20 March 2008
RIBA, London

Futurelab held a Research Discussion Day to debate the future direction of education with others from the research, policy, practice and technology communities. The day featured a mix of our current research findings as well as the latest thinking from the wider worlds of education and industry, and focused on three themes:

• Teachers and Innovations - supporting innovative educational practices
• Learning Spaces – thinking beyond the classroom
• Digital Inclusion – promoting educational equality using digital technologies.

In addition to presentations from speakers including Matt Bell (Director of Campaigns and Education at CABE), Professor Michael Fielding (Institute of Education), and Roz Hall (a freelance researcher with expertise in evaluating digital inclusion projects), sessions covered recent Futurelab research including Enquiring Minds (a new approach to teaching and learning for which a guide for implementation is now available), ground-breaking resources and projects to support the creation of transformed learning spaces, and a preview of a new handbook, 'Designing Educational Technology for Social Justice'.

There was also space to discuss longer-term challenges for education, looking towards understanding potential transformations in society and technology 2025 and beyond. As part of the DCSF/Futurelab 'Beyond Current Horizons' project, we discussed questions such as 'how might digital technologies help us to tackle big demographic changes?' or 'what might be the implications of smart drugs for education?'

Background information for the event can be found here:

Digital Inclusion
Teachers and Innovations
Learning Spaces
www.enquiringminds.org.uk
www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk

Copies of presentations are available to download - click on the 'presentations' tab above for further details.