Fahamu Pecou (b. 1975) is an artist/scholar based in Atlanta, Georgia whose works comment on contemporary and hip-hop culture while simultaneously subverting it to include his ideas on fine art.

Fahamu

EPFL’s Professor Pierre Dillenbourg heads the Center for Digital Education. He demonstrates the use of a Simpliquity Tinkerlamp to teach logistics training, and explains how research has moved from developing an expensive, specialized device to using a simple webcam and paper. Note: interview and discussion are in French.

Teaching logistics with haptic feedback

Burck Smith describes how accreditation is based primarily on a higher education institution’s inputs rather than its outcomes, and creates an “iron triangle” to maintain high prices, keep out new entrants, and resist change.

Burck Smith describes how accreditation is based primarily on a higher education institution’s inputs rather than its outcomes, and creates an “iron triangle” to maintain high prices, keep out new entrants, and resist change.

To be accredited, a college must meet a variety of criteria, but

 most of these deal with a college’s inputs rather than its outcomes

[emphasis mine]. Furthermore, only providers of entire degree

Accreditation in higher education is based primarily on inputs rather than outcomes

Presentation at the IFRC FACT and ERU Global Meeting (Vienna, 31 May 2013), exploring how we learn in a complex world.

Learning in a VUCA world: IFRC FACT and ERU Global Meeting (Vienna, 31 May 2013)

Donella H. Meadows wrote the following simple, eloquent description of what is a system: “A system isn’t just any old collection of things. A system must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose. A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something.

Donella H. Meadows wrote the following simple, eloquent description of what is a system:  “A system isn’t just any old collection of things. A system must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose. A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something.

What is a system?

The colonial period: high death rates and false explanations During French colonial rule in Algeria (1830-1962), tuberculosis became a major killer disease. The French brought this deadly sickness with them when they invaded Algeria. Before the French came, tuberculosis was not a big problem for Algerian people. The disease spread quickly through Algerian communities during colonial times.

The colonial period: high death rates and false explanations   During French colonial rule in Algeria (1830-1962), tuberculosis became a major killer disease. The French brought this deadly sickness with them when they invaded Algeria. Before the French came, tuberculosis was not a big problem for Algerian people. The disease spread quickly through Algerian communities during colonial times.

Colonialism and disease: tuberculosis in Algeria

My own practice (and no doubt yours) has been shaped by many different learning theorists. George Siemens, for me, stands out articulating what I felt but did not know how to express about the changing nature of knowledge in the Digital Age.

My own practice (and no doubt yours) has been shaped by many different learning theorists. George Siemens, for me, stands out articulating what I felt but did not know how to express about the changing nature of knowledge in the Digital Age.

A few of my favorite excerpts from George Siemens’s Knowing Knowledge (2006)

Understanding the problem First. You have to understand the problem. Devising a plan Second. Find the connection between the data and the unknown. You may be obliged to consider auxiliary problems if an immediate connection cannot be found. You should obtain eventually a plan of the solution. Carrying out the plan Third. Carry out your plan. Looking Back Fourth. Examine the solution obtained.

The Geneva Learning Foundation

Understanding the problem   First. You have to understand the problem. What is the unknown? What are the data? What is the condition? Is it possible to satisfy the condition? Is the condition sufficient to determine the unknown? Or is it insufficient? Or redundant? Or contradictory? Draw a figure. Introduce suitable notation. Separate the various parts of the condition. Can you write them down? Devising a plan   Second.

How to Solve It

The 2025 State of AI Report has arrived, painting a picture of an industry being fundamentally reshaped by “The Squeeze.” This is a critical, intensifying constraint on three key resources: the massive-scale compute (processing power) required for training, the availability of high-quality data, and the specialized human talent to build frontier models.

The 2025 State of AI Report has arrived, painting a picture of an industry being fundamentally reshaped by “The Squeeze.”  This is a critical, intensifying constraint on three key resources: the massive-scale compute (processing power) required for training, the availability of high-quality data, and the specialized human talent to build frontier models. This squeeze, the report details, is accelerating a consolidation of power.

What the 2025 State of AI Report means for global health and humanitarian action

The 2025 Lancet Countdown report has begun to acknowledge a critical, often-overlooked source of intelligence to build climate-resilient health systems: the health worker. By including testimonials from health workers alongside formal quantitative evidence, the Lancet cracks open a door, hinting at a world beyond globally standardized datasets. This is a necessary first step.

The 2025 Lancet Countdown report has begun to acknowledge a critical, often-overlooked source of intelligence to build climate-resilient health systems: the health worker. By including testimonials from health workers alongside formal quantitative evidence, the Lancet cracks open a door, hinting at a world beyond globally standardized datasets. This is a necessary first step.

How the Lancet Countdown illuminates a new path to climate-resilient health systems

Bill Gates’ latest public memo marks a significant shift in how the world’s most influential philanthropist frames the challenge of climate change.

Development is adaptation: Bill Gates’s shift is actually about linking climate change and health

Global Health Otherwise (GHO), an informal network spearheaded by Dr Luchuo Engelbert Bain, aims to “critically dissect the meanings of decolonization of global health practice, research, and funding”.  GHO spoke to The Geneva Learning Foundation’s Reda Sadki.

Global Health Otherwise interviews Reda Sadki

Since 2019, when The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) launched its first AI pilot project, we have been exploring how the Second Machine Age is reshaping learning.

Since 2019, when The Geneva Learning Foundation

(TGLF)

 launched its first AI pilot project, we have been exploring how the Second Machine Age is reshaping learning.

The business of artificial intelligence and the equity challenge

When I first saw Professor Cope’s photos of a 1983 elementary school classroom, I scoffed.

Maybe old learning isn’t so bad, after all?

In 2001, Katja Mruck started a peer-reviewed multilingual open access journal FQS – Forum on qualitative social research. In this interview, recorded at the Third Conference on Scholarly Publishing in Berlin, Germany (28 September 2011), she explains what ingredients were needed to make the journal’s launch a success. Mruck is the Coordinator open access and e-publishing, Center for Digital Systems CeDis), Freie Universität Berlin.

Katja Mruck on starting a peer-reviewed open access journal

When I first saw Mary Kalantzis’s photos of a 1983 elementary school classroom in Greece, I scoffed.

Why are scholarly journals not obsolete? How does a journal contribute to learning? Why would the Red Cross need a scholarly journal? A lively conversation with John Willinsky from the Public Knowledge Project, recorded at the Third Conference on Scholarly Publishing in Berlin, Germany, on 28 September 2011.

Opening access to Red Cross knowledge: an interview with John Willinsky, Public Knowledge Project, Stanford University

ZERZES, 4 April 2011 — “We stopped everything we were doing”, exclaims Mahfoud Bessah, the 39-year-old community-based programme coordinator at IFRC’s regional delegation in Tunis. On 21  February, he headed over to the eastern border immediately upon hearing the first reports of people crossing over. The Tunisian Red Crescent and UNHCR were already discussing how to respond.

ZERZES, 4 April 2011

— “We stopped everything we were doing”, exclaims Mahfoud Bessah, the 39-year-old community-based programme coordinator at IFRC’s regional delegation in Tunis. On 21  February, he headed over to the eastern border immediately upon hearing the first reports of people crossing over. The Tunisian Red Crescent and UNHCR were already discussing how to respond.

Ras Jedir: feverish early days and freezing nights

In a climate of funding uncertainty, what if the most cost-effective investments in global health weren’t about supplies or infrastructure, but human networks that turn learning into action?

In a climate of funding uncertainty, what if the most cost-effective investments in global health weren’t about supplies or infrastructure, but human networks that turn learning into action?

In this short review article, we explore how peer learning networks that connect human beings to learn from and support each other can transform health outcomes with minimal resources.

Global health: learning to do more with less

Complex learning happens when people solve real problems instead of just memorizing facts. Think about the difference between reading about how to ride a bicycle and actually learning to ride one. You cannot learn to ride a bicycle just by reading about it – you need to practice, fall, adjust, and try again until your body understands how to balance. Health challenges work the same way.

What is complex learning?

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) are launching PFA Connect, a new platform for education, social work, and health professionals who support children from Ukraine. The platform builds on a new peer learning network launched by IFRC and TGLF in 2024 that is already reaching more than 2,000 practitioners from 27 European countries.

Supporting Ukrainian children: New peer learning platform to rapidly expand and scale the network of practitioners across Europe

Nearly 300 malaria prevention health leaders from 45 countries met virtually on November 20, 2024, in parallel English and French sessions of REACH. This new initiative connects organizational leaders tackling malaria prevention and control – and other pressing health challenges – across borders.

Ahead of Teach to Reach 11, health leaders from 45 countries share malaria experiences in REACH network session

The article “A decolonial feminist perspective on gender equality programming in the Global South” provides a critical analysis of how international non-governmental organizations design and execute gender equality programs. The authors, Udenigwe Ogochukwu, Aubel Judi, and Abimbola Seye, argue that many current initiatives adapt to existing systems of oppression rather than dismantling them.

A decolonial feminist perspective on gender equality programming in the Global South

We reached out to senior decision makers working in global health about the new Certificate peer learning programme for equity in research and practice. Crickets. One CEO wrote: “We aren’t currently in a position to enter into new strategic partnerships on the topic.” The chilling effect is real. Many organizations are retreating from publicly championing equity work, even those with deep commitments to fairness and inclusion.

We reached out to senior decision makers working in global health about the new Certificate peer learning programme for equity in research and practice. Crickets. One CEO wrote: “We aren’t currently in a position to enter into new strategic partnerships on the topic.”  The chilling effect is real. Many organizations are retreating from publicly championing equity work, even those with deep commitments to fairness and inclusion.

Chilling effect

Imagine if you could control every device, system, and process in the world simply by talking to it in plain English—or any language you speak. No special commands to memorize. No programming skills required. No technical manuals to study. Just explain what you want in your own words, and it happens.

Imagine if you could control every device, system, and process in the world simply by talking to it in plain English—or any language you speak. No special commands to memorize. No programming skills required. No technical manuals to study. Just explain what you want in your own words, and it happens. This is the transformation Eric Schmidt described when he spoke about language becoming the “universal interface” for artificial intelligence.

Language as AI’s universal interface: What it means and why it matters

Health workers are already being transformed by climate change. COP29 stakeholders can either support this transformation to strengthen health systems, or risk watching the health workforce collapse under mounting pressures. The World Health Organization’s “COP29 Special Report on Climate Change and Health: Health is the Argument for Climate Action“ highlights the health sector’s role in climate action.

Health workers are already being transformed by climate change. COP29 stakeholders can either support this transformation to strengthen health systems, or risk watching the health workforce collapse under mounting pressures.

The World Health Organization’s “COP29 Special Report on Climate Change and Health: Health is the Argument for Climate Action“ highlights the health sector’s role in climate action.

Health at COP29: Workforce crisis meets climate crisis

After the World Health Assembly’s adoption of ambitious global plan of action for climate and health, global and country stakeholders are meeting in Brasilia for the Global Conference on Climate and Health, ahead of COP30.

After the World Health Assembly’s adoption of ambitious global plan of action for climate and health, global and country stakeholders are meeting in Brasilia for the Global Conference on Climate and Health, ahead of COP30. Three critical observations emerged that illuminate why conventional global health approaches may be structurally inadequate for the challenges resulting from climate change impacts on health.

WHO Global Conference on Climate and Health: New pathways to overcome structural barriers blocking effective climate and health action

Excerpted from

: Victoria J. Marsick, Rachel Fichter, Karen E. Watkins, 2022.

 From Work-based Learning to Learning-based Work: Exploring the Changing Relationship between Learning and Work

, in:

 The SAGE Handbook of Learning and Work

. SAGE Publications.

Learning for Knowledge Creation: The WHO Scholar Program

As developed by our founders, the TGLF learning-to-impact pathway draws on the best available evidence and our own practice in the learning sciences and multiple other disciplines.  TGLF’s diagnostic instruments rapidly identify **the most effective strategies to develop people, teams, and networks **to drive change and performance.

How the Geneva Learning Foundation uses learning science to drive change

This is an AI podcast featuring two hosts discussing an article by Reda Sadki titled “New Ways to Learn and Lead HPV Vaccination: Bridging Planning and Implementation Gaps.” The conversational format involves the AI hosts taking turns explaining key points and sharing insights about Sadki’s work on HPV vaccination strategies.

AI podcast explores surprising insights from health workers about HPV vaccination

What are the learning habits that we perform on a regular basis to stay current? As professionals, we organize our personal learning habits in different ways that reflect our interests, personalities, and career paths. We rely on a variety of information sources, engage in reading, attend seminars and conferences, or take MOOCs or other online courses. And, of course, we connect with others.

Learning habits

I’ve just posted on LSi.io a comprehensive (65-minute) presentation intended for humanitarian managers and decision makers working in organizations without prior experience in online or distance learning. It includes numerous practical examples and case studies, as well as a description of the best available learning theory and best practice approaches most appropriate for the humanitarian learning context.

Online learning 101 for humanitarian managers and decision makers

Our areas of work are siloed due to limited resources and time, the huge scope of our global mandate, the high level of specialization required, and internal politics. Collaboration and learning as a team (beyond the unit level) requires leadership and concerted effort. It is hard to sustain over time. Yet, to collaborate we build, sustain and renew many individual relationships based on trust and need.

Encourage collaboration and team learning

Preface to the IFRC Global Health Team’s Training Guidelines (2013)

by Reda Sadki “At the heart of a strong National Society” explains Strategy 2020, “is its nationwide network of locally organized branches or units with members and volunteers who have agreed to abide by the Fundamental Principles and the statutes of their National Society.” To achieve this aim, National Societies share a deeply-rooted culture of face-to-face

Community health into the scalable, networked future of learning

GENEVA, Switzerland, 23 July 2025 (The Geneva Learning Foundation) –Today, The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) announces the launch of “Learning to lead change on the frontline of climate change and health,” the inaugural course in a new certificate programme designed by and for professionals facing climate change impacts on health. Enrollment is now open.

GENEVA, Switzerland, 23 July 2025 (The Geneva Learning Foundation) –

Today, The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) announces the launch of “Learning to lead change on the frontline of climate change and health,” the inaugural course in a new certificate programme designed by and for professionals facing climate change impacts on health.

 Enrollment is now open.

Climate change and health: a new peer learning programme by and for health workers from the most climate-vulnerable countries

English version

| Version française Today, on World Malaria Day, the Geneva Learning Foundation is proud to stand with health workers on the frontlines of the fight against this deadly disease. Malaria remains a critical global health challenge, disproportionately affecting communities in Africa and Asia.

World Malaria Day 2024: We need new ways to support health workers leading change with local communities

Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) is a practical tool designed for humanitarian emergencies that allows aid workers to quickly understand how a crisis affects women, men, boys, and girls differently. Because there is often no time for long, detailed studies when lives are at risk, RGA provides a practical method to gather “good enough” information immediately to […]

Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) is a practical tool designed for humanitarian emergencies that allows aid workers to quickly understand how a crisis affects women, men, boys, and girls differently. Because there is often no time for long, detailed studies when lives are at risk, RGA provides a practical method to gather “good enough” information immediately to ensure that aid is safe, fair, and effective. It works by using existing data

Reimagining Rapid Gender Analysis as decolonial practice

In the PFA Accelerator, practitioners supporting children are teaching each other what works. Every Friday, more than 240 education, social work, and health professionals across Ukraine and Europe file reports on the same question: What happened when you tried to help a child this week?

In the PFA Accelerator, practitioners supporting children are teaching each other what works

.

 Every Friday, more than 240 education, social work, and health professionals across Ukraine and Europe file reports on the same question: What happened when you tried to help a child this week?

Their answers – grounded in their daily work – are creating new insights into how Psychological First Aid (“PFA”) works in active

PFA Accelerator: across Europe, practitioners learn from each other to strengthen support to children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

“Do you have an experience supporting children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine that you would like to share with colleagues? Tell us what happened and how it turned out.

Support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine: Bridging practice and learning through the sharing of experience

This article is based on Reda Sadki’s presentation at the ChildHub “Webinar on Psychological First Aid for Children; Supporting the Most Vulnerable” on 6 March 2025. Learn more about the Certificate peer learning programme on Psychological First Aid (PFA) in support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Get insights from professionals who support Ukrainian children.

Peer learning for Psychological First Aid: New ways to strengthen support for Ukrainian children

The theme of International Education Day 2025, “AI and education: Preserving human agency in a world of automation,” invites critical examination of how artificial intelligence might enhance rather than replace human capabilities in learning and leadership.

A global health framework for Artificial Intelligence as co-worker to support networked learning and local action

The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change “reveals the health threats of climate change have reached record-breaking levels” and provides “the most up-to-date assessment of the links between health and climate change”. Yet its treatment of experiential knowledge – particularly the direct observations and understanding developed by frontline health workers and communities – reveals both progress and persistent gaps in

The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change “reveals the health threats of climate change have reached record-breaking levels” and provides “the most up-to-date assessment of the links between health and climate change”.  Yet its treatment of experiential knowledge – particularly the direct observations and understanding developed by frontline health workers and communities – reveals both progress and persistent gaps in

Critical evidence gaps in the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change

Global health continues to grapple with a persistent tension between standardized, evidence-based interventions developed by international experts and the contextual, experiential local knowledge held by local health workers. This dichotomy – between global expertise and local knowledge – has become increasingly problematic as health systems face unprecedented complexity in addressing challenges from climate change to emerging diseases.

Why guidelines fail: on consequences of the false dichotomy between global and local knowledge in health systems

“We are at the beginning of a new epoch,” Eric Schmidt declared at the RAISE Summit in Paris on 9 July 2025.

“We are at the beginning of a new epoch,” Eric Schmidt declared at the RAISE Summit in Paris on 9 July 2025. The former Google CEO’s message grounded in what he calls the San Francisco Consensus carries unusual weight—not necessarily because of his past role leading one of tech’s giants, but because of his current one: advising heads of state and industry on artificial intelligence.

Eric Schmidt’s San Francisco Consensus about the impact of artificial intelligence

There are myriad approaches to online learning. I’ve selected three. One of them should no longer be recommended. This is the production of information modules that test information recall. In some cases, aware of the limited outcomes using this approach, attempts have been made to encourage reflection or analysis, but then the limitation of the approach leaves the learner with limited or no formative feedback and reductive forms of assessment.

Online learning 101: Approaches

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about an interesting question, as I’ve observed myself and colleagues starting to travel again: “Why are we again funding high-cost, low-volume face-to-face conferences that yield, at best, uncertain outcomes?”  I am surprised to have to ask this question.

Digital bridges cannot cross analog gates

We cannot teleport physical proximity, but we can replicate its psychological effects in remote teams. This has everything to do with propinquity. If the physical world provided connection by accident, the digital world requires connection by design. The most critical loss in the shift to remote work is “propinquity,” a fancy word for physical nearness.

We cannot teleport physical proximity, but we can replicate its psychological effects in remote teams. This has everything to do with propinquity.

If the physical world provided connection by accident, the digital world requires connection by design. The most critical loss in the shift to remote work is “propinquity,” a fancy word for physical nearness.

Digital propinquity: how to engineer serendipity and build connection in remote teams

This is a critical moment for work on gender in emergencies. Across the humanitarian sector, we are witnessing a coordinated backlash. Decades of progress are threatened by targeted funding cuts, the erasure of essential research and tools, and a political climate that seeks to silence our work.

This is a critical moment for work on gender in emergencies. Across the humanitarian sector, we are witnessing a coordinated backlash. Decades of progress are threatened by targeted funding cuts, the erasure of essential research and tools, and a political climate that seeks to silence our work. Many dedicated practitioners feel isolated and that their work is being devalued. This is not a time for silence.

Gender in emergencies: a new peer learning programme from The Geneva Learning Foundation

If you are interested in the strategic significance of educational technology for workplace learning, make sure that you do not miss the open, online symposium happening 18-19 June 2014. The event is organized by George Siemens and hosted by Corp U. I will be facilitating sessions with the World Bank and OECD, as well as presenting on partnerships between corporate and non-profit learning leaders to scale up humanitarian education.

Scaling corporate learning

A formula for calculating learning efficacy, (E), considering the importance of each criterion and the specific ratings for peer learning, is:    This abstract formula provides a way to quantify learning efficacy, considering various educational criteria and their relative importance (weights) for effective learning. Weights for each variables are derived from empirical data and expert consensus.

Calculating the relative effectiveness of expert coaching, peer learning, and cascade training

By Julie Jacobson, Alan Brooks, Charlotte Mbuh, and Reda Sadki  The escalating threats of climate change cast long shadows over global health, including increases in disease epidemics, profound impacts on mental health, disruptions to health infrastructure, and alterations in the severity and geographical distribution of diseases.

Learning from Frontline Health Workers in the Climate Change Era

Question 1. Does supplementing face-to-face instruction with online instruction enhance learning?

Which is better for global health: online, blended, or face-to-face learning?

Part 1: Like clockwork | Part 2: Going Live


 06:00 – Base camp wakes up

Base camp wakes up. A cool breeze has risen along with the bright sun, whipping up sand and dust. The first crews of volunteers move out to the transit camp at Ras Jedir. Some of the volunteers, like 32-year-old Moaz, have spent the last four weeks installing tents that are now ready to provide shelter.

Chronology of a new transit camp on the Tunisian border (Part 1 of 2)

By John Helmer  We’re in a world where people don’t really understand what they want until you put it in front of them,’ says Toby Green Head of Publishing at OECD. He’s talking about the challenge of creating new digital products in a technology landscape that is changing very quickly (with no end to the ‘technology treadmill’ in sight) and where market research is of limited value;

Convergence and cross-fertilisation between publishing and learning: an interview with Toby Green and Reda Sadki

Humanitarian education is a huge undertaking. Each year, for example, 17 million trainees learn first-aid skills through face-to-face (FTF) training programmes run by the 189 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies worldwide.

Quality in humanitarian education

By Donna Murdoch, Ed. D.

for The Geneva Learning Foundation A search for the keyword “webinar” on Google reveals over 85 million hits.

Rethinking the “Webinar”: Sage on Screen, Guide on Side, or Both?

**100% digital 100% human: **using the latest learning technologies and interfaces, we adapt our digital networking interfaces to learner needs and habits to augment their digital and networking capabilities.  **Grounded in experience: **we foster problem-solving that values *both *participants’ lived experience and the world’s best available global knowledge.

How does the Geneva Learning Foundation’s approach break the norm?

The ability to analyze and respond to learner behavior as it happens is crucial for educators. In complex learning that takes place in digital spaces, task separation between the design of instruction and its delivery does not make sense.

Taking the pulse: why and how we change everything in response to learner signals

In three years, the World Bank’s e-Institute enrolled 50,000 learners through small, tutor-led online courses and webinars. Its first MOOC, run on Coursera’s platform for four weeks, reached 19,500.

Scaling up critical thinking against extreme poverty

The global health community has long grappled with the challenge of providing effective, scalable training to health workers, particularly in resource-constrained settings. In recent years, digital learning platforms have emerged as a potential solution, promising to deliver accessible, engaging, and impactful training at scale. Imagine a digital platform intended to train health workers at scale.

Learn health, but beware of the behaviorist trap

There is of course an intimate relationship between communication and education. In many universities, both sit under the discipline of psychology. However, in most international organizations, these tend to be siloed functions.

From communication to education

Over 730 organizations have already confirmed their participation in Teach to Reach 11, a peer learning platform, network, and community for health workers facilitated by the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF).  This announcement came during TGLF’s first partnership briefing held on 16 October 2024.

Ahead of Teach to Reach 11, organizational leaders share experience of ‘what works’ for health

Thanks to Karen E. Watkins (University of Georgia) and Maya Drobnjak (Australian Army).

Mission performance

With my eight-year-old son, we are planning to build and program a Lego Mindstorms EV3 this Summer. They are robots that look cool and for which you can code tasks and decisions. So, at Google’s Course Builder workshop, when I heard Jennifer Kay, a computer science professor, explain that she has been using robots (including the Lego ones) for education for years, I couldn’t help but ask for an interview.

The Robot (Education) Lady

Most global public health organizations issue guidelines that are of a high methodological quality and are developed through a transparent, evidence-based decision-making process.

From guidelines to impact

What we do and how we do it have both changed rapidly since we launched the Impact Accelerator, the key component Geneva Learning Foundation’s learning-to-action pathway. We catalyze large scale peer networks of frontline actors facing critical threats to our societies.

What is the Geneva Learning Foundation and what do we do?

Summer 2016, Day 1. “So, that puts to bed Bloom’s Taxonomy… that reliable workhorse,” sighed C. “What do we use in its place?”  “We don’t”, answered the Walrus. “There is no successor to neatly replace Bloom’s. It’s still there – and can still be useful.

Insomnia against the grain – and putting Bloom to bed

This is the first in a series of five blog posts reflecting on what is at stake in how we learn lessons from the Ebola crisis that erupted in 2014 and continued in 2015.

Lessons learned from Ebola

Question: Why were you looking at their data?

Accidents happen

We learn from each other through dialogue and inquiry. We are excited that we can participate in a rich, diverse world of different perspectives and opinions. Conversation, as George Siemens says, is the “ultimate personalization experience. We ask questions and offer views based on our own conceptions.

Dialogue and inquiry

How much of what we learn is through informal and incidental learning? When asked to reflect on where we learned (and continue to learn) what we need to do our work, we collectively come to an even split between our formal qualifications, our peers, and experience. As interaction with peers is gained in the workplace, roughly two-thirds of our capabilities can be attributed to learning

 in

work.

Should we trust our intuition and instinct when we learn?

Is there any evidence that university-based continued professional development (CPD) fails when trying to develop competencies needed by humanitarian and development professionals? Or, to reframe the question, are traditional brick-and-mortar universities best equipped to support the lifelong learning journeys of people committed to this line of work?

Practice practice practice

This is the third in a three-part presentation about learning strategy for development and humanitarian organizations. It was first presented to the People In Aid Learning &amp; Development Network in London on 27 February 2014.

Making learning strategic in development and humanitarian organizations

So, you are unhappy with a five percent completion rate. Hire tutors (lots of them, if it is massive). Try to get machines to tutor. Use learners as tutors (never mind the pedagogical affordances, you only care about scale and completion). Set up automated phone calls to remind people to turn in their homework. Ring the (behaviorist) bell. Or not. Google’s Coursebuilder team has an interesting take on completion rates.

There is no scale

Our connections include not only social life with colleagues, but also our personal lives with our partners, families and friends. Parental responsibilities, traffic jams in long commutes, or other challenges we face in our personal lives impact our level of energy and motivation for learning and innovation. We call for leadership that recognizes the need for better balance between work and family.

Life-work balance

The Geneva Learning Foundation’s new Dialogue is an invitation-only global conversation exploring learning, leadership, and impact. Our aim is to explore new ways to connect individuals who are tackling the challenges that threaten our societies. In the past, one observation has been that conversations around learning and leadership tend to happen between nearly-identical peers.

On learning, leadership, and impact: a new kind of dialogue to tackle the challenges that threaten our societies

English version |

 Version française


 GENÈVE, Suisse, le 8 mars 2024

— La Fondation Apprendre Genève (TGLF) partage une collection de récits intitulée « Des femmes pour la santé », partagées par 177 femmes en première ligne de la santé et de l’action humanitaire.

Voix de femmes en première ligne de la santé et de l’action humanitaire

Continuous learning is lacking in immunization. This lack may be an underestimated barrier to the “Big Catch-Up” and reaching zero-dose children  This was a key finding presented at Gavi’s Zero-Dose Learning Hub (ZDLH) webinar “Equity in Action: Local Strategies for Reaching Zero-Dose Children and Communities” on 24 January 2024.

Why lack of continuous learning is the Achilles heel of immunization

A new article by colleagues at the Cambridge Digital Education Futures Initiative (DEFI) illustrates academic understanding of Collective Intelligence (CI) through the COVID-19 Peer Hub, a peer learning initiative organized by over 6,000 frontline health workers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with support from The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), in response to the initial shock of the pandemic on immunization services that placed 80

The COVID-19 Peer Hub as an example of Collective Intelligence (CI) in practice

In the Geneva Learning Foundation’s approach to effective humanitarian learning, knowledge acquisition and competency development are both necessary but insufficient. This is why, in July 2019, we built the first Impact Accelerator, to support local practitioners beyond learning outcomes all the way to achieving actual health outcomes.

Pandemic preparedness through connected transnational digital networks of local actors

They connected from health facilities, districts, and national teams all over the world. 4,769 immunization professionals from the largest network of immunization managers in the world joined this week’s Special Event for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), the new strategy for immunization, with 59 global and regional partners who accepted the invitation to listen, learn, and share their feedback.

A round table for Immunization Agenda 2030: The leap from “bottom-up” consultation to multidimensional dialogue

Charlotte Mbuh and I will be welcoming Julie Jacobson, one of the founders of Bridges to Development, for our 15-minute Global Health Symposium about neglected needs of women’s health, and specifically the upcoming Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS) workshop being organized by the FAST package, a group of international and country partners. Join the Symposium on Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn.

What does the changing nature of knowledge mean for global health?

“Please, I need someone to enlighten me on the pros and cons of online courses for active learning and professional development.”

There is quite a bit of contextual information missing to decode what is really being asked. We only know that it is an individual professional from an anglophone country in Africa. Still, I can think of at least three ways to answer this question. Answer #1. Wrong question.

Pros and cons of online courses

The idea that adult learners have much to learn from each other is fairly consensual. The practice of peer learning, however, requires un-learning much of what has been ingrained over years of schooling. We have internalized the conviction that significant learning requires expert feedback.

Missed opportunities (2): How one selfish learner can undermine peer learning

Evidence from learning science clearly identifies how to strengthen learning culture in ways that will drive performance. However, in a recent study conducted by Learning Strategies International (LSi), we quickly found limitations and gaps in the data available from the organization examined, despite the best effort by the organization’s staff to answer our questions and requests.

How do we measure the impact of informal and incidental learning on organizational performance?

Through research and broad sector collaboration, a consensus has emerged on the recognition that uneven quality of personnel is a major limiting factor in humanitarian response, and that serious effort is needed to address the global gap in skills and build capacity of countries and local communities.

Inventing by investing in new business models for humanitarian training

This is the final in a series of five blog posts reflecting on what is at stake in how we learn lessons from the Ebola crisis that erupted in 2014 and continued in 2015.

How close to the village&nbsp;can a global, digital education initiative get?

This is my presentation at the First International Forum on Humanitarian Online Training (IFHOLT) organized by the University of Geneva on 12 June 2015. I describe some early findings from research and practice that aim to go beyond “click-through” e-learning that stops at knowledge transmission.

Can analysis and critical thinking be taught online in the humanitarian context?

We are both consumers and producers of publications, whether in print or online. Publications are static containers for knowledge from the pre-Internet era. Even if they are now mostly digital, the ways in which we think about them remains tied to the past. Nevertheless, at their best, they provide a useful reference point, baseline, or benchmark to establish a high-quality standard that is easy, cheap and effective to disseminate.

Publishing as learning

My presentation at the First International Forum on Humanitarian Online Training (IFHOLT) hosted by the University of Geneva on 12 June 2015. Ein Fehler ist aufgetreten.   Sieh dir dieses Video auf www.youtube.com an oder aktiviere JavaScript, falls es in deinem Browser deaktiviert sein sollte.  A more detailed version of this presentation is available here.