In a recent poll of parents, they discovered:

• 95% of parents think technology can help their children to learn,
• 78% think technology can bring lessons to life,
• but only 63% think it can improve exam results by making it easier to revise.

Odd that it can help learning but not too sure about exam success. However, on the plus side, parents would rather talk about technology with their kids than sex!

There is hardly a book in sight.

Every student is issued a laptop and not much else to complete their studies. Homework projects are e-mailed to all the students, and their parents.

Every digital mark made on the board is downloadable to the family home.

There is another description about using video to improve achievement in ‘gym’.  What I find interesting, especially in comparison to the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme here in the UK, is the apparent scaling back of ambition. 

The examples given (an it is only one article) are not ‘transformative’ in the ways often described those driving ICT in BSF.  Rather, they are automating existing processes.

There is an accompanying interview with Bill Gates. In it he describes the future as being 5 to 10 years. A future in which every child has some sort of portable device (laptop/tablet), an online curriculum that is ‘customisable’ by the teacher (where’s the learner?), and an online portal for parents to see grades and attendance therefore being part of the loop. Again automating not transforming.

I think Microsoft/ Gates could be being very pragmatic here.  All of the things described are already being done and I know schools already doing it. However, they are not widespread and not necessarily being done well. Hence, they represent areas in which visible progress can be seen to be made soon. They are also things that pupils and parents seem to value in the present and short-term.

Further on in the clip, in the context of more disadvantaged children, Gates cites the network, the curriculum and teacher training as being harder nuts to crack than the provision of kit ($100 laptops etc). I.e, cultural aspects of the school: the environment/context in which the school exists; the stuff we think it is important to learn and how we measure it; and how the work-force engages with learning will be hardest part of any transformation.

I agree that having a shorter-term vision that consolidates what is best current practice as opposed to starting with a clean sheet of paper might be a more pragmatic way forward. I also think it is a way of minimising risk for private investors in state education.

However, we still need an eye on the longer term and we still need to look at what we need to do differently.  Especially as so many children are falling through the net. Automating the system could make us more efficient at failing some children.

I am looking forward to being independent and self-employed!

Looking at the last three years it seems that those in the top 10 stay fairly stable (Japan bobs around a bit!) with Singapore, Iceland Finland Denmark and the US generally doing well under this index. Interestingly, China and India are dropping a little with central America gaining ground.  Sadly, Africa is not gaining ground in the index.

With regard to education, the summary states.

In education, IP networks are turning the traditional classroom into virtual schoolhouses that deliver education to remote students, life-long learners, and others. Essentially, education has been transformed from a teacher-led class to a student-centric experience accentuated by self-learning; peer-to-peer teaching; rich, readily available content; greater accessibility; and discovery-based learning.

That all sounds rather nice but it is not my experience here in the UK- perhaps that’s why we are not 1st!  It’s something worth aiming for but I do wonder if ‘ learning platforms’ will take us closer. The key phase is ’ IP networks’: that’s the transformational technology and not any one application of it. The Internet, including ways of accessing it, is the platform.

Maybe I’ll try to wrangle a trip to a Nordic country by way of research to see how it’s done.

A summary of the findings can be found here.

For me, the facility to fail repeatedly without judgment is an important dimension that computer based learning can bring and is related to provisionality– the ability to re-edit, change, cut & paste and never actually be finished.

Furthermore, simulations, augmented reality and the provisionality of IT based work all represent areas in which technology can also transform assessment. Much of the current assessment using IT is based on automating existing methods (from multi-choice through to checking for plagiarism). A recent article in The Guardian exemplifies this by missing the point about what technology can add:

The benefits are obvious. It’s quicker, cheaper and more efficient. The really dull components, such as multiple choice or simple questions such as “name four things that contribute to global warming”, can be marked automatically or by less experienced markers, whereas questions requiring a more nuanced, longer answer can be left to the old hands. Your best markers don’t have to be wasted on the straightforward stuff.

A lot of current assessment practice is out of date and does not measure the things most important for a successful life in the modern world. So why waste time and money on making it more efficient. We need to measure new skills and capabilities in new ways.

The report considers:

• Ways to improve and sustain the rate of pupil progress
• Strategies to enhance teachers’ skills and share best practice
• How to engage pupils and parents in the learning process
• Ways in which flexibilities in the curriculum might support personalised learning
• How to establish a better system of innovation in teaching and learning in schools

From a technological view –and on a first reading– the report seems a little conservative in its approach to the role of technology. Whilst crystal-ball gazing is always a dangerous thing to do, I would have liked to have seen more of an understanding or recognition of the profound ways in which networked technologies are effecting the world which our children are shaping for themselves. Not to mention the new forms of media and the changes in the relationship between service consumers and suppliers (including the State).