"Let their voice be heard" learner led change in services for schools

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"Let their voice be heard" - learner led change
in services for schools

• Doug Dickinson
• Educational ICT consultant (UK)

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From BETT 2007

• The alarming difference in the ICT experience
  available to young people in and out of schools
  was highlighted at the BETT 2007 educational
  technology show by Annika Small, chief executive
  of ICT research hothouse Futurelab.
• While she welcomed the internet's move to
  "talkies" (multimedia and broadband) and the
  growth of online "community and collaboration on
  a scale never seen before", she warned "2006 was
  particularly significant is that the disconnect
  between young peoples lives outside school and
  their educational experiences grew and quite
  dramatically in some quarters".

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Schools out

• The current generation of decision-makers
  from politicians to teachers see the world from
  a very different perspective to the generation of
  young people who do not remember life without the
  instant answers of the internet or the immediate
  communication of mobile phones.

Demos Their Space Education for a digital
generation
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• It is these decision-makers who shape the way
  that digital technologies are used in the system
  and who set them up to limit their use and role
  in everyday life.

Demos Their Space Education for a digital
generation
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Demos report

• The report points out the difference in young
  peoples' experiences of web 2.0 versus what they
  get in school. ... "plus ca change, plus c'est la
  meme chose" ...

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• Two key change agents are emerging rapidly
• The sense that traditional structures which
  define where and how learning takes place are no
  longer sufficient
• timetables lessons classrooms
• Redefining the New Basics for education
• And we need to ask, How will these influence the
  direction of the ICT Strategy?

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Is this as it should be?

• Instead of starting from the physical, you need
  to start with the program you know you need to
  have. Then you can see how your existing
  structure wont let you do that. And then you do
  work to make physical changes

Dr Betty Despenza-Green, Director, National High
School Initiative
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Moral Panic .V. Technological determination

• Web 1.0 Web 2.0
• Ownership
• The democratization of learning where time, place
  and access is determined by the crowd

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UK University

• Infrastucture
• Evolved
• Elastoplast
• Fit for purpose
• When
• Clients
• RSS

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Web 2.0 3.0 and beyond

• Not just
• Google
• Skype
• Youtube
• blogger
• pbwiki
• del.icio.us
• diigo
• flickr
• myspace
• Breeze
• http//momb.socio-kybernetics.net/section/list

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Filter buster

• Students already have numerous ways of bypassing
  the systems we have created for them
• http//www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/filterb
  ust/

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Clients/Students?

• The student voice is beginning to see that they
  have the power
• (technology has begun to give them that) to make
  dramatic changes in the way that they learn
• If the institutional infrastructure provided does
  not recognise this, the chances are, it will be
  bypassed

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Exploiting and Protecting the Network

• 'Exploiting and Protecting the Network Best
  Practice Guide' is published by UCISA
  (Universities and Colleges Information Systems
  Association). Now in its third edition, this
  takes into account the further growth in network
  use since the last version, changes in
  legislation, and changes in the allowable uses of
  the JANET and regional networks. It aims to help
  institutions to protect themselves against
  dangers whilst making full and appropriate use of
  their network.
• You can download the guidance from UCISA.

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• To what extent has the potential wide diversity
  of users of the learning space been identified?
  How fully are the different users and
  stakeholders in the proposed learning space
  involved in shaping and informing the design
  process? How far are they able to set as well as
  respond to design directions?

Tim Rudd, Carolyn Gifford, Jo Morrison, Keri
Facer, What if - Re-imagining Learning Spaces,
(London, Futurelab 2006)
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• To what extent does the design of new learning
  spaces take account of how learners are already
  using digital technologies for learning and life?
  To what extent do designs for future schools
  allow for the creation of flexible, distributed
  and connected learning communities?

Tim Rudd, Carolyn Gifford, Jo Morrison, Keri
Facer, What if - Re-imagining Learning Spaces,
(London, Futurelab 2006)
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English Schools Federation,Hong Kong
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The world is on the move we must move too, or
be left behind

• The we here is the institution
• We will be left behind by a next generation of
  open thinkers who recognise the technology for
  what it is a gateway
• So who should be the gate-keepers ?

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Perhaps We need to start by asking

• what if things could be very, very different
  ?

Tim Rudd, Carolyn Gifford, Jo Morrison, Keri
Facer, What if - Re-imagining Learning Spaces,
(London, Futurelab 2006)
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References

• Hannah Green Celia Hannon, Their Space,
  Education for a digital age ( London, Demos
  2007).
• Demos http//www.demos.co.uk/
• Tim Rudd, Fiona Colligan, Rajay Naik, Learner
  voice ( London, Futurelab 2006)
• Despenza-Green, B. Director, National High School
  Initiative at the Small Schools Workshop based at
  the University of Illinois at Chicago, quoted in
  Innovative School Design for Small Learning
  Communities. www.essentialschools.org/cs/resource
  s/view/ces_res/208
• Tim Rudd, Carolyn Gifford, Jo Morrison, Keri
  Facer, What if - Re-imagining Learning Spaces,
  (London, Futurelab 2006)
• Building Schools for the Future,
  http//www.bsf.gov.uk/
• Ucisa, Exploiting and protecting the network
  Edition 3 , (Oxford 2006)
• http//www.ucisa.ac.uk/resources/bestpractice/exp
  loiting_network/agree/ExploitingtheNetworkGuide.pd
  f
• James Surowiecki , The Wisdom of Crowds, (London,
  Anchor, 2005)
• Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, ( London,
  Abacus, 2000)
• Thomas L. Friedman , The World is Flat, (London,
  Penguin, 2006)
• Malcolm Gladwell, Blink, (London, Penguin, 2005)

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Contact me

• doug_at_dougdickinson.co.uk

Or add to my blog or wiki at www.dougdickinson.c
o.uk