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.

BBC Learning Design Toolkit

You can find links to the BBC learning design toolkit and booklet below:

Learning Design Introductory Booklet


Learning Design Toolkit Cards




Towards the end of 2008 we began to realise that whilst learning was changing all around us, ways of thinking and behaving were not. For sure people were starting to talk about ‘learning 2.0’, ‘social networks’, ‘generation Y’ but there is always a danger with learning design that we build around our own preconceptions and practices rather than around the needs of our audiences – that is, we fail to make our designs truly learner-centered.

Mindful of some big projects on the horizon, we decided that we should look again at learning – considering it afresh - and as an experience rather than a set of conventions. We didn’t want merely to survey our learners (‘what do you like about training?’, ‘what don’t you like about training?’) because we were acutely aware that the vast majority of learning happens outside of the ‘training/learning’ social construct, and that people are probably learnng differently in a web 2.0 world. To put it another way: if you ask people about their experience of learning or training you get a very narrow range of responses around the formal experience. We wanted instead to get a picture of the experiences and behaviours that had made a difference to people – to their careers, to their sense of self, to the way that the do their job. These, after all, are what make a difference to business performance.

We worked with a service design company (Engine) on two pieces of work:
1) research that would enable us to understand more clearly the ways in which our staff were developing and how their natural patterns of development were changing
2)A learning-centered design framework, based on this research, which would help to guide the learning design process in future.
The project was led by experience designers Shane Samarawikrema and Rachel Simnett, who between them already possessed many years’ worth of experience in innovative, user-centred learning design.

The research method was unconventional: we wanted insights into the lives of our learners; the things that had affected them most deeply, and into the resources and techniques that they use informally – strategies which are integrated into their everyday lives. We handpicked our research participants from a long list of high-calibre individuals across a range of roles. We didn’t want large numbers – instead we wanted to choose people who would be representative of best practice.

The research used a number of in-depth techniques: interviews with experts, one, two and three week diaries. The diaries themselves used a variety of structured prompts, requiring each participant to document their experiences and reflect on their learning using a range of approaches and perspectives. We then spent several weeks reviewing and analysing this material (using a POINTS analysis system), looking at emerging themes, and segmenting these by ‘tribe’. The sheer volume of insightful refection and telling comments was staggering.

Based on our findings we began the construction of the Learning Design Toolkit – an iterative process involving a range of people over a period of some months. The end result is something which incorporates some familiar elements of thinking about learning, with some new approaches in a conceptual toolkit intended to guide the work of anyone involved in learning design and deployment. Whilst some elements of the work may be specific to the BBC, we hope that there are many elements which are useful – or at least of interest – to anyone involved in learning.


The toolkit incorporates ideas that you will find familiar and some that you may not. At its heart is a theory of learning that suggests that all data is stored according to complex contextual cues which are predominantly emotional in nature – without these emotional ‘markers’ information merely passes through our system. Learning is a bit like the cognitive equivalent of those hooked seeds that get caught in your clothing – or like a virus. Sometimes we attach our own markers – as when something is important to us. This is pull learning. Other times an inspiring person in our lives will make something stick.

The design wheel then reflects those elements that we have found to be important – for example in building learners’ confidence it is important to equip them with the skills they need, make the learning relevant to their lives, and nurture their belief in themselves.

Once learners have this foundation, it is important to connect them to a world of resources and peers, allowing room for experimentation (whether in the classroom or online) and inspiration. Encourage them to stumble upon things that move them.

I don’t believe that these things are specific to the BBC, indeed a key finding was that our organisation subsumes a great many cultures – or ‘tribes’ Some of our tribes only like learning from an experienced authority, for example, and some tribes are happy to learn from anyone, anywhere so long as their work is ‘cool’.

We hope that you will find this work interesting, Shane and I would welcome your feedback.