Robo-experience: connections between learning subjects and learning objects | Ezio Fregnan | TEDxBustoArsizio

Our educational system is inadequate to face the challenges of knowledge connected to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the technological evolution that is affecting the personal and professional life of us all.

This story is about a robot, a perfect ambassador that managed to connect tech skills, disciplinaty skills and working culture

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Hi everyone.

My name is Ezio, and today
I will talk to you about connections:

connections between new subjects
and new learning objects;

connections that come from listening

to the new generations,

that I am lucky enough to live every day
at work and in the family.

What is my job?

I work for a leading company

in the field of automation and robotics.

And what is my duty?

I am the director of the Academy,

I am responsible for the training
of 9,000 people in the world

and, at the same time, I am responsible

for opening the doors of the company
to the youngsters, to the outside.

You see me in a white shirt

in the closing ceremony
of an executive master,

but it is a listening experience

that I also have the lucky chance
to live every day in the family.

I have four children, alas, all males.

I would have liked a female so much

and I'm willing to trade one of my sons,

if someone had a daughter to give me.

I have three children:
Francesco, Giacomo, Filippo

and little Tesfa, adopted from Ethiopia;

you see him in my arms.

My kids, like all young people today,

attend an educational system

that struggles to face the challenge

of knowledge related
to technological evolution

and related to how
the fourth industrial revolution

is totally changing our personal
and professional life.

Yes, the new technologies
of artificial intelligence,

additive manufacturing,

the Internet of Things
and collaborative robotics

are really changing our experience

and above all the way
companies design, produce

and distribute
their products and services.

To work with these technologies,

you need new skills,
new mentalities, new jobs;

then, as I wrote in my book,
a new training perimeter is needed,

which connects new subjects -

young people, schools,
universities and companies -

and also knows how to connect
new learning objects:

technology, school subjects
and work culture.

The story I will tell you today

is a story about how business Academies
are promoting these connections

and how, thanks to innovative artifacts,

they are succeeding in creating
the skills of the future in young people.

So let's start with the connections
between new learning subjects.

Some initiatives, which are expressions
of these connections,

are those destined for young talents
and, why not, also for professionals.

Some examples:

the robotics driving license.

In addition to language certification
and computer certification,

a wonderful initiative

carried out by the business academies
together with the teachers,

is this:

a project

to offer young people the skills

to use and program an industrial robot.

There already are
5,000 young people in Italy

who have tried this certification;

when they are 18

they will be able to work
in a factory with 1,000 robots

and guide and program them.

Another initiative resulting
from these connections

is a Summer School,
"Project and People Management".

Yes, in this technological evolution

we have to manage projects
and to be very good at managing people.

Ten days in Shanghai, Detroit
or Belo Horizonte

to acquire these methods and tools.

Still, is it all made by whom?

By a Business Academy
together with the university.

But the initiative we are mostly proud of

is a degree course, called
"Innovation and Technology Management".

What’s new about it?

Seated in the same counter,
you can find engineers,

physics graduates, psychologists,
sociologists, anthropologists;

and thy get a cross-disciplinary
degree about connections.

Because this fourth industrial revolution

must not only be guided
by computer scientists

and engineers, who I really love,

but also by psychologists, sociologists,
anthropologists, human experts,

so that they can take

all the opportunities
of the technological evolution,

trying to mitigate risks.

Here are some initiatives for talents.

But also initiatives for youngsters
who already work in companies.

"4.0 Manufacturing" Master program
is now seven years old,

run by the Institute of Technology
and by a Business Academy:

kids go to the company,
their master is paid from day one,

every month, three weeks of work
and one of the master,

not only provided by the teachers

but from the company's
Subject Matter Experts.

And one last initiative,
another expression of these connections,

is an executive master

where more than 40 managers
from all over Europe

acquire the technological
and managerial skills

to lead this transformation.

Here's the new training perimeter,

where kids are not passive users
of other people's services,

but are protagonists of innovation.

Where school, university

do not settle themselves
with providing theories and models

but are part of the true reality
of the companies,

and give their important
and precious contribution;

it's a new training perimeter

where the company does not give up
its ambition to create and spread culture

and transfer it to the new generations,

with that typical DNA
of the corporate identity:

learning by doing
and by connecting to others.

Now I would like to tell you
about some other connections

between learning objects, school subjects,

technology and business culture.

It all started when we began
to develop this robot:

we were closed in a laboratory

together with many young people
and many experts,

and, while we were there, we said

Well, let's follow
these three principles:

we would like this robot to be modular,

open - it was an open innovation -

and easy to use.

While we were so busy

working in this laboratory,
in this garage,

we went to visit a business Academy

that had a clever idea.

It started a project
called "Physics on a motorcycle":

they said, let's use motorcycles
to attract young people

and teach them how much physics
is in a motorcycle.

And then we thought about our generation,

the one of the past millennium,

because motorcycles were
a symbol of our generation;

many of my friends and I grew up
with three basic milestones:

fourteen, sixteen and eighteen years old.

These are the steps
that have marked our lives.

At 14, we were waiting
for the monocilinder scooter:

having the Ciao or the Sì
was a fundamental goal.

After that goal, at sixteen,

we wanted the motorcycle license.

I had a Cagiva Elephant.

Prehistoric, now.

And finally, at 18,
the driving license, the car.

On this generational aspect,

I want to tell you
an anecdote about my family.

My wife and I were ready to face

the demands of our children
related to these three steps;

so when Francesco was 14,

we were prepared to oppose

the reasons why we would never
buy him a moped.

We made a list,
like Lorenzo's, and got ready:

"Francesco, we will never buy it
because of this and that",

we were ready.

At 14, Francesco didn't ask us anything.

We said: "Francesco is smart,
he wants a motorcycle.

Let's wait two years.

We keep the list, we have saved it
in a special folder".

And when he was 16, we were ready.

Francesco did not ask us anything,
not even at the age of 16.

We said, man, he wants a car

as big as this stage.

When he was 18, nothing happened.

We had to force him to the driving school

to avoid dealing on Saturday nights
with logistics services.

What does this story tell us?

That new generations are attracted
to values and objects

that are obviously different from ours.

They are attracted to tablets and phones.

In the evening, at my home,

everyone stares
at his own tablet or phone,

scrolling the feed
of Facebook or Instagram.

This is the present,
and who knows about the future.

And so while we were developing
that robot, we said:

"Aren't robots even more appealing
than a motorcycle,

to attract the new generations? "

And so we went on and said,

Let's use it, not only to code
or to do robotic stuff

but to do Math, Physics,

and the STEM subjects
that are fundamental for the future".

We created what we call
a Robo-Experience:

a series of experiences,
centered around the robot

that connect young people to the robot,

such as workshops, centres,
events and programs,

This short video shows you
one of these initiatives.

[e.Do LEARNING CENTER -
An innovative Educational Environment]

[TO LEARN: School subjects, Soft skills
and Industrial Culture with Robotics]

[4 FOCUSES: STEM, Robotics,
Soft Skills, Working Culture]

[INSPIRE]

[PLAY]

[LEARN]

[LESSON PLAN]

[WELCOME / INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS/
SCHOOL SUBJECTS THROUGH e.Do / EVALUATION]

[WELCOME]

[INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS]

[INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS -
PLAY WITH e.DO]

[SCHOOL SUBJECTS THROUGH e.DO -
APPLY SCHOOL SUBJECTS]

[SCHOOL SUBJECTS THROUGH e.DO - USE e.DO]

[EVALUATION]

Here, this is an example
of one of these center

attended by more than 10,000 people.

But our dream is different.

Our dream is to place
a robot in every school,

to help innovate teaching

and help new generations
to be protagonists of the future.

The magic is not a robot but our children;

it is a teacher, a facilitator, a robot,

simple wooden objects
that the robot moves,

and it moves them in the reality,

not in a virtual screen,

before which our children
already spend too much time.

And then there's a tablet.

Yes, this robot is easy to use.

Robotics is experiencing today
what PCs went through in the 1980s.

In the 80s, you may recall,
only computer experts

could use the Z Spectrum
or the Commodore 64.

Computers, today, are in everyone's house.

Well, the same thing
is happening to the robots:

up to now, guiding them
was a programmer's job;

today even our children,
Andrea, Alessia, Federico,

can use it without taking any lessons.

Yes, there is this interaction,

which is the same we have
in our mobile phones,

this interface that allows you
to control and move it with just one tap.

But there is also a further evolution:
it can be programmed with Blockly,

that thought

and that logical-computational language

that helps put things in order.

Then, of course, if computer scientists
want to play, they have many chances to.

What kind of activities are offered?

As you saw in the video,
the kids first assemble it

using their own manual skills.

And then? And then, they play:

learning by doing something
is so pedagogically important -

but "andragogically", also,

Then we face and solve problems

that involve the use
of mathematics and physics.

Math?

Some examples: the sum,
the subtraction, the equivalences,

the geometric figures that children
in elementary school, like Alessia,

study every day at school;

well, it's even more fun with e.Do,
and even more effective.

But there are something
even for the older ones,

like Federico:

analytical geometry,
first and second degree equations

that's what they are for!

Not only to solve boring exercises,

but to make children learn
how to move a robot in the room.

Therefore, we have lived many experiences,
we have understood some things.

First, this robot promotes
participation and inclusion:

even children with dyslexia,
or ADHD, could use it.

Even my little Tesfa,
with an extra chromosome and disabled,

is very good at using this robot,
and that's important.

It then promotes the inclusion,
the application of subjects to reality,

and, above all, spreads
the culture of work, which is so precious:

working in team, keeping tidy,
solving problems, being creative,

having critical thinking.

And also, it connects

the cognitive, manual
and emotional dimensions.

I would like to wrap up
with a quote of Walt Disney:

[If you can dream it, you can do it].

Here is our dream:

to connect new subjects
and new learning objects.

And above all, listen to young people.

I decided to close my speech

with a photo of my son Tesfa
while listening to J-Ax:

we must not forget, they are
the protagonists of the future.

(Applause)