Not a School @ Not a Shop: A Unique Educational Experience @ Samsung KX

[AntS]

Aiming to give the next generation of innovators a head start with a unique educational experience, Samsung have created Not a School at Samsung KX:

Not a School?

A mix of educational workshops, debates and hands-on projects - all led by the muli-talented Charlie Dark of Run Dem Crew fame. Featuring talks and mentoring from brilliant peeps like comedian, Reuben Christian; founder of OOM Supper Club, Shanice Bryce; innovotative storyteller and cultural strategist, Adah Parris; photographer, Andriana Lagoudes; film maker, Lawrence Lartley; and writer, Jodi A Bickley. All of whom are set to share skills in creative problem solving, critical thinking... and more!

Each week a new theme will be explored, and taken from what young people have told us matters most to them:

• Empathy 
• Sustainability
• How we can ‘humanise’ technology
• Inclusion

For example:

Challenge 1: Good Vibes Only

Challenge 2: Make Sustainability Personal

Challenge 3: Humanise Technology

You can’t predict the future. You have to build it as you go...

I'd have loved to have had something like this when I was Not an Adult! Growing up, I noticed people were always talking about lots of stuff, but not always about the things that I thought should matter, or talking about them in the right ways. I still feel like that now sometimes, if I'm honest. (I guess in some ways, I haven't grown up...)

I've always had an insatiable curiosity, active imagination and inventiveness. But creatively speaking, I was all-too often discouraged from following my heart - with some of my teachers over the years wanting me to stay in a neat little metaphorical box, and them being a tad condescending about some of the things I loved and drew inspiration from.

The pace of the world is changing at such a rapid rate. My current job as an Online Community Lead didn't exist even as a concept when I was still in education in the '90s. And everything that isn't Samsung (and some of it that is!) or customer service related that I've brought to the job has been self-taught through access to improving tech, and the vast source of information that is the internet. (Who'd have thought that me messing about/spamming on forums back in the Noughties would've led to anything useful?)

We all love to speculate what the future will be - whether it's horrific dystopias or wonderous utopias. But the truth, like it says in the video, is that tomorrow is built as we go along today. And young people today, who've always been natives of the digital world, genuinely are the builders of the future.  

I'd be interested in other people's thoughts on this all - and what parts of the future they can see being built today - so please post your comments below!

More about Not a School here: https://news.samsung.com/uk/samsung-launches-unique-educational-experience-to-prepare-young-people-f... 

And Not a School's page on our website: https://www.samsung.com/uk/explore/kings-cross/not-a-school/ 

#NotASchool #DoWhatYouCant #Samsung

[SaudA]

Looks really cool..will have to check it out the next time I'm in London!

[SjorsK]

I love the idea. Just like @AntS my current job (And pretty much my whole resume) didn't exist "Back in the day", in fact I rolled into my sector by playing "video games" while building online communities in the meantime as a hobby

Basically it went like this: When I was 12 I started playing online games (Before that I did a few offline games) and joined a community, helped with growing it by spamming some forums (And joining a few other forums) while getting some kind of leadership role in those online gaming communities which gave me access to administrative tools, which in turn helped me in developing my technical interest and I learned that most people had trouble with the systems that where being used (Whoohoo! Unique skillset ).

This interest assisted me with growing my interest into "IT" as a whole (They thought that computers where a temporary hype in the 90's Same for the internet) and got a few Microsoft certifications and started to work at a major university as an IT tech in multiple support related roles.

The beauty of my past is that everything I do is with the focus "End-User First" as my primary mindset, because if the user is not happy, you will effectively fail at your job

In the meantime I never really stopped with my old hobby and joined a few other communities (Such as Samsung and one largest telecom providers in the Netherlands) and build a few more ones, whereof one is right now a successful business (I will not link it due to community rules and will not advertise my own service without explicit permission;) ).

So, who said that spamming forums and playing video games is bad for your career If it wasn't for that I would probably have a boring administrative job, which would be a dead skillset in 10 years ^^'

My advice to everyone is: My job right now didn't exist 10 years ago, and definitely not even as a concept 15 years ago Simply do what interest you and expand your skillset from that. Try to aim high and don't be afraid to fail (With calculated risk of course ). As long you enjoy what you do you will definitely get there in time and every failure, is a treasure of experience (And thus, can be considered a success ).

Besides of that its important to take every opportunity you can get and don't let yourself be limited by others and do what you feel that is the right thing to do, it probably is (But don't dismiss the advice outright ).

[JAMES4578]

Certainly Not a School is an interesting concept,  learning New techniques in a fun and friendly environment.   

@AntS @SjorsK    Think there is a tentency for some teachers/peers to encourage folk to go for the safe  choices and whilst more creative choices will not always work out some thinking out the box more likely to bring rewards than pigeonholing. 

Always good to have some hobbies which you may be able to utilise in the future  and what some consider to be "messing about"   will actually be exploring and picking up some new skills.   Particularly in the modern world technology is rapidly changing and whilst there are indeed challenges also opportunities.

[SjorsK]

Well, my experience was that they where "afraid" of it, and started to discourage it until they realize that it was actually becoming my trade. The day I enrolled in some IT-Related study they suddenly started to encourage it

(I was actually one of the first at the school so it was -very- experimental). That said, I ended up on a great spot

[JAMES4578]

In terms of the future a few ideas here:

Whilst risks with AI and we need to get ethics right I think it can offer us great benefits and create opportunities for those who may be marginalised.  AI could be used in the fields of recruitment and career advancement to restrict biases that humans have (even if that can be unconscious).  For menial jobs that will be replaced there will be new roles we van train for such as   interaction modelers and machine learning managers.

Need to look how AI can be enhanced to assist Social Media Moderators, though there are challenges and think will need human interaction for a long time yet.  With automated systems difficult to determine the context in the same way that staff can do.    Of course, many sites use filters but there can sometimes be unintended consequences.  Nonetheless for instance Facebook have been researching system that can flag photos and videos and they have the AI tool for picking up signals for those at risk of harming themselves.

Technology in medicine is rapidly advancing and we can utilise AI much more in the future.    Whilst should never replace the human interaction which patients will trust can greatly assist Practioners in providing better care and more efficiency and opportunities will open up in research and innovation.  For instance, AI-driven smartphone app can now handle the task of triaging 1.2 million people in North London to Accident & Emergency (A&E).  These systems are able to learn from each incremental case and can evaluate from more cases in minutes than a Dr could see in many lifetimes. Ideally suited to helping where there are limited trained staff. many TB-prevalent countries there is a lack of radiological expertise and Using AI, radiographs uploaded from these centres could be interpreted by a single central system.  In the future patients could have an electronic footprint and easier to evaluate when intervention is required.   AI could determine the advantages/risks of various courses of action.

[RpBP]

Yes that iniciative of a OffRoadSchool decided by me on Google was interesting focuse in the deep and clear socety in connstant develop for ***** friends and clear persons than do not disturb to gayers for do things without sense. For this reason my traitor, metaforicly speaking.. I prefere to continue with my owns steps for decide about my future more close and try to define to all that persons, directives and iniciatives as clear person I am too many times with yours and try to apply all that little things in advance of a new era digital and clever solutions to the decay of humans resources in logics actions and progresion linear of intelecte (all species evolutive). 😘🌷

[Nancy Hardy]

Amazing idea!