[RE]LEARN 2020 - The Learning Innovation Festival

This session questions the role of regulators in the education system at national and local levels, questioning their intent, their impact and their contribution to the innovation and change process in education. The extent to which they set and uphold standards, maintain a status quo, and impact on the ability of educators to innovate will be discussed, in comparison to the 'unregulated' sectors that are allied to the sector, including non-school providers such as tutoring firms, social media (60% of people believe they can learn anything on YouTube), and providers of informal learning experiences. The session will look at the extremes of full regulated and completely unregulated, and consider how governments and policy makers might consider the 'right' balance for their contexts.
A Q&A session will be provided and audience participation in developing the scenarios will be sought.
Learning objectives:
1. To consider the role of regulators in the education system and the need for education standards.
2. To consider the impact of regulators on stifling innovation in education systems and how providers manage in these systems.
3. To explore the lack of regulation of elements that contribute to education on a global scale and the extreme situations that this can lead to.
4. To start to generate a framework for 'positive regulation' to guide policy makers and governments in the use of regulators in their education systems.