In November, six of our students, along with two staff and two parents, had an incredible opportunity to attend the Singularity University Summit in Christchurch.
We learned about Exponential Technologies - the types of things that disrupt our lives - for better and hopefully not for worse. Among the fascinating things we learned about were:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Driverless Cars
- the Future of Work, Crime, Energy, Healthcare and Education.
We are all mind-blown about the realities, and how much this technology is already affecting our lives in ways we hadn't realised.
This is the first time this world-class event has come to New Zealand, and it may not come again for many years.
Although there were a handful of schools at the conference, we had the biggest contingent of students. The students who travelled were:
- Fa'apa'ia Folasa, Adrianne Nordstrand, Luke Orwell and Teagan Pukeroa, who as Year 9 /10 students have been great contributors to our leadership councils in 2016.
- Michael Chopra and Naomi Mackinnon, who have both been blind since birth. They had an unexpected opportunity to speak to the 1500 attendees, and made us proud. https://youtu.be/fAMirsmE2YQ
We were so lucky to have the support of:
- The Mindlab and Unitec, which generously contributed to all of our costs including the mini van to get us around the bumpy streets of Christchurch.
- Frances Valintine, Bill Kermode and Frank Janssen, who as individuals contributed generously towards our costs.
- Kaila Colbin, the event organiser, who provided complimentary tickets.
- Arturo Pelayo, a Singularity U graduate who has been a friend of the school for a number of years.
- The Southern Initiative, which is very supportive of learning experiences like Singularity, which bring context and future focus into learning.
We thoroughly recommend watching the videos of the speaker talks!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz-xaNyC9s_rOkkil7GcBz1S9vQ5krLho