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1. Brian Lammas, Stourbridge 22 Jun 2007 at 08:07

   As a teacher of digital arts 'Mediaonics' I am very frustrated with the educational heirarchy who preach innovation and ask for risk takers to look into the future with regards to the use and imapact of new technologies on classroom practice. When one makes a real effort to break new ground your find youself tied into a system of bureaucracy that cannot impliment change in less than 5 year timescales. Also the colleges of further and higher education need to get off their high horses and realise that students of a much younger age are getting to grips with high level technologies and conceptual thinking. The gap between secondary education and higher education in this field is extremely wide and getting wider. The links now between micro technolgies and arts/music technologies are also undermined in the system due to the closed shop of my department./ your department mentality. There are no deparemental borders when it comes to real collaborative learning. Reading other comments about the future of educational practice I agree with the notion of blasting many old theories out of the window and looking for that brave new world. I fear however, that we can talk and discuuss all we want but the real brokers of change only look to their own agendas, power houses and profit and gain. Until things take off from the ground up little of any significance we reall y happen in the classroom. And yes We will become the Cinderella,s of the revolution.

2. Andy Polaine, Germany 12 Jun 2007 at 17:09

   Thanks for an intriguing paper, as always. I'm interested that one of the parts you didn't really include (but which I know you all know about) is the level of social and collaborative input into these technologies. In the scenarios you describe, they still seem fairly top-down imposed. It's likely that school-age children are, of course, going to continue to have these kinds of things imposed upon them by adults - parents, governments, teachers, etc. - but I think the aspects of collaboration, collaborative education, sharing and tagging of data, etc. are equally enormous for education. Perhaps more so than the technology that enables this.

   Culturally, within education, we are used to the idea of the individual and that individual's performance. Perhaps the biggest shift over the past few years has been one that values small individual contributions to a greater purpose (open-source, social networks, sustainability, etc.). Can we have an open-community, an educational Flickr or Digg, and still impose a hierarchy? Wikipedia is a model of that kind of hybrid. It's thinking about what social changes that technology creates, rather than the technology in itself, that worries me most - educational institutions need to let go of about 200 years worth of practice. I think we might, in the end, see something much more like the Ancient Greek dialogues in the end, ironically.

3. Andrew Churches, New Zealand 16 Sep 2007 at 03:45

   One of the predictions that I disagreed with is in the areas of computing infrastructure, though my opposition to the notion is based on geography rather than technology. The concept is the ubiquitous nature of computing that they see in 13 years time. Their vision refers to wireless universal personal computing, the continuous flow and access to personal high bandwidth data whether at home, while travelling, at friends houses and, of course, at work. Conceptually, I accept that in countries like the UK with a high population base and density, this level of computing and connection is possible, but for countries like New Zealand with a lower population density and wider geographical dispersal, I suspect that like the provision of broadband internet, we would be well behind in this aspect.

   One element of the report that really struck a chord with me was this....

   Educational computing is based on the hand me downs from business, defence and leisure sectors. We have repurposed the tools to suit ourselves and in many cases the use of computers and information technology in schools is designed to meet the needs of employment rather than to enhance education. How many of the schools we work in provide computing courses to prepare their graduates for employment. Most. Is this a bad thing? No, but what about focusing on information technology for enhancing education.

   Increasingly, schools are "integrating" the use of ICT into the classroom as a medium for education. But, how many pieces of software or virtual environments are developed just for schools? How many companies would invest the same amount in their educational solutions as they would in their business solutions? Does Microsoft? What about Apple? Is Sun shining in this regard?

   The paper sets a challenge about education engaging in developing practices, approaches media and mediums to meet this future, rather than us having it set for us which in many cases is the current mode of ICT adoption.

   Are governments investing in the development of educational systems to support the needs and nature of 2020? Its only 13 years away!

   See my blog entry: www.bloglines.com/blog/andrewch