With this having been my second time at a ‘Future of Technology in Education‘ event I was much more prepared and so I didn’t attend FOTE10 (last Friday) expecting to come away with answers about the future! What I did come away with though are a number of ideas to investigate further and several questions to ponder…

Is it an exciting or a scary future?

Ray Fleming from Microsoft talked about a future vision where technology was everywhere and used for eveything. James Alliban from Skive talked about augmented reality and the directions it could take. James Clay suggested iPads could be the catalyst for changing books and reading quite radically (more than ebooks or ebook readers). This is potentially a very exciting future if technology engages you but a scary one if it doesn’t :-S

Does everything have to be enhanced?

Jeremy Speller from UCL challenged the idea of mobile learning, suggesting that mobile devices were just replacing existing ways of doing stuff not enhancing the learning experience. Hugh Griffiths from oMbiel asked how we could provide learners with the mobile (learning) experience theyexpect; according to research they have done, at the moment learners just want to use mobile technology to change the way stuff is presented to them, like timetables, campus maps and library information. Does all technology have to enhance everything, isn’t it ok to use it just to make a learner’s life easier?

Are we redefining the role of the teacher?

Ollie Bray (Learning and Teaching, Scotland) suggested that teachers are architects of learning, which I interpreted as teachers carefully constructing the environment in which learning can happen, making available all of the essential bits but leaving room for the learner to make it their own. He talked specifically about using commercial games to engage learners and enable learning, with the teacher structuring the experience and guiding the learners through. Ollie also asked whether it really mattered if children aren’t always aware of exactly what they are learning  … they think they are just having fun while playing a game, whereas the teacher has actually structured the learning experience so that they are, for example, collecting data for later analysis, collaborating to solve a problem or even motivating themselves to persevere and improve their own performance. If we learn (in a structured way) and enjoy it, does it matter how it happens?

Enthusiasm for technology is good BUT are we all really as digitally literate as we should be?

Miles Metcalfe (consultant) pointed out to us all that although using geolocation technology in education can be a very positive experience, we should remember that for many organisations we are ‘the product’, with the data we generate and share being used by these commercial organisations for their own benefit. Whilst being optimistic and creative about the use of technology to support teaching and learning, we all need to be aware of this bigger picture so that we can at least make informed choices and particularly so that this can be passed on to others, especially the learners. Are we all really as digitally literate as we should be?

Open source is about more than ‘free’ and is this what we want for education?

Miles Berry from Roehampton University extolled the benefits of open source and suggested that the characteristics of open source are, in fact, what we might want our education system to be like; that is:

• a collaborative experience
• community based
• modular approach
• tinkering enabled (bricolage)
• innovative culture
• money saving

Does this describe our education system today … and if it doesn’t do we want it to be like this?

Engaging teachers who don’t want to be engaged – is there an answer?

Matt Lingard from LSE asked us why teachers, despite having access to more technology than ever today and expertise and support to help them use it, still don’t choose to use technology to support teaching and learning. The quick poll he conducted suggested ‘fear’ and ‘lack of confidence’ as just two of the reasons but there were more. This is the real challenge isn’t it, finding the answer to why all teachers don’t engage with technology, in order that we can all move forward together?

I think that the main message that I took away fom FOTE10 was that it really isn’t about us and what we know or used to do or want to do, it’s about what the future could possibly be and attempting to prepare the young people today for this future. However, we can’t really predict the future (of anything, never mind technology in education) but it is certainly an interesting experience considering the possibilities!

As I said at the beginning of this post, this is the second FOTE event I have attended and although I got lots out of the first event I don’t think I was as prepared as I could have been, so in case anyone reading is planning on attending FOTE11 here are my tips for getting the most out of the event:

• Go with an open mind
• Be prepared to listen
• Take the chance to reflect and reconsider
• Accept that you won’t come away with answers, just possibilities.

(If you would like this blog post as an audio file please click this link or right click the link and choose to save the mp3 file. Please note: the audio file was created quite simply by pasting the text into Balabolka (one of the tools available as part of My Study Bar/EduApps) and saving as an mp3 audio file).

I am lucky enough to have had an iPad (a personal one, not a work one) from the beginning and have been using it at home (instead of my home laptop and often instead of my phone), very occasionally for work (I would use it more because of the mobile nature of my job if it was a work device) but also a lot as a learner (Open University, H800 Technology-enhanced-learning: practices and debates). I have resisted blogging about the iPad for a few weeks because I wanted to give myself time to see how I would use it for real  in all of these circumstances, rather than cooing over its loveliness (imo) and then working out what apps were available and how other people might use it. Anyway, here are my thoughts so far (starting with the ‘why nots’) about the iPad:

Why not?

• It’s expensive … especially when you already have tools that do the jobs you need them to.
• Editing online can be difficult / doesn’t happen … which I needed to be able to do via Moodle and GoogleDocs for my Open Uni course.
• It doesn’t play Flash video … which has actually only been annoying when I wanted to watch something on the BBC website.

Why iPad?

• It’s very portable … and less conspicuous than a laptop or netbook when you are using it on the move, for example on a plane or in a coffee shop. I have also literally used it ‘on the move’, taking notes as I walked about a potential venue; I couldn’t have done that with my laptop and it would have been awkward with my phone.
• It has a great battery life … plus the charger is very compact and light to carry too.
• Everything looks great on the screen  … better than a mobile, as good as/better than a netbook.
• More and more apps and support materials are being developed daily …  TeachWithYouriPad is a wiki set up to support teachers, iPads in Education is another such website; iPads are a regular blog  feature of  Gloucester College’s James Clay at the moment too and I’m looking forward to mTouch and  mBook, two Moodle apps that are being developed.
• It is another great tool for supporting mobile learning: accessing online course materials, forums and blog posts (via Moodle for me); carrying and accessing offline course materials (GoodReader app for me); making digital notes (the standard basic notepad is great for simple notes); having online access to all files (Dropbox) and bookmarks (Delicious); staying in touch via Twitter, Facebook and Skype;  listening to course related podcasts and watching videos downloaded via iTunesU or on YouTube.

I am more than happy to say that the iPad isn’t perfect and that (as a learner) there are a few things it doesn’t do well. I also agree with the argument that a laptop or a phone or a mix of both would do the job too. However, having started my working life as a new product development technologist, who was constantly looking for the ‘next thing’, I don’t think that having something that does the job OK already is a good enough reason not to innovate and be creative and think differently. Just because something might not seem to have a place at this moment in time, it doesn’t mean it won’t in the future … how many used to think there was no need for computers in the home, or that mobile phones (and text messaging) would be something for a few? I am not saying that I think everyone will have iPads (or their equivalent) in the future, I just think that when we are talking about personal technology (which I think this is) it is good to remember that it isn’t what the tool can do that is important, it is what the tool can do for you.

(If you would like this blog post as an audio file please click this link or right click the link and choose to save the mp3 file. Please note: the audio file was created quite simply by pasting the text into Balabolka (one of the tools available as part of My Study Bar/EduApps) and saving as an mp3 audio file).