Harnessing Technology: Next Generation Learning 2008-14

On 3rd July at the ICT in Education Conference in Birmingham Jim Knight - you can read exactly what he said here - ( on behalf of the DCSF, DIUS and Becta ) announced Harnessing Technology: Next Generation Learning 2008-14.

This update has the potential to ensure ensure that requirements of today's learners are met. The Government says technology in learning is no longer optional.

This document came out of a Becta stable and is promoted by the Government of the UK but as far as I can see it only applies to England, as Scotland - their early Years Strategy here - has its own and Northern Ireland's is up for review as the EmPowering Schools Strategy was dated to 2008. The Welsh Assembly produced their document Transforming Schools with ICT:The Report to the Welsh Assembly Government of the Schools ICT Strategy Working Group back in April.

I feel sure someone will tell me quickly if I am wrong about this as I am just not sure how this works as the UK Government and Becta who both have responsibilities across all of the countries that from the UK. (Haven't they?)This is, of course, a concern to those of us who work across a number of countries.

On the whole the revised strategy is just that - revised - to meet the changes that have happened since the last version. And it leaves openings for continued revision, though I must say, I am mildly perturbed by the 2008 - 2014 tag. 6 years ... it is a brave person who will predict that far ahead in ICT never mind anything else (see my last post concerning the search for the Higgs boson).

For me one of the highlights is the section on Priorities in managing the change: equity, quality and efficiency. The five priorities listed here:
• Learner entitlement
• Family and informal learning
• Professional tools for teaching
• Mobilising leadership
• Fit-for-purpose sustainable technology.

... address some of the key 'back-at-the-ranch' questions. Of particular interest to me is that of 'personal ownership' and integration and I feel that item 87 will present many challenges and opportunities:

87. This means that increasingly leaders will need to ensure effective
management of a ‘mixed economy’ of publicly funded and personally owned
technologies, and ensure that no learner or family is disadvantaged due to
lack of access to technology. This raises significant issues, including those
relating to licensing and liabilities, data protection, and health and safety.
Becta and its partners will provide advice and guidance on each of these
areas. Industry partners including internet service providers, hardware
and educational service providers, will be fully involved.

To conclude - this strategy has been conceived and developed over time by people who have a group, vast working knowledge of the current state of the ICT game. But, it is institutional and organisational. Clay Shirky has much to say on such things in his book 'Here Comes Everybody'.

Emerging technologies for learning: volume 3 (2008)

From Becta: Emerging technologies for learning

... aims to help readers consider how emerging technologies may impact on education in the medium term. The publications are not intended to be a comprehensive review of educational technologies, but offer some highlights across the broad spectrum of developments and trends. It should open readers up to some of the possibilities that are developing and the potential for technology to transform our ways of working, learning and interacting over the next three to five years.'

Volume 3 contains some really 'up-to-the-minute' stuff so some good bedtime reading here ...

Growing up with Google - what it means to education (Diana Oblinger, EDUCAUSE)

Mobile, wireless, connected - information clouds and learning (Mark van't Hooft, Kent State University) -

Location-based and context-aware education - prospects and perils (Adam Greenfield, NYU)-

Emerging trends in serious games and virtual words (Sara de Freitas, SGI)

'If it quacks like a duck...' - developments in search technologies (Emma Tonkin, UKOLN)

Interactive displays and next generation interfaces (Michael Haller, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences)

Emerging Technologies for Learning

This new publication from Becta is good reading for those wanting to get to grips with the implications of social software in an educational context. You can even have your say or review the say of others.

As a sample ... this from 'Emerging trends in social softwaref or education' by Lee Bryant, Headshift

'IT functions in schools, just as in small businesses,
must focus on providing underpinning services and
infrastructure rather than seeking to control how people
use them. This means more diversity of software
and hardware rather than top-down standardisation
decisions that lock users into tools that are out-dated
by the time they are implemented. Interoperability
does not require central control, as the proliferation
of RSS and microformats have proved. Maintaining a
sensible degree of external security is fine, as long as
this does not stop people from doing the basics, such
as consuming web services or linking with the outside
world. But inside the network, experimentation and
innovation should be encouraged. Anything less runs
the risk of turning educational IT into an irrelevant
backwater that is far below the expectations of young
people that they simply do their learning elsewhere.'