The Future of Schools

I have spoken recently at a couple of events about rapid development and social networks for learning, and the model that I put forward in 2006 (below) still seems to me to be holding up pretty well.



There have been times where I wondered if 'Rapid Development' is a real thing at all or whether the whole picture will, in time, be swallowed up by Social Learning technologies. I think not. In fact, I think that the internet is missing 'learning' as a class of content. Let me explain: if you are an educator who wants to put some of their content online then you have a number of options: you can share a document (on Google Docs) or a PowerPoint on Slideshare. You can film a classroom session, or a piece to camera and upload it to YouTube. What you can't do is combine different media and interactions into a single experience. And this is a legitimate thing to want to do. You might, for example, want to test people's knowledge by putting them in a simulated situation - a simple scenario perhaps - then send them down a certain experiential route depending on how they perform. This route might involve the kind of exploratory learning that has made CeeBeebies so popular or the kind of video content that has made TED or 50lessons so highly regarded. Some of you out there will be thinking that it is possible to cobble this kind of thing together using different technologies - and it is - but only if you are a wizard. A simple-to-use, free tool that allows people to create learning content is yet to be built; and the web is currently missing a significant class of media.

This was brought into sharp focus for me when thinking about the public education system. Whilst I started out as a lecturer in an FE college, most of my career has been spent building online solutions for large commercial organisations. But there are times when the roles overlap - as, for example, recently when questions were raised over the BBC's public purpose in relation to the Strategy Review, specifically on the topic of its external learning sites.

It does seem to me that, in contrast to commercial organisations, public sector education is going nowhere fast. Whatever happened to the 'National Grid for Learning?'. Today there is merely a debate about who should be providing online content to support development in this area, and questions regarding whether or not the BBC should be involved (in the way that BBC Jam attempted a while ago) or whether it should be left to the private sector.

The answer seems obvious: neither. Teachers and students should be the ones creating content. They will need some encouragement and a proper review of responsibilities, but mainly they just need the tools and the space: web-based software that will allow them to create learning content that it fit for purpose and a place where this content can be shared and rated. It's staggering just how much improvement this could bring about: years ago I used to judge student projects at a school in Wellingborough. You simply would not believe the effort and creative brilliance that went into some of these pieces of work. Where are they now?

Allowing students and teachers to share what they are doing online is I think the equivalent of what Professor Stephen Heppell has done in making teaching environments open-plan. Everybody can see what every body else is doing - and everyone improves as a result.

As organisations (BBC, BT, Microsoft, Google) we are waking up to the potential that can be realised by allowing employees to share their expertise, rather than trying to centralise things unduly. This is an approach that makes sense in a world that changes rapidly. The problem is that our staff have come from environments where they weren't encouraged to contribute, or see the learning experience as a collaborative endeavor. We have to change this, and it is clear how it can be changed.