14-19: Transitions, technology and learning
20-21 April 2005
The Showroom and Workstation, Sheffield
Ben Williamson, Futurelab
The period of young people's development from the age of 14 to 19 years is amongst the most politically charged on the current educational agenda. The latest Futurelab conference, 14-19: Transitions, Technology and Learning, held at the Showroom and Workstation in Sheffield on 20-21 April, aimed to identify the learning needs and aspirations amongst this diverse group, and to share best practice in the design of digital technologies for use in a range of formal and informal educational settings.
In an opening introduction, Futurelab's Managing Director Annika Small urged all delegates to consider what a future educational system might look like for 14-19 year-olds, how it might equip them for the 21st century, and what tools they might need to equip them in it. She warned that while many young people already make use of 21st century media, too many of them suffer a lack of motivation in the educational system, feeling that their life choices have already been made. Digital technologies for 14-19 education, she claimed, should increasingly foster young people's ownership over their own learning, instead of promoting the acquisition of pre-determined information. This could mean forging stronger links between the school, the home, and the community, and questioning what is assessed and why. "Assessment should be learning driven," she suggested, "instead of learning being assessment driven."
Geoff Hayward and Chris Davies from the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Oxford followed this introduction with the launch of their 14-19 literature review, which was commissioned by Futurelab. As Director of the Nuffield 14-19 review, Hayward argued that Tomlinson didn't go far enough. The current 14-19 recommendations from the Government, he said, are aimed at lowering the numbers of young people entering the labour market without formal qualifications, and increasing post-16 participation in education, rather than addressing the distinct learning needs of young people. The UK, he said, has higher rates of 16-17 year-olds in the labour market than any other OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) country.
Hayward and Davies also outlined some of the problems associated with using digital technology with 14-19 year-olds, pointing out that using technology can help to raise young people's motivations and self-esteem, but that they are often not engaging in any deep way with the material being studied. What is needed, they argued, are technologies, resources and tools that can support young people's 'learning careers'. Such careers will promote the development of dispositions to learning across contexts and time, with embedded technologies used to foster the development of deep conceptual understanding and the skills required to learn in the 21st century.
Claus Due of Electronic Arts delivered the second keynote presentation on 'The Gaming Generation', and outlined how the videogames industry has boomed into the mass market over the last decade. Using the example of The Sims, the world's best-selling game, Claus illustrated how game developers are currently aiming to diversify their titles to attract more female players and older players than the traditional young male core group.
Keynote three was from Professor Gill Valentine of the University of Leeds, who presented findings from recent work with over 100 schoolchildren from Years 2, 6, 9 and 11, which aimed to identify whether access to and use of ICT at home affects school attainment. The results revealed that while access to ICT at home correlates with better attainment in specific subjects at school - maths at Years 6 and 9, and English in Year 11 being two notable examples - what is more important is how ICT is used at home, not just whether access to it is available. In the study Professor Valentine found that girls, for example, were more likely to use ICT at home for schoolwork than boys. She also found that in subjects where ICT was used a lot during schooltime, children were more likely to use ICT at home to study for that subject too.
Throughout the conference, a number of parallel strands were dedicated to providing a forum for researchers and developers to present recent work aimed at addressing 14-19 education. These ranged from school-based initiatives, to those exploring the needs and aspirations of young people outside of school.
Mark Smith from the University of Strathclyde presented an alternative view of informal education, specifying it not in relation to auto-didaxy or self-teaching, nor as extra-curricular activity, but instead as 'curricular extension'. Smith is one of the founders of InFed, the informal education website that provides an enormous resource base for educators, and demonstrated how teachers and researchers can become more involved in developing informal learning strategies.
The Director of the Nisai-Iris Partnership, David Teece, described the recent establishment of the Nisai Virtual Academy, which aims to support access to education for children out of school by providing lessons through an interactive web portal. Following this, Josh Dhaliwal, the Director of mobileYouth, discussed findings from a survey of young people's use of mobile technologies outside of school, suggesting that these may have radical implications for how young people gain access to learning materials.
Other presentations addressing the implications of forms of informal education included two videogames-based discussions. Dave Squire from DESQ and Karl Royle from the University of Wolverhampton demonstrated Doom-Ed, a sci-fi shooting game that requires players to solve science-based problems and puzzles. Jon Weinbren from Imaginary Productions also demonstrated Snapshot, which is being developed with Futurelab. Snapshot is a non-violent game in which players take on the responsibilities of a young photojournalist exploring and reporting on a range of contemporary issues, from street crime to local elections.
In a discussion of UK education in an international context, Professor Ken Roberts from Liverpool University argued that the UK education system for 14-19 year-olds is currently shifting increasingly close to the US system, rather than homogenising with Europe, and suggested that we may be in danger of accentuating or importing a number of American problems. Later in the conference, two teenage students from the English Secondary Students' Association (ESSA), Kim Edwards and Gemma Lowe, discussed the problem of educational change from the grassroots level. Identifying how democracy for students is absent from most schools, they argued that schools should provide support for students' views to be heard, and called for a shift in attitude and co-operation from teachers and school leaders to take account of young people's very real needs and aspirations.
Two presentations then addressed how schools might work better with students to plan out and help evaluate their progress as learners. Rob Ward, the Director of the Centre for Recording Achievement, argued that we need to carefully reconsider the role of e-portfolios and Individual Learning Plans (ILPs), warning that these have in the past been abused. Particularly in the case of some ILPs, he said, these have sometimes been used as an instrument to allow parents to 'check up' on their children without asking, and often do not support young people through their choice of educational options. Nick Glossop, the Educational Director of S-cool Limited, demonstrated the Plan-It ILP initiative that has been piloted in South Bristol. Glossop describes the initiative as providing students with 'A Plan for Life', supporting them to achieve learning, personal and working goals.
Young people's personal goals and interests also underpinned the presentation by Keith Falconer of Scottish Enterprise and Sarah Young from the Urban Learning Space in Glasgow. As part of SE Glasgow's Learning City Team, they have been developing approaches to using popular culture and young people's personal interests to raise motivation. Rick Hall from NESTA followed Keith and Sarah with a presentation on NESTA's Ignite! programme, which promotes young people's creativity and innovativeness. To date, over 1,000 children have been involved in Ignite!'s programme of creativity workshops, residential labs, and fellowships.
During Day 2 of the conference, all delegates were also invited to join creative workshop groups, with the aim being to draft ideas and designs for new learning resources for 14-19 year-olds. Some of the ideas included a 'self-determined assessment engine' aimed at enabling young people to set and assess their own targets and goals; a 'post-apocalyptic virtual community' for young people to imagine the creation of new societies; an educational website proposal called 'vocationstation.com'; a 'mobile collaborative learning space' utilising PDAs; and a collaborative online design community called 'OKaos'.
The 14-19 conference demonstrated the commitment of many diverse groups and organisations to developing and improving the provision of learning resources and opportunities for teenagers. Some of the key messages that emerged were the importance of forging better links across formal and informal learning environments, the need for assessment that meets young people's personal aspirations and needs, and the centrality of creativity and collaboration to the entire process of learning. As we are now beginning to settle into the 21st century, the conference demonstrated that at last we are beginning to be able to offer young people the opportunities they need to be equipped for it.
