Baroness Greenfield (CBE), the Director of the Royal Institution, will argue that the rapid pace of change in science and technology will force us to rethink what we teach children in the 21st century, when she delivers the annual Priestley lecture at the University of Birmingham on May 23rd.
“Tomorrow’s People: what will they need to learn? is being hosted by the university’s School of Education and supported by the Educational Review.
This lecture will ask what we will need to teach children in a world where we can manipulate our moods with 'smart drugs' and our innate nature with gene therapy and where our relationships, jobs, even the way we fight wars, – will be transformed by technology.
The lecture will also consider whether changes in science and technology will alter our own sense of what it means to be an individual.
Baroness Greenfield is Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (the first woman to hold that position) and Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford, where she leads a team investigating neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Professor Gary Thomas from the School of Education comments: “Baroness Greenfield brings a unique perspective on how the current revolution in technology will alter how we think about education. We are already seeing technology changing how we teach but potentially being able to use technology to alter our thoughts and feelings opens up a whole range of possibilities and questions.”
“Tomorrow’s People: what will they need to learn? – takes place at the Vaughan Jeffries Lecture Theatre at the School of Education on Wednesday 23 May 2007 at 5.00pm
ENDS
For further information contact Ben Hill, Press Officer, University of Birmingham, Tel 0121 4145134, 07789 921 163, email: b.r.hill@bham.ac.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
Baroness Greenfield
Baroness Greenfield (CBE) is Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (the first woman to hold that position) and Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford, where she leads multi-disciplinary team investigating neurodegenerative disorders. In addition she is Director of the Oxford Centre for the Science of the Mind, exploring the physical basis of consciousness. Her books include ‘The Human Brain: A Guided Tour’ (1997), ‘The Private Life of the Brain’ (2000), and ‘Tomorrow’s People: How 21st Century Technology Is Changing the Way We Think and Feel’
(2003). She has spun off four companies from her research, made a diverse contribution to print and broadcast media, and led a Government report on ‘Women In Science’. She has received 28 Honorary Degrees, Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (2000), a non-political Life Peerage (2001) as well as the Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur (2003). In 2006 she was installed as Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University and voted ‘Honorary Australian of the Year’.
Educational Review
Based in the School of Education, Educational Review has provided a leading international forum for discourse in educational research and scholarship for over half a century. It publishes peer reviewed papers from international contributors which report research across a range of education fields including curriculum, inclusive and special education, educational psychology, policy, management and international and comparative education.