to be brave and push the boundaries of education as he embarks on his latest project to use VR in the classroom.

“Students are well able to use modern devices on a basic level, only a few know how to work with tablets to increase productivity. Those skills are important for our students when they go on to universities or companies after graduation.”

Liliya Chausheva, Bulgaria

This one teacher has inspired over 300 other educators!

After receiving training from Samsung, she used her passion for expanding digital education to run 15 further trainings. Using the Samsung platform smartclassroom.bg she trained teachers how to attract students to the classroom, inspire them with the technology and embed digital education into their entire learning experience.

Her dedication to passing on her knowledge has potentially changed the learning experience for thousands of students around Bulgaria.

“Digital education is the future. Our students nowadays spend more time online than ever. As their teachers and role models we have to be prepared as well and make educational process attractive, interesting and still productive.

Samsung Electronics partners with many more teachers like these shown above. Future growth of technology in education will continue to bring to the surface these ambitious teachers. They are brave enough to move beyond traditional teaching methods of blackboards and workbooks, to bring the digital world to life for their students.