Is this a "Foundation for Excellence"?

"Digital learning can customise and personalise education so that all students can learn in their own style and pace, which maximises their chances of success at school and beyond ...." So says the report "Digital learning Now" from the Foundation for Excellence in Education.

The report lists 10 elements of high quality digital learning. Those of you who follow the push for educational reform won't likely find much new here. But what you will find is a list of a few key policy directions that stand a chance of delivering on the promise that technology has for education. Let me give you an example or two ... then you can digest the report yourself ... luckily it is one of those reports that is only a few pages long and doesn't waste time on putting in irrelevant stuff ...

Point 2: All students have access to high quality digital content and online courses.
Policy directions:

• do not restrict access to courses or content using class numbers, budget or enrolment caps or other such traditional measures ... just make them available
• do not restrict access due to geography
• do require school diplomas to have at least some online course completion requirement

Point 3: All students can personalise their own learning using digital content from approved providers
Policy directions:

• allow students to take online courses full time, part time or by individual class
• allow students to enroll in multiple courses from multiple providers
• allow enrollment all year round
• no limit to number of credits take

Each of the 10 elements has a similar "simple" look - a brief statement of the element and a few policy directions.

I wonder how this might play out in our environment? I have made several suggestions in the past in varying formats that I believe it is inevitable that the nature of learning in schools must change - and I liken it to Chris Anderson's view of Long Tail Economics - I just can't see education in its current form for some students being valid for too much longer. There will likely be a need for bricks and mortar for some - but for others, why? Why when there are better options?

Anyway, read the report, and keep the discussions going - and try and implement a little of the directions every day in your schools.

K-12 Online Conference 2009 Keynote

This online conference kicks off today with a keynote by Kim Coffino. Kim currently teaches at International School Bangkok and has been on the international school circuit for around 8 or 9 years. Her keynote Culture Shock, Convergence and the Future of Education is a 39 minute scene setter. I've only listened to the first 14 minutes so far - the section on Culture Shock. But Kim has made a few points that I'd like to comment on.

Firstly, she makes the now well made connect that many of us (western teachers) live and breathe what we know. Our view of the world is heavily influenced by what I refer to as our own KER (knowledge, expertise and reputation). She points out that her eyes have been widened to the richness in other cultures only through the contact that her travels have permitted. (So I can see the connection coming that I'm sure she will make between the power of technology to connect students globally and the growing desire to make these connections by both students an teachers.)

Once Kim gets past the introduction she hits on a number of the issues - those of mobility, customisation, 24/7 always on, tradition and new co-existing, just in time delivery, flexibility, collaboration, adaptability. She uses the backdrop of everyday life in Asia to good effect to make her points. The metaphor of everyday life and how education should be part of this and not stand apart from it.

At one stage she alludes to iTuneU and other online course availability to allow students (and teachers) to develop personal learning networks. I've often referred over recent years to the "long tail" economics approach to K12 education - I firmly believe that Chris Anderson's concepts of long tail economics can and will apply to K12 education - and quite likely in the realm of private education first. (Memo to self - finish listening to Chris's book "Free" - there is a powerful message for education in the first message that Chris delivers about the Monty Python experience of "free" with their Youtube channel!)

OK - lots more to pick up I suspect in the rest of Kim's presentation. But for now - off to class!

The Long Long Tail of Education

I was lucky enough a couple of years ago to hear Chris Anderson (of WIRED fame) talk about "Long Tail economics" and its application to technology. It was at the Digital Summit 2.0 run by the NZ Government. I remember the talk quite clearly and wrote about the potential application of long tail economics to K-12 education when I returned to work a few days later. It's a thought that has stayed with me since. Just when will "education" become "commoditised"? And what will that mean for the independent school sector? [Note - you can hear Chris talk about the Long Tail and Technology on TED].

Now, in this talk Chris talks of "free" - particulary in reference to band width and fibre optic capacity. As you may know, the capacity of fibre is huge - currently capable of delivering 2500 CDs of data per second, and increasing at a rate of 3 fold every year or so. The FREE notion is the basis for Chris's new book -"Free : The Future of a radical Price". His promo for the book makes some interesting analogies (Gillette, coffee machines, cell phones, video game consoles) of products basically "given away for zero or very little cost, with the benefit to the company coming in downstream consumables. I thought that probably printers would have been a better example for many today - zero cost for the printer and exorbitant cost for the ink/toner. Malcolm Gladwell doesn't agree with all of Mr Anderson's assumptions - in his New York Times review he points to the inability of YouTube to make a profit as a key flaw in Anderson's position. As Gladwell points out, with a potential audience of 75 billion, even 75 billion x a few cents is still a lot of money.

Despite this, its hard to argue too much against Anderson in the educational sphere, and particularly the K-12 space - a space where education, at least in my country, is supposed to be free anyway. MIT have provided vast libraries of free content through their Open Courseware site. The Open Educational Resource movement (eg OER Commons, Wikieducator) are other examples where anyone can access learning material. Couple these types of resources with the myriad of other online sources and the ability to customise learning opportunities for people of any age is just sitting there waiting fore someone to challenge the embedded educational systems in many countries.

As Robinson points out, most societies have a similar system of education, so surely some clever group is going to challenge the status quo? As bandwidth continues to increase, the availability of courseware/content continues to increase and your ability to participate in communities anywhere continues to increase, then putting all of these together seems to make online learning for any age highly likely ...

... Or is the embeddedness of education, broader governmental involvement and the strange way we assess student learning at the senior end of schooling enough to suppress any revolution in this area? Perhaps the custodial reasons for existing school (aka baby sitting while parents work) is still way too strong for this change to happen?

We are awash in a sea of change, and that rate of change is increasing. With so much knowledge and information available on the network, it does seem rather quaint that we still have so many classrooms around the world that exist in a way where the teacher is still seen as the font of all knowledgea