Mindera School was born on a dream: to educate and train people in employable digital skills.

Our students don’t need an academic degree or a background in tech. They only need to have a big passion for technology, be a self-starter, and a be knowledge-seeker. As we all have different learning needs, we are designing a student-centred programme that aims to help tutees develop their technological, personal and social skills. During the course, students will have the opportunity to work with our teams, on real projects for real clients. During the 12-month program, students will take ownership of their learning journey. With the help of our teams, clients, mentors, teachers, and their peers, students will define goals and work towards them — they will learn by doing.

While we were drawing our project, according to our experience and ideals, we realised that neuroscience already explains the way we plan to develop this learning journey for our students. We are using the universal design for learning (UDL)! Who would have known?!

Let me explain. Universal design for learning is an architectural concept that focuses on the design of products, buildings, or environments, so they can be used readily by the widest possible range of users. UDL is a framework for teaching and learning that often capitalises on the power and flexibility of modern technologies to address the needs of the broadest possible range of students. While originally conceived to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities, UDL actually makes buildings that are more accessible and functional for everyone. The key to UDL is building options into initial designs, making better choices available for everyone.

At its simplest, the scope of UDL is based entirely on three principles:

• Providing multiple means of representation
• Providing multiple means of action and expression
• Providing multiple means of engagement

Consider the field of cognitive neuroscience, where it is common to think of three broad divisions of the learning brain:

1. The pattern recognition capabilities in the posterior regions of the cortex
2. The motor and executive capabilities in the frontal regions of the cortex
3. The affective or emotional capabilities in the medial regions of the nervous system

These three principles have been chosen because they address three critical features of any teaching and learning environment:

• The means by which information is presented to the learner
• The means by which the learner is required to express what they know
• The means by which students are engaged in learning

Typically, these practices have already proven effective for individual students in the margins but they are generally not integrated within the one-size-fits-all curriculum of regular education. By taking advantage of the power and flexibility of modern technology, UDL provides a vehicle for delivering these practices to the individual students that they are likely to be most effective for. The purpose of education is not to make information accessible but to teach students how to transform accessible information into usable knowledge. Decades of cognitive science research has demonstrated that the capability to transform accessible information into usable knowledge is not a passive process but an active one.

At Mindera, one of our biggest statements is that “we are humans” and this little concept shapes everything we do. We like to push boundaries and try new things, the Mindera School project is our opportunity to challenge younger minds into our mindset of autonomy and responsibility in everything we do. It will be an unlearning process to learn new ways of thinking! This project has a lot of uncertainties but there is one thing we know for sure, we have a team of people who have a tremendous passion for what they do and we are ready to have students that want to discover this journey with us.

Are you ready to take off?