WHY DO I BELIEVE IN SLOW TEACHING? maybe because i hate Powerpoint's with words.....

Back to basics...Using blackboards, charcoal, systems, images, grammar and body language can engage your students, have them paying attention to what you are saying even because they will not find it in any other digital or physical support.

Most of the students depend their learning journey on the reading of the teacher syllabus, teaching notes, project briefings, lecture powerpoint's, etc... they just memorize them and reproduce the information in the tests and exams like poppets! Most lectures are fuelling this lazy students with lots of prepared information to help get the grades in the exams and that's it! But what about real life experience? These standardised pedagogical and academic models are already obsolete...

WHY? simple because students today access to much more interesting and deep information on the existing resources available on the internet...

These causes to difficult problems for teachers: (a) the good students will confront their lectures with better and more up to dated information; (b) what added value will they have then to their students?

As lectures what can we do then? First of all CHANGE the game, Experiment new approach's, be Open minded to INNOVATION how and why we do Things...

I may start by a simple...Back to Basics STATEMENT, or even a ACTION trow out all your Powerpoint presentations! A second step would be...Make yourself a simple questions: What is my added value to students? where in my professional and academic career did i lived Game changing situations? life lessons and learnings? what experiences do i have to share? What exactly are my thoughts, fears and visions about our future as citizens and society? what is my role to build this vision for all of us?

In the your quest for the answers is your future as a teacher! Is the story you have to share with your students! is your uniqueness and differentiation statement!

I have done this "design thinking" exercise and i found my answers for now....(as a design thinker i put myself these questions in a regular bases). I have lots of stories and life lessons, based on my real life professional and international academic career, to share with my students...and the most important thing i have learn is the need to master systems and processes more then final results or definitive knowledges...

Is not about the things that i have learned as fix dogmas anymore ... is really about the processes that allow me to keep learning for all situations and from all areas in life and.... how to connect them with my stronger assets, skills and competences! Its about the Pathway not the arrival point...

Let me share my view and what i have been experimenting, changing, improving and learning from mistakes (controlled mistakes):

• Dont give to my students any pre-prepared teaching notes or class summaries. The students have build their own based on the different, multiple sources materials that i make available from them previously to my classes. I called them READERS. It can be videos, Ted Talks, Forbes magazine, or Scientific articles, Journals, thesis...meaning a good mixture of science based resources and market based resources...Its the students job to find with me guidance and mentoring the connection dots between the several resources and extracted their main learning from them and Share it with their Peers! - Not need of Powerpoint's right?

• The first thing that i share with my students is not the program/syllabus/contents. The first thing i share with my students is the learning journey, the process they need to follow to reach full value from my experience and the process that will allow them to build competences and skills based on "Hands on" Approach. By understanding the stages and phases of their learning path, also because i give emphasis on the "reason's why" and the benefits for them, the students create stronger engagement and intrisic and extrisic motivation to overcome each step / stage of the learning process!. - An important component for the success of the process itself its that in each class parts of the all experience all revealed to be implement and solved in the specific class.

• Incorporate the new technologies in your teaching physical and virtual environments. Embrace technology as a enabler of classes interactions and dynamics. I started to implement realtimeboard.com online collaboration platform in my classes to allow students to set their pace for improving their group discussions and activities. These app allow the students to have only one virtual board to share ideas, stimulus, to analyse information, to transform information, etc - Physical classes can have a virtual environment too!

• Give real life challenges to your students, bringing the market, consumers, society to the class room and to the students learning journeys. Apply knowledge mindset fits with students expectations and ambitions. Just thing about all the stories we have today about students that developed their future companies and award winning ideas when they were developing project in the class room and classes! Why should YOUR students not have the same opportunities?

• Finally, it should have been the first topic but is the most important one, in my opinion, To create the good mood, informal relationship with the students! You may ask: what about respect? Does respect follows formality or rules? No, respect comes from delivering according and above expectations! Respect comes from looking at your students as "your peers in the learning journey", you also learn a lot from then. I am no more then them because i have a Ph.D or because i talk to "my-peers" now or "publish" in their magazines. Dont get me wrong I have learned "with peers" but i learn more everyday with my students and all the people that i talk to and work for! - The results of this informal approach is the amount of work the students do during the all process! Maybe even more then the aimed Ects :)

The future of education its about MAKING real life experiences, to emerge the students in game changing challenges and projects, applying the theory but mastering the processes, techniques and the tools that allow them to achieve better results and outcomes!

Américo Mateus Ph.D in Management and Innovation-Teacher/researcher/entrepreneur/creative leader - Faculty and IDEAS(R)EVOLUTION Applied Research group coordinator at Universidade Europeia /IADE – Creative University Portugal. He is an active Business entrepreneur in the fields of Design and Innovation, marketing, Social Innovation and Creativity. Américo is a System Thinker, course creator, creative leader, models and tools developer and at his essence a provocateur, disruption igniter and bias toward change. His passion is to challenge existing dogmas and paradigms applying research methods designed “trough the Eyes of the user/consumer”. He his a “Science to the market believer” and his work as a senior innovation facilitator and cross-pollination mind-set his recognise by his co-workers, students, colleagues and peers. Is quest for “doing things different and better” makes him an inspirational leader and an innovation faculty and speaker.