You will be pleased to know that the structure and content I am planning with the team for next year will meet many of your points. As Terry has said in the Newsletter, the focus is on the future,hence the working title of 20:20 Vision (as in the year 2020). There will be a wider European element and industry speakers together with, if they will oblige, a “Question Time” for education spokespersons from all main political parties - being in London will help here of course. The draft programme will be published via the Newsletter as soon as it becomes available, giving memebers a chance to comment before it is finalised.

Paul

http://www.ogame.org

but be careful as it is highly addictive!

The game is interesting enough but then consider the forums that support it. In here you have diplomacy forums where the various alliances meet, talk, discuss, learn and then promptly declare war on each other As well as users using teamspeak, msn and other forums in which to plan strategy and tactics.

This is collaboration on a massive scale. Note the fact that some of alliances are based in countries (eg the top alliance is made up of Polish only players), continents, gaming clans and some are institutions eg work places, colleges and some schools.

This session gets my vote as the most interesting of the conference.

While we are on the subject of gaming I would like to see more investigation into gaming communities in general. At any given moment there are millions of people plugged into Teamspeak or similar voice applications sharing information and experiences and although it may have been gaming that brought these people together what often forms are close nit self support communities which cover a wide variety of experience and interest. Unfortunately, most of these gaming communities are over 18 only. Children actually face quite a bit of prejudice in such communities often due to adult paranoia about being associated with them.

John Clare in my opinion was a most crafted speaker.

In demonstrating his craft, in the way he delivered his speech, he made, I feel, a very powerful and relevant point.

I would agree that he may be somewhat old fashioned in his view of education, indeed what education now needs to offer young learners whilst in the care of schools. I think Neil Mclean helped everyone to feel better by putting that into context, attaching added value to ICT, very well the next day.

However, when John Clare was asked a relevant question, John Clare gave relevant answers. I do not think he avoided debate. I was surprised at the level of instant empathy from the audience who spoke up and agreed with many of the arguments presented following his speech.

Why was this?

Perhaps, there does need to be a nudge, a sense check to the application of technologies that may well be “junk food”, where they reduce authenticity, where they are really invented for screens, big or small rather than for sound pedagogy, educational value or to develop emotional intelligence.

Where technology adds the real, research, reach out, value and where it doesn’t, would also seem very clear from the presentation by Neil Mclean.

What worries me is that I agree with the concerns John Clare mentioned, that innapropriate uses will “dumb down our childrens education”. It could avoid the need to develop competencies, crafts, such as those beautifully displayed by John Clare. I believe these are still essential to empower young people to fulfill their potential in life.

I think the “junk food” for learning has been invented for privacy within a screen based comfort zone and not for sound educational purpose. It makes a nonsense of how we use our range of senses, the input output devices, given to us at birth. At the same time we are setting up the teachers, the people - people bit, to feel increasingly inadequate if thay cannot use, tablet pcs, interactive whiteboards, games, graphics and compete by hopping around like a tap dancing tweeny.

So does education want screens to, offer less and less authenticity, not much use for anything but our eyes, a reducing need to communicate on a personal level, undermine the value and role of a teacher.

Do screens help or hinder the development of confidence, competencies and crafts required for life and secure Gordon Browns investment in the economy of the future?

Andy Preston

Here at last was someone who was prepared to question some of the ‘givens’ of English education that turn out not to be cast in concrete after all.

I’m so sick of hearing Heads complain that their budget is too constrained to allow then to do X or Y when Chris showed that he can go for 1:1 computer ratios from his core funding - but only if he questions radically all the holy cows that others won’t look at.

This should be compulsory fare for all involved in BSF.