Education for Creativity, Skills, and Cross-disciplinary Collaboration

It has been recently realized that the current higher education does not adequately prepare students for the jobs of the future. Rather than narrow specialization, what will be needed are skills and attitudes that vouch for a smooth transition from school to work place and the ability of a young person to further develop but also adapt to the demands of the job. Many universities are now looking to develop basic skill sets which emphasize such things as communication, team work, creativity, and crossdisciplinary competence. This is specially the case for technically oriented schools, whose students will enter a world which favors collaboration-driven innovation, currently regarded as the best way to rapid development. While the current university curriculum still invites relatively passive learning, new initiatives have been taken for such things as creativity workshops, or faculty development seminars for re-imagining education. One recent experiment at my own university was an Artificial Intelligence Collaboration Day with “flash presentations” by students and faculty as well as longer presentations and group discussions. The idea was for people from widely different fields to identify common interests for potential collaboration, and this worked well because of the friendly atmosphere. The most tangible current experiments are specially built “innovation centers”, such as the new Kaplan Institute for Innovation at Illinois Tech - a building which is specially designed for innovation through collaboration. Flexible architecture and new interior design can quickly adapt to the needs of different projects and audiences. The biggest challenge, however, and a key concern for the education of the future, is creating a learning climate where quiet individual students can develop into happily communicating, competent and confident human beings. I will mention some of my own experiments in this respect within the American university system and finally take a look at a surprising but functioning alternative: the Finnish educational system and its underlying values.