“What we must learn to do, we learn by doing”. This statement by the Greek philosopher and scholar has always had a strong resonance in manual trades, as certain popular sayings attest. But is the same true when it comes to acquiring academic knowledge? How have higher education establishments, where the word of the teacher still prevails, gradually adopted simulation as a method of acquiring knowledge ?

Since the emergence of digital technologies, the means of accessing and transmitting knowledge have greatly evolved. Today, a computer can simulate any environment, from a nuclear power plant to the human body, from city traffic to company premises. Everything can be simulated with a precision of realism that is becoming fascinating with the contribution of artificial intelligence. So why deprive ourselves of this ability to touch reality at first hand, even when it’s virtual?

In medicine, the principle of “never the first time on the patient” takes on its full meaning today. While for centuries, students have practiced on “cadavers” or more or less realistic mannequins, simulation is now total with, in particular, the “digital twin”. A heart or an entire body can be digitized and used as a “training ground” for future practitioners. All reactions and situations are simulated, and the learner is confronted with something close to the real thing.

This was already the case in other professions, such as aviation, where airline pilots are trained on simulators before taking the controls of a plane. In fact, technology has also made it possible for a great many enthusiasts to pilot a fighter plane, an ocean-racing sailboat, a tank, a submarine or even a tractor in their own field. Other video games have turned us into city managers, empire builders, film directors and soccer coaches. Simulation is a way for humans to experience what others experience at little (or almost no) cost.

While Summer Schools are nothing new on the university scene, the range of courses on offer is growing every year, particularly in France.

Historically more focused on learning a foreign language through immersion, or offered to doctoral students, it is now an integral part of the summer program for students – and the not-so-young – in search of cultural discoveries and intellectual emulation.

Whether in France or abroad, the themes on offer are as vast as the range of disciplines covered by the universities.

These are mainly short, non-degree programs, open to all levels. Sorbonne Université offers courses in French literature, climate change, the challenges of artificial intelligence and rhetoric.

Sciences Po, for its part, opens its doors to students from all over the world, enabling them to follow intensive study programs. Two types of public are targeted here : on the one hand, those who are already students or working professionals, and on the other, a younger public, mostly high school students, who would like to discover what student life is like and how to study in an institution of this level. Courses are usually organized in the form of intensive seminars and encourage interaction. They can be delivered face-to-face or remotely, via the digital platforms usually used. Last but not least, depending on the campus of residence, there are also city discovery programs in Paris or Reims, giving an insight into the life, history and culture of the area, and aimed primarily at international students.

Almost all French universities also offer intensive French language programs for foreign students, so that those who have chosen to study in France are well prepared for the start of the new academic year. One of the objectives of universities and other higher education establishments remains the recruitment of foreign students. Their international prestige and recognition depend on it.

In the south of France, in Aix-en-Provence, the Faculty of Law is hosting the Summer University in Political Economy organized by IES Europe (Institute for Economic Studies Europe) and IREF (a liberal and European think tank founded in 2002). Some twenty eminent researchers, including Professor Mario Rizzo, an economist at New York University, Professor David Schmidtz, a philosopher at the University of Arizona, Steve Davies, a historian at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, and Professor Jean-Philippe Feldman, a jurist at the University of Rennes and Sciences Po, will be speaking at the event between July 20 and 22, sharing their analyses with participants of all ages and backgrounds.

At a time when sales of continuing education by public higher education establishments (universities, CNAM, schools) have exceeded 500 million euros in France, the dynamism created by the need for lifelong learning is bringing more and more employees and jobseekers to the university benches.

Over 110,000 diplomas are awarded each year, with universities accounting for a major share – over two-thirds, according to the most recent figures published by Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR). 60% of these are national diplomas, a quarter of which are professional licenses, and 30% masters (Source: MESRI-SIES, continuing education survey).

Beyond the figures, we can ask ourselves about the need to support the careers of an entire population, and to provide skills that are increasingly volatile as digital technologies take hold. Is it the fear of skills obsolescence and the disappearance of many professions that is driving our fellow citizens to the doors of universities? Or is it ultimately a change of model, dictated by the digital giants, that is transforming us all into perpetual learners, students in search of new knowledge throughout our lives?

Are we going to escape the power of machines by raising our skill levels ?

As can be seen from the programs offered by universities and the projects they are presenting as part of France 2030, the range of courses on offer is constantly evolving, with a growing emphasis on “soft skills”. Becoming an expert in a traditional field is undoubtedly a prerequisite for the younger generations waiting to enter the professional world, but for others, those who want or need to change jobs, it’s a question of nurturing other ambitions. Fulfillment, mobility and agility have become essential, not only for employees, but above all for the organizations that employ them and wish to keep them on the payroll. These are particularly tight times on the job market, in many sectors, so the company is becoming its employees’ training partner. So it’s hardly surprising that companies are expected to provide 50% of the funding for training courses and diplomas issued by public institutions.

As Franck Giuliani, President of the FCU (Conference of Directors of University Continuing Education Services) points out, “continuing education is one of the missions of universities and higher education establishments, and the wide range of players involved means that there is a wide diversity of responses and modes of access in a fully regionalized offer”. He adds that “to support the return to study, to encourage people to go back to university as part of a certification process, which we know in France remains a key element in the dialogue on the job market, it is necessary to think of new ways of engineering courses, integrating the validation of prior learning, and new multiform teaching methods”.

While it’s only natural that innovation in academic research should be transformed into support for the target audiences, it’s also clear that short training courses are becoming increasingly popular. Today, they account for a quarter of all courses taken, but universities and other higher education establishments are rapidly expanding their offerings.

And it’s undoubtedly via digital tools and technological means of knowledge dissemination that this acceleration is taking place. Indeed, the Ministry is determined to provide substantial resources for this acceleration through the ASDESR call for projects (Accélération des Stratégies de Développement de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche – Acceleration of Strategies for the Development of Higher Education and Research), with 31 of the 44 winning projects focusing on the development of continuing education.

Sylvie Retailleau, the French Minister for Higher Education and Research, said in her presentation: “The 44 winning establishments will be able to expand their range of continuing education courses, strengthen their submission of European projects, develop sponsorship and enhance the value of their heritage.

And what about digital technology ?

As soon as the 1st confinement came out in 2020, some players predicted that the massive use of distance learning would, at the very least, shake things up. France Velasquez, Director of Continuing Education at CY Cergy Paris Université, told Campus Matin:

“We need to learn from this unprecedented period and diversify our approaches. In terms of service, new projects are being set up to support people returning to school, and these will be stepped up by integrating distance learning…”.

Since then, it seems clear to everyone that universities have adapted perfectly, and that digital resources are now mastered by the majority of staff and teachers. Franck Giuliani added: “It’s not enough to produce a teaching scenario that can be accessed remotely, you also have to provide evidence that trainees have taken part, and report on their progress”. And this is still a major challenge for many establishments today.

The digital platforms developed by French EdTech are contributing to the emergence of new teaching practices. Expectations are high, but the richness and diversity of collective intelligence will enable us to find the right solutions to meet the challenges we all face.

Let’s hope that the efforts of all concerned will produce the desired results for the greater good of all.

Over the past 15 years, national policies aimed at reducing inequalities in access to higher education in France have produced real results. Encouraging ? Sufficient ? Still improving ? While it’s not our place to judge the current situation, we’d like to open this issue with a general observation: progress is being made !

Organized on April 6 by La Tribune, Tech for Future was an exciting event, punctuated by a series of conferences and concluded by the presentation of awards to 10 finely selected start-ups. Numerous debates took place in front of an attentive audience. The major issues discussed, from sovereignty and financing to inclusion and climate protection, made it clear that Tech is everywhere, and that it is certainly saving lives.

To launch the day, Minister Delegate for the Digital Transition Jean-Noël Barrot recalled the importance of both the French success stories born of the first wave of digital companies such as Deezer, Blablacar, Doctolib, or BackMarket, but also the strong commitment of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, to strong support for French Deep Tech in the months and years to come. A plan initiated in 2019 with the support of the BPI and which provides for the creation of 500 new Deep Tech companies a year, while Scale-Up Europe launched by France in 2021 is a program aimed at bringing European technology leaders to the fore. In fact, some of our companies have raised significant amounts of capital, such as Ledger, which specializes in securing cryptocurrencies, and Pasqal, which develops quantum computers, each with €100 million,” says the Minister.

In the face of fears of a financing slump in the wake of the SVB affair and a 70% drop in amounts raised in the first quarter, Jean-Noël Barrot is positive and resolutely confident of a future rebound. The minister reassures us that it is also to “cushion” any dips that support plans are put in place.

But hasn’t Tech retreated into the shadow of Artificial Intelligence?

Before talking about a possible pause in research or even an AI crisis, it was important to remember that governments can and must encourage and highlight the ethical and humane uses of technological advances. So, for example, when AI makes it possible to save thousands of years of research to model some 200 million proteins, we understand that the benefits for human health can be enormous. Yet these advances are being made with AI models very similar to those used by OpenAI for ChatGPT. It’s not a question of denying the risks associated with the technology, it’s a question of being a player in AI research, as enabled by the AI strategy launched in 2021, with over a billion euros invested by the State.

Le ministre comme d’autres intervenants, le souligneront, nous avons d’excellents chercheurs et spécialistes de l’IA en France. Nous avons donc une carte à jouer dans cette course à l’innovation. Il est bon de rappeler qu’il y a et qu’il y aura des domaines interdits ou réglementés et surveillés pour l’usage de l’intelligence artificielle. Il ne s’agit ni d’interdire, ni de souscrire à un moratoire au développement des modèles d’intelligence artificielle. La CNIL peut en revanche contraindre OpenAI à respecter le RGPD, et notamment dans les données utilisées pour « entrainer » les modèles. Les données sont-elles suffisamment protégées comme le souhaite l’Europe ?

Watch Jean-Noël Barrot’s speech :

Can the greatest myths fall? How are the world’s most renowned universities about to be overtaken?

A few recent decisions by the Biden administration hinted at a paradigm shift for the universities that still inspire a large proportion of the world’s student population. Has the glass ceiling been reached? When student debt in the USA exceeds the GDP of a country like Australia, isn’t this the ultimate alarm bell?

By the end of 2021, this debt had risen to $1,590 billion. When you have to pay more than $80,000 per year to study at Harvard, Princeton or MIT, the number of students willing to embark on this adventure on credit naturally drops. This is true both inside and outside the country, as the number of students from China and India (who alone make up over 50% of foreign students admitted to American universities) is also declining. So, while students from all over the world are still looking to the West, they may be nostalgic, but they’re ready to study elsewhere.

When you look at the search curves for ChatGPT on the most popular search engines, it’s clear that the ChatGPT phenomenon is far more popular than Metavers ever was. Everyone’s talking about it, and many have had fun testing it. The fact that it’s open and accessible to anyone who knows how to ask a question, and the speed with which the tool provides answers that are at first sight relatively relevant, make it as likeable as chat photos on social networks. Thanks to this near-universal social acceptance, Chat GPT has become the fastest-selling digital tool in digital history, with over 100 million users. Incredible but true!

From now on, everyone is convinced that it will be easier and quicker to write a text, an essay, an argumentative presentation, and we won’t even mention here the posts published on the networks, or the answers given to consumers by customer services. What’s new about this tool is that it’s conversational. You can talk to it, question it, contradict it, challenge it – it practically has the answer to everything. Not quite yet, but future versions already promise more than 1,000 times greater quality, relevance and depth of analysis.

There’s no shortage of speeches. Nor are there enough examples of remarkable, successful women who don’t get enough coverage in the media. Just think of Aurélie Jean (scientist and entrepreneur), Céline Lazorthes (founder of Resilience Care, Leetchi and MangoPay), Roxanne Varza (director @Station F), and so many others. There’s no shortage of initiatives by institutions or government, higher education establishments and businesses, to create career paths and conditions that are favorable to women. The problem runs deeper. The distortion is growing. The figures bear this out, whichever way you look at it.

Women have a very small place in French tech !

As Laurent Champaney, Managing Director of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers, points out in an article for Les Echos, “the situation is implacable: the overall rate of women in engineering jobs will remain below 10% in France in 2020, and less than 30% of engineering school students will be women. Furthermore, we read with amazement that 88% of fundraising in tech is carried out by 100% male teams and less than 1% by all-female teams. While we can find reasons to hope for improvement in the increase in the percentage of women in digital professions, from 12% to 17%, between 2018 and 2021, there is still a long way to go.

In a McKinsey study published in January 2023, we learn that women occupy just 22% of tech jobs in Europe. This confirms that France is not on the right track when it comes to gender diversity, and is doing less well than some of its neighbors. Are we still living in a patriarchal society? Yet Mc Kinsey predicts, according to various scenarios, that the labor shortage will be at its worst by 2027, with between 1.4 and 3.9 million jobs to be filled in the technology sectors of the EU-27.

Figure 1: Women’s participation in ICT-related disciplines falls drastically on entering higher education and the job market [McKinsey, 2023].

We might continue to believe that girls are less attracted to or less successful in the technical subjects taught in primary and secondary schools, but the study shows that this is not the case. In some European countries, they are even ahead of boys on these subjects. Figure 1 shows that entry to higher education is the first break in equal opportunity. From Bachelor’s level onwards, only between 31% and 36% of students in technology courses are women. While this figure rises slightly up to doctorate level, the second abyss stands in front of future professionals: that of the first job. By the time they enter professional life, only 22% of women hold a tech job in companies across all sectors, while 37% of jobs of all kinds are held by women in technology companies.

The jobs where women are least well represented are those most closely related to development, code, DevOps and the cloud. In the latter two categories, despite their high demand, the proportion of women is below 10%.

Figure 2: Across European companies, women are least represented in DevOps and Cloud functions [Mc Kinsey, 2023].

Where does this flaw in our education systems come from? Is it more a problem of the culture and society we have inherited?

Let’s go back a few decades. In 1982, nearly 30% of computer scientists were women. Further back, in 1969, when man first set foot on the moon, it was a woman, Margaret Hamilton, who designed the first onboard system for the Apollo 11 mission. The film “Les figures de l’ombre”, released in 2016, features African-American women who played a major role in NASA’s programs, including Katherine Johnson, who calculated the trajectories for the Apollo 11 mission. In 1960, coding jobs in England were almost exclusively held by women.

It was in the 90s that two major movements reversed this trend.

It was in the 90s that IT became a strategic issue for governments and companies, gaining a prestige that immediately attracted a very male population. It was also at this time that computers became personal. And it was men and their sons who rushed to buy this new equipment and immediately adopted it into the family home.

And yet, our country, even more than others, would benefit from restoring a better balance. If France were to achieve parity in the digital sector, it would generate a 10% gain in GDP by 2025, according to a McKinsey study.

How can we give women back a better place in tech?

Isabelle Collet, a computer scientist and professor of education at the University of Geneva, explains that 2015 saw a turning point with a realization that the problem was not women, who were suspected of being less interested in technology than men, but institutions and organizations that were doing nothing or not enough to attract them. Isabelle Collet published a book “Les oubliées du numérique” in 2019, which sheds a strong light on the transformation needed. She explains that, first and foremost, we need to interest young women in applying for both higher education courses and the technical jobs that are opening up to them. There is also an urgent need to offer gender training courses to students, to show them the need for a diversity of profiles, and to explain that encouraging female employment is a way of making up for the consequences of the social censure that women have endured since childhood.

“To encourage more girls to go into these professions, one of the very first things is to say: it’s not so much you who need this profession. It’s this profession that needs you: you’re expected, you’re hoped for, and we’d like to see more of you in it”, says Isabelle Collet.

Associations such as Femmes@Numérique (of which Isabelle Collet is a member of the Board of Directors) and the Sista movement, a collective aiming to reduce inequalities between women and men entrepreneurs, headed by Déborah Loye, regularly speak out on this issue.

This is also the case for #WomeninTech, who recently published an infographic by Sandrine Delage, in which we highlighted a few significant figures on the French mindset :

41% of French people think that women are not as good as men at working in tech

Over 58% of parents admit that they don’t encourage their daughters to go into technological training

61% prefer to steer them towards an “easier” profession

41% think that these sectors are anxiety-provoking and difficult for women

The findings, the awareness and the voice given to women in digital technology, who are also entrepreneurs, should inspire those in charge of higher education. There is an urgent need to better welcome, promote and distinguish women in tech. While role models are not the only way to attract new generations to these professions, the fact remains that the visibility of women in the media could be much higher.

So what’s the opinion of a leading figure in the education and technology eco-system, such as Anne-Charlotte Monneret, General Delegate of the EdTech France association :

“The pop-culture of tech as a domain reserved for young men comes to us from the USA, with the image of the “geek”, hooded teenagers adept at gaming and coding. It’s the consequence of Hollywood movies, which have imposed white, affluent, male profiles as tech referents for the past thirty years. But the problem is that this is not countered by putting forward female role models who could seduce or reassure young tech-savvy girls. No doubt the other cliché that tech is a field reserved for engineers doesn’t help, whereas there are many other professions and training courses that are useful to tech companies.”

Source : podcast LUDOMAG, Janvier 2023

What can be done to overcome these clichés, even though companies are often aware of or committed to the issue of diversity ? Will we find any reassuring elements in the strategic vision for digital education presented by Pap Ndiaye, Minister of National Education and Youth, on January 27 ?

Consult the Digital Strategy for Education 2023-2027

Are the efforts being made in this direction promising?

Even before the implementation of certain ministerial directives, we can see that both engineering schools and universities have made great efforts to attract female students to these technological fields. Some associations have even gone so far as to offer 100% female training courses, as at Social Builder, which has already trained 3,000 women in code in 34 promotions. “In this single-sex environment, women progress faster, feel more at ease, have more self-confidence and feel more legitimate”, promises Social Builder.

This is probably not a solution for higher education establishments, which on the contrary – and rightly so, it seems – believe that gender diversity is beneficial to everyone’s personal development.

However, it’s worth remembering that in IT schools, “7 out of 10 female students say they have been subjected to sexist behavior during their training, ranging from jokes and sexist remarks about their skills, to sexist or even sexual harassment”, according to a Social Builder study.

So, in response, some are focusing on various ways of reducing or eradicating self-censorship, the fruit of cognitive biases at all stages of the career path, which suggest that everything scientific, mathematical or technological has been invented, developed and used by men. Young women are the “forgotten ones of history”, so they tend to believe stories that magnify the role of men. “We need to stop self-censorship by providing information and desacralizing IT, by breaking the codes”, asserts Chloé Hermary, CEO of Ada Tech School, housed at Station F within the HEC incubator. Ada Tech deliberately communicates on very feminine codes, and gets results, since 80% of the school’s enrolment is female.

Everyone agrees that women have their place in tech, as in all professions. University and private training programs are making real efforts to welcome and encourage them. We need to continue this fight with determination, at a time when it is predicted that there will be a shortfall of over 200,000 vacancies in the tech and digital professions.

“The digital sector creates thousands of jobs every year, even during the Covid crisis. Over 34,000 net new jobs have been registered for 2021. And recruitment is growing every year. We’re announcing 230,000 recruitments by 2027 in the sector”, recently declared Sonia Malinbaum, Chairwoman of Numeum’s Employment and Training Committee.

All these initiatives are a further step towards gender diversity. We are convinced that higher education institutions have a major role to play in this fight for women.

In fact, Simone has formed a perfectly mixed team of robots to set an example!

What are the trends for 2023?

Robots may be tireless, but it’s hard to predict what the coming year will bring. But trends are also used to guide our thinking, start new conversations and even guide our missions to evolve the unstable world we all live in. So, we went in search of what we think will make trends in education, EdTech and higher education institutions.

What did we discover that could change everything for you, the students, the teachers and the eco-system dedicated to enhancing the learning experience? The first answer is to accept the idea of the plasticity of the models we propose. Nothing will be fixed or definitive. All innovations are moving in the direction of greater overall flexibility, and of taking better account of the diversity of intelligences and learning paths.

As a result, the word hybrid will still be on everyone’s lips and screens, not because it symbolizes an alternation between the physical world and the virtualization of our exchanges, but rather because it is now a given that we are always on the move and always accompanied by a permanent connection to digital tools.

1 – Hybridization is here to stay

We can no longer deny the obvious: we have the choice. This freedom, initially seen as an obligatory response to public health problems, is a major achievement for all those involved in education. Add to this the fact that citizens are demanding the right of access to lifelong learning, which would enable them to adjust their skills to the needs of the market, and we understand that it is becoming essential to be where the learners (and also the teachers) are. It’s not easy, or even responsible, to travel across the country to give or take a course.

Accessing educational content the way you access episodes of a Netflix series is undeniably comfortable. But is it enough?

The move towards a hybrid world also means that not only educational content, but also the way we teach, must evolve in parallel. Of course, digital platforms are ubiquitous, but are we ready to use them to their full potential? Does sharing videos or course slides guarantee successful learning?

We believe that one of the challenges facing us all is to train people to use a quality hybrid model correctly. The hybrid has gone from being an emergency to an enviable comfort. Now it must show that it can be a symbol of better performance.

2 – Robotics for education

Nothing would please Simone’s Robots more than to play an active role in improving learning for students at all levels! So should we follow Mary-Christine Cavecchi, President of the Val d’Oise département, when she says “Educational robotics is the real driver of success and academic achievement”?

Does this mean we’ll learn better and faster with the help of robots? In any case, some robotics applications seem to offer new solutions and create more value in the early stages of the learning journey. Asking questions, repeating concepts and validating basic skills are all tasks that can undoubtedly be entrusted to an intelligent robot that never tires. To what extent interaction with the machine will enable the learner to progress and surpass it, is an issue to be explored at the graduate level.

But the robot is undoubtedly a future alter ego in learning. We could also learn how to build and develop a robot, and understand how we learn and transmit knowledge, including to machines. For example, VittaScience offers the possibility of building and programming robots. Will they get to Mars before us?

3 – Virtual reality (VR) is one of the most effective technological solutions.

The benefits of virtual reality are unquestionably recognized by the world of higher education. Whether it’s a question of performing surgery on a patient, for example, or working on an aircraft engine, the virtues of virtual reality are now well established. But, beyond the use cases, it is the quality of learning and the ability to memorize knowledge that seem to be enhanced by recourse to this virtual mode.

A study carried out by PwC in the United States recently showed very convincing results for new managers undergoing training. Subjected to three different types of learning, their results were up to four times better when using virtual reality (versus face-to-face classes, or e-learning). The main reason for this spectacular leap in cognitive performance is that learners concentrate much better when immersed in a virtual world, as if being disconnected from the real world made their attention more intense and available.

The other key point in the advance of virtual reality is the shift from passive to active mode. Here again, studies have shown that active learners memorize more and better than those who, as it were, undergo. By moving into a virtual world, learners can experience situations and interact more often and more effectively.

In the coming year, as technology advances rapidly, we’ll be seeing more and more uses for virtuality, enabling us to plunge into imaginary worlds to discover and learn what we need in real life.

4 – Is the metaverse a false trend?

While virtual reality is gaining ground in higher education, and France seems to be in the vanguard of pedagogical uses, the question of the matevers continues to provoke contradictory debate. Should we imagine virtual campuses? Will we find our way around them?

On the face of it, we agree with Anne-Charlotte Monneret, General Delegate of EdTech France, who predicts that: “in the metavers, students will benefit from a personalized pathway to help them project themselves into their future careers according to who they are and what they want to do”. This quote is taken from our article on the subject, which you can read here: https://www.simoneetlesrobots.com/metavers-et-universites/

In fact, ESSEC introduced VR-based courses last year, INSEAD uses VR in its executive education and degree programs, and NEOMA has created a fully virtual campus that allows teachers and students to interact with each other and the school as if they were on a physical campus. French universities are not lagging behind in this respect – on the contrary. But does this mean that metavers will become the norm, as an article in HBR suggests? Not necessarily, given that the face-to-face mode is still favored by students on campus, and our collective desire to make sense of things together has been reaffirmed in these digital times.

Nothing today guarantees that the virtual world proposed and promoted by Meta will be adopted by higher education establishments, or above all that we will accept being represented by avatars. Yet there is a strong appetite for the possibility of a certain ubiquity. Being both in a constrained physical world and in a virtually limitless virtual universe can accelerate the circulation of knowledge, in the same way as open science or open data.

5 – Big Data for more personalized learning paths

Personal data and its non-commercial use will still be a major issue in 2023. Is using students’ behavioral and distinctive data a way of better meeting their expectations? “Big Data can also be useful for improving student results, launching personalized programs for each student, as well as helping teachers analyze student behavior more accurately and in greater detail”, we read on Moonpreneur.

“Yes, but” one might be tempted to reply, in a world where the subject remains highly sensitive. Data collected at university level would probably be representative of a relatively homogeneous population, but what about business schools, engineering schools, or other specialties such as communication, design or hospitality? The fine analysis of massive data is still in the experimental phase. However, it seems to us that the future of learning paths, their relevance and their appropriateness to the unique profile of each student, depends largely on the quality of the personal information collected and compared with the observations or selection criteria retained.

Big Data should enable us to correctly target programs and pathways for all learners, at any point in their lives.

To read a few articles evoking 2023 trends that already appeared in our 2022 edition, we could be reassured that Robots and Simone have a good vision. But that would be presumptuous and risky, given how fast and hard our world is moving.

So let’s make an appointment now to talk about what will change tomorrow!

The Simone et les Robots team had the pleasure of being invited to Djerba last November for two parallel events.

On the one hand, the XVIIIth Francophonie Summit, hosted this year by Tunisia, in the presence of numerous heads of state, including President Macron, and on the other, the Economic Forum, whose ambition was to highlight the value of the privileged commercial space that the Francophonie represents. Over the course of 4 days, a large number of participants gathered to discuss the richness and diversity of the French-speaking nations. Conferences, speeches and exchanges fueled conversations and encounters. Proudly representing French EdTech alongside our 28 fellow participants[1], we took part in the dynamic innovation and development of the entire French-speaking world.

“Four years after the previous Summit, following the covid, we took stock of the situation, so as to make progress on the major issues of the Francophonie, namely: the development of digital activities, education in French, the development of content in French and creations in French, everything that enables the Francophonie to continue to advance throughout the world…” declared Emmanuel Macron at the end of the Summit, adding that France would host the Summit in 2024. Some will have remembered that “Francophonie is a journey”, a message of hope for us all. The President of the French Republic was able to speak with a delegation of young volunteers involved in the “Jeunes Ambassadeurs Francophones” network, the embodiment of a dynamic Francophonie, mobilized to create a dialogue between young people on five continents who carry out their projects in the French language.

On site, the Francophonie Summit took the form of a village open to the public, with pavilions for each country, and numerous events, performances and concerts demonstrating the diversity of our cultures. But the event was also a natural opportunity to focus on education in a country whose youth is an asset for future development: almost 40% of Tunisia’s population is under 30 (out of a total population of 12 million). The EdTech conference “Understanding the major challenges, Exploring the solutions” enabled the large French delegation – 42 companies invited, including 29 EdTech companies – to meet and exchange ideas with institutional and economic players from many French-speaking African countries and beyond.

The colloquium featured a number of fascinating roundtables focusing on training and employability thanks to digital tools adopted by educational establishments around the world.

Round table discussions at the EdTech Colloquium

A first round table on the theme of “Le numérique au service de l’employabilité tout au long de la vie professionnelle” brought together Minister Dr. Eng. Nizar Ben Neji, Tunisian Minister of Communication Technologies, Mr. Henri Verdier, Ambassador for Digital Affairs, Mr. Aboubacar Sy, Special Advisor for Communication and Digitization at CONFEMEN (Conference of Ministers of Education of French-speaking States and Governments) and Ms. Wala KASMI, Founder and CEO of Tunisian EdTech WeCode Land. This was an opportunity to talk about “soft skills”, the need to support young people, and innovation in French-speaking countries in the service of necessary digital sovereignty.

From the round table “Regards croisés sur les enjeux du numérique au service de l’éducation et de la formation” with Mr. Audran LE BARON, Director of Digital at the French Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports, Mr. Lassaad MEZGHANI, Director of the Institut de la Francophonie pour l’Ingénierie de la Connaissance et la Formation à Distance, and Christelle HIEN-KOUAME, Chief Business Officer Group of Côte d’Ivoire EdTech Eneza Education, highlighted the benefits of connectivity for all.

After these fascinating exchanges, the day continued with the Agora des #EdTech, which brought together the delegation’s companies in a highly convivial space, facilitating meetings with local players or those who had come specially from Switzerland, Quebec, Ivory Coast or elsewhere, for the Francophonie Summit. It was an afternoon rich in encounters and exchanges for Simone et les Robots and all the participants. Exchanges that we’re continuing today, in the hope that this Summit will be the start of a wonderful international adventure.

As Frédéric Kuntzmann, CEO of My Serious Game, and Julien Coquet, chargé de mission Business France Tunisie, who led us through the three days of the summit, put it: “This wonderful adventure has confirmed our commitment to the future. And Frédéric added that “digital solutions are now mature enough to be adopted by countries like Tunisia”, opening up promising prospects for the EdTech companies in the delegation. This is also our feeling, as evidenced by several meetings with local players to discuss future collaborations.

We look forward to the next edition! See you in 2023 in Quebec!

[1] The delegation of French companies led by Business France included 42 companies, 29 of them EdTech.