Getting involved to become main actors improving the rules of the game in town: From higher education to employment, citizenship and entrepreneurial spirit

We are heading towards the end of the Fall semester in the three campus where TicWisdom education programms were prepared to teach under Olga Gil´s direction. Evaluations for the work developed in progress by students, strictly following Bolonia are now key. Bolonia is a model that we like: 50% theory plus 50% on-hands-practicioning. Results from students might become very relevant out of teacher´s drawer in a model like this. Two of our students have goot a first job opportunity with the course work developed. One of them has been invited by McKinsey&Co to join the stagier programm in London this summer. This is a result of the work developed in class, where students who decide to do so are presenting the on-going academic essay/report as a proposal to participate on different contest. Thus we have engrained education to employment as part of the courses. Students getting their first opportunity during the course play a very importat role. For their fellow mates they are alive proofs: getting results is possible -against the pesimistic flow.
UNDEF programm to encorage participation of all groups in democratic processes.

We are very pleased we are working against the pesimistic flow –and some inadecuate attacks to public teaching
And we are even getting fine results: Some students will have a job as a result of the work we are developing together. Have a look at how interesting it is the rage of topics they have choosen to work on and how students have become involved –this is just work in progress and final results will be attained by January 2013.

The world today is full of opportunities for those who dare to fetch them.
Rules are changing. Understanding the new rules and having the courage to play and participate in the built up of new rules might well position a complete generation of Spanish youth among the best in the world. I see them not just playing on the Champions League, but inventing new games.

Actually, the crisis might help us to recover a otherwise lost generation, lacking values for compromise, and reflecting those of the elder generation: a lack of ethics for the XXI century. Lack of interest in the world, to know other cultures and to learn how things are done in different societies. The crisis has changed all this. We want so share with you this link to a different idea about Marca España. This has to do with jobs for Spaniards… and all the possibilities linked to built up networks abroad for a very well prepared generation that just has to dare. It is a job site.

We work each day with the convinction that defining new games is a possibility

For these capable men and women, in all the seminars and workshops. Students keep up to expectations indeed. We mentioned one result above, but the list of topics, the quality and originallity of the works they are working in progress is enticing. They are focusing on real challenges: energy politcy, education policy, tech policy, water policy, participation policy, development policy… and also following our advise, they are focusing on the client (party, level of government, institution, NGO…) and specially they focus were the money is –following the insight to INSEAD business school.

This semester TicWisdom has furthered the foundations

We are adding up collaborations with five different campus. Most of themm are based in Madrid, Spain: UNED (worldwide), Cantoblanco (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Colmenarejo (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), Getafe (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) and UNIA (Universidad Internacional de Andalucía). Students are asked to do the readings with anticipation for all the classes under syllabus developed by us, with inputs from TicWisdom education team for the labs part in the four courses (including digital literacy):

  • Comparative Politics
  • Comparative Public Policy
  • Introduction to Political Science and
  • Comparative Multilevel Governance (Estructura Territorial del Estado).

In all the cases bibliography tends to catch up with recent publications.

We consider that the word changed quite decisively in 1989 and I will not be the same after the breakdown of trust inflicted by commercial banks the United States in 2008 and 2009. Therefore, politics are changing, economics are drastically changing, and society is reshaping. Geopolitics are also changing, with the US losing interest in the Middle East, with important and *dangerous* consecuences for the Mediterranean in the midterm.

Thus, readings and class discussions should reflect upon the current challeges of politics and humanity. According to the students in the comparative politics class, our challenges today have to do with governance, with democractic governance. Their vision on what they should concentrate on from the point of view of the practicioning of political science (and not only from the Academia) is the following:

Students to become main actors improving the rules of the game in town

We also hope our courses have lighten up the flame of interest for them to get involved and to become main actors improving the rules of the game in town. Whether they decide to involve in politics -which for the most part disregard- or working form civil society following Elisabeth Murdoch say: “Comprometerse y darlo que podemos a la comunidad es lo mas importante que una persona puede hacer”

However, this is not a static proposal. Students have a 50% responsibility … to make this proposal a useful one. They have to buy the idea, compromise, and take the responsibility of leadership. They are not always prepared to do so. And there are many other ideas we should keep up with, in order maintain this model upfront. The courses have to change to adapt to the very changing process we encounter today. See just one example.

In our LABs on #education #trends we work in progress and we are currently preparing a course for Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (UNIA): social media por teachers and educators to give tools to educators to built up digital literacy for sustainable global competition. Follow our updates on education via twitter @TicWisdom #edu #labs

For useful documentation see also:

Communication and Leadership: Learning with Open Technologies:


From Olga Gil, Ph.D

For enquires contact olgagil at olgagil dot es or call 609 448 309.
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