Garth Wynne: The Influencers

One of the great challenges facing people in education, be it schools, universities or other tertiary organisations, is the impact and influence of ‘new’ technologies that are really questioning the validity of ‘old’ knowledge.

The world is changing more quickly than in previous generations because of the digital revolution, and educators are challenged by the ‘relevance’ question more seriously now than ever before. Can we just keep doing what we have been or do we need to fundamentally do something different?

When ‘answers’ can be found at the click of a button, perhaps education needs to be more about the question?  Where does the balance lie between the ‘academic’ skills of the past and the ‘soft’ skills of the future? For us at Christ’s College, we’ve had a hugely successful year in terms of academic achievements. But our measure of success is equally about our graduate character, in particular, exhibiting what we call our graduate outcome.

These are dispositions and attitudes that include compassion and empathy, courage and resilience, and enterprise and curiosity; all linked to our Christian virtues. The mystery of faith fundamentally speaks to the need to be curious.

As Dr Stephen Hawking said: “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious and, however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t give up. Unleash your imagination. Shape the future.”