Mexico City, August 9, 2023. Universidad Panamericana held the 4th edition of the Seminar on Educational Innovation, with the theme Educating in the 21st century: trends and directions.
This event brought together leading experts and professionals in the field of education to share knowledge, experiences and strategies to face the current challenges in education and strengthen the institutions that work every day to bring about change.
During the welcome, MBA Antonio Castro D'Franchis, Panamericana's Director of University Life, explained to the attendees why Social Commitment We can do a lot of social good indirectly through education," he said. On the subject of innovation, he said: "Educational innovation is a means to improve education and transform society.
Digital immersion and Artificial Intelligence
To kick off the seminar, Claudia Castellanos Tamez, Head of Content from Ticmas Mexicoan educational technology company focused on schools, spoke about the phenomenon of Artificial Intelligence and other technological advances.
Castellanos reflected on the digital context in which we live: "Digital culture surrounds us. The world of information, communication, production, technology, matter and space is growing, because of digital technology, and it is materialized by 3D technologies, nanotechnologies and robotics," he said.
During his presentation, he spoke about the different types of technology that have emerged today and how humanity is advancing rapidly in this area. He also emphasized how it was that on November 30, 2022, the arrival of Artificial Intelligence (AI) marked one of the greatest technological advances of the century, which has had a great impact on education .
He then addressed the teachers, telling them about the useful tools that AI has and posed this advance as a great opportunity for education and not as a threat: "Teachers solve problems and we have to seek to give the tools to the students to face them".
Some of the examples of these tools he mentioned are functions in which the artificial intelligence can pretend to be a historical figure, allowing the student to have a conversation with him. He also described how he has used Chat GPT to create syllabi for some subjects and for exam guides to help his students.
Finally, Castellanos stressed the importance of educating hand in hand with these digital advances: "Training in artificial intelligence is being promoted by communities and foundations, it is not a field of big tech, it is something that concerns us as civil society (...). The role of artificial intelligence in education is to amplify the capabilities of students".
Soft skills and emotional intelligence
Dr. Alejandro Ordoñez Torres, Director of the School of Engineering, followed by a talk by Dr. Alejandro Ordoñez Torres, Director of the School of Engineering. School of Engineering of Panamericana University, Mexico City campus, gave a presentation on how to teach soft skills and why they are important.
Ordoñez began by explaining to the audience what soft skills are: "The term refers to the personal and social competencies that allow us to relate to others and perform successfully in our lives. Unfortunately, these skills are not taught very well in schools because they do not realize that it is not so easy to learn them".
During his speech he focused mainly on one competency: emotional intelligence, which he defined as "knowing how to identify, consider and control emotions in myself and in others".
He also explained that it is important to educate in emotional intelligence, since the most outstanding individuals within a company, as well as those who have a higher salary, have a higher emotional intelligence than their peers.
He also pointed out that it is essential to know how to use this intelligence when reacting to different circumstances, since it will help us determine how much they will affect us and what our reaction will be: "Each one of us will react differently to a specific event, for all of us it is the same (event) but for each one it is of a different value".
Regarding these emotions, she mentioned that it is quite helpful to talk to someone about what you are feeling, as it can be liberating and healing. Similarly, she explained how reflecting at night on what you have felt throughout the day, and trying to name it, can be very helpful, as it will help you to know what you are feeling and how to cope with it, not only personally, but also with others .
To conclude, Ordoñez stressed the importance of self-control and why it is so useful and necessary: "Knowing that something is happening to me, delaying my response, that will help me a lot to find a mechanism, something that will help me react appropriately to any circumstance.
