One star and three wishes for Gauteng's 'Big Switch On'

The media and social networks have all been awash with news from Gauteng province where the 'classroom of the future' education technology pilot has kicked off with much hyperbole from the politicos, including Deputy State President, Cyril Ramaphosa and his colleagues in the provincial government. So much so that there was lots of fun to be had today playing 'buzzword bingo' as all the usual suspects such as 'paperless classroom' '21st Century Skills' and even the one the rest of the world has almost stopped using, 'eLearning' (was learning before computers called bLearning?) all regularly making their appearance in the various interviews and news reports.

And whilst any investment in education is of course, to be welcomed, I have to inject a note of caution, even at the risk of being accused of being a party-pooper. For many challenges remain to be overcome and if my years of working in education in many parts of the world have taught me one thing, it is that you never put the cart before the horse if you want to make progress. And in this case the focus has been firmly on the cartload of shiny new technology rather than the tired old horse trying desperately to push it along from behind.

So, as we've got the one 'star' out of the way, what then are my three wishes?

Well, the first would be that the government gets the infrastructure in place before any education technology roll outs. Whilst I'm sure this pilot has unlimited fast internet connectivity with a minimum download speed of at least 2mbs per concurrent user (if it hasn’t then there is trouble ahead), the thing which will make this a scalable project is a similar level of web access nationwide. Until this is so, this will always be simply a pilot. Nothing more. You cannot bring about real lasting transformation in learning and teaching without being able to use technology for reimagining what goes on in a school and fundamentally changing classroom practice. Without this, all you get is substitution, which is what we are seeing today with Gauteng's Big Switch On. if order to move on from substitution towards transformational use, then all the pieces of the jigsaw have to be ready to come into play. Simply using technology to do existing tasks in a better way is not transformational. It is just applying a sticking plaster to an ever more gaping wound. And furthermore, as the technology won't perform to its full potential, a gap of disillusionment starts to open up between expectations and the reality of under-performing and disconnected technology.

The second wish is this; do something about teacher training. One of the long-proven methods of raising achievement in education is by improving the quality of teachers. Initial teacher education is crucial, with subject knowledge and pedagogical skills being vital. Teaching must become at least an honours degree entry profession prior to a post-graduate specialist teaching qualification.  Without this evidence of ability to achieve, the calibre of new entrants to the profession just won't be good enough I'm afraid.  Successful education systems the world over have shown that setting the bar very high, together with continuing professional development over the career of a teacher will have a huge impact on learner performance. While South Africa continues to treat teaching as a low-entry level profession, it has little to no chance of improving education outcomes and stopping the criminal waste to society of the current drop-out and failure rate we see every year from our schools. Lord only knows how damaging to the future economy of our country this ever-growing scrap heap of discarded learners will prove to be. I am currently involved in a programme in the Eastern Cape which is focussing on training before technology, and another project at Cofimvaba schools (also in the Eastern Cape) ICT4RED also has a very strong focus on teacher professional development. Both these projects would be scalable given the right Government support.

And my final wish? Let's have some joined-up considered thinking coming into play. What we are seeing at the moment is attention-grabbing projects which are going to prove unsustainable and nigh on impossible to scale. This latest project in Gauteng is a classic case in point, I fear.  Whilst it is important to look to ourselves for local solutions, this can be a somewhat myopic approach, and we must be outward looking when it comes to education improvement. Let's look at what success looks like around the world and model our intervention improvement strategy on these approaches.  Expert advice and guidance, rather than relying on purely academic research-driven policy, is sorely needed by government to bring an international practice-driven perspective into play.  There have been countless 'pilot projects' around the world so why are we not using the findings and evidence instead of simply replicating what's already been tried and proven to be successful. Just what is it that is stopping joined up decision-making? What are we afraid of exactly? Just look at what Andy Hargreaves, Dennis Shirley, John Hattie, Pasi Sahlberg and others are writing about teacher professional development.

Truth be told, we know what we need to do to fix education in South Africa and it is not by focussing on the technology, as those involved with the Gauteng Project (however well-meaning) appear to be doing, but on learning and teaching. Technology can help transform education, but only in well-connected schools with excellent leadership and well educated and expertly trained professional teachers. There are projects currently underway around the country which are built around such an approach. Scaling these will require the national government to develop its capacity to lead by example and join up all the dots.

Nothing less is good enough for our learners.

Creativity Rules.... with Book Creator

One of the best apps for education that you can download onto iPads has got to be the fabulous Book Creator. It really gets the creativity flowing and is a big hit at all of the iPad training sessions I run.  This app gets better and better and is always the most popular one we work with in hands-on sessions with workshop delegates.

Book creator has helped the iPad to rule the roost up until quite recently for education use, but as ever with education technology, the ground is shifting and big changes are coming where tablet market share is concerned. And the apps will help in driving this change. Book Creator has also been available on Android devices for some time now as well. Check out the Google playstore for more information

The folks at Tablet Academy UK were busy running the Interactive classroom sessions on the Microsoft stand at last year's BETT show (as they will be again this year) and some of the most popular sessions were those where the new Create Books app for Windows 8, specially produced by Tablet Academy was demo’d.. Essentially, it works in much the same way, allowing users to create their own books using text and other media. It’s still testing but is scheduled for launch in early summer.

Why not check this one out if you've got a Windows Tablet? You'll find it in the Windows Store  – it has proven to be a big hit so far. 

Disruption - Silicon valley's Worst Buzzword?

Is this really becoming one of those overused buzzwords in education?  I've always been a big fan of Clayton  Christensen’s  book and his concept of disruptive technology because it made absolute sense to me. To be honest, I don’t  think I'm ready to let go just yet…especially as we are in the midst of a seismic disruption in education. This of course is  the mobile  devices revolution which is causing disruption to so many entrenched practices which truly should have been  left behind  in the twentieth century.

What do you think? Is it another candidate for the education buzzword bingo card?

Disruption: Silicon Valley’s Worst Buzzword | New Republic.

CPD and why DBE and SACE have got it very wrong...

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is, or should be a constant factor in the life of every educator. Most countries around the world recognise this and expect a certain level of commitment from teachers, usually in the form of a requirement to keep a PD Portfolio containing evidence and reflections on professional development activity undertaken. Many countries require teachers to undertake a defined number of hours each year, and record this in their portfolios. South Africa does this too - recently introducing changes and new recording requirements as well as an expectation that registered teachers undertake activity which carries a pre-defined number of 'points'. And unfortunately, however well intentioned these changes may be,  this is where they have got it very badly wrong...

Instead of treating teachers as professionals and imbuing the CPD scheme with a level of commensurate trust, SACE, the body which has been charged with overseeing CPD for educators has mandated that all PD activities which are to carry points have to be vetted and certified by them (although to be fair to them, this has been legislated for- they just have to carry out the work). And not only the courses, but the people delivering these courses as well. The mechanism for certifying PD activities is tortuous and over-burdensome and discourages many organisations which offer training and development activities from submitting their offerings, which might otherwise be very valuable for educator CPD. If you don't believe this, try looking at the form necessary to submit a PD activity. The 'one size fits all approach' gone mad...Just as standardised testing doesn't improve student achievement, neither will standardised CPD enhance teacher professionalism.

 Many such organisations vary their courses according to the needs of the individual or institution. SACE won't allow this.
Many such organisations use a wide range of employed and freelance trainers with particular areas of expertise. SACE won't allow this (all trainers have to be certified for the exact courses they will deliver. No substitutions or changes allowed).
Many organisations see value in using local teachers and other experts to co-deliver courses and PD activities. SACE won't allow this either.
This is not to say that these courses don't add value to educator CPD - they do, but they just won't come with the points tally which teachers need to satisfy the 3-year requirements. And so teachers probably won't undertake these activities, choosing instead the 'official' activities which come with the points attached.

Valuable courses from organisations like Apple, Google, Microsoft and many others probably won't qualify. MOOCs won't either. Or much of education post graduate study. Or valuable crowd-sourced activity such as oversees conference attendance, webinars and teach meets. And the submission process is closed now anyway, so no new providers can submit their courses. What a joke. It is no wonder with a regime like this that South Africa has some of the most poorly prepared and trained teachers in the world...they just don't stand a chance! When events such as ISTE, Microsoft Global Education Forum, Apple Leadership Tour or even conferences such as eLearning Africa and Education Week might not qualify for CPD points, what credibility does this add to the national CPD management programme?

And try telling Apple Distinguished Educators, Google Certified Trainers, Microsoft Expert Educators, and the University staff delivering MOOCs that they need to go through a certification process with SACE in order to be able to deliver a strictly defined number of courses they have already been trained to deliver and awarded competence for,  and they'd probably feel insulted. I have worked in education and training for over thirty years in schools, in teacher education and as a consultant advising large tech companies and governments. I have post graduate qualifications in teaching, Psychology, education management and leadership, use of ICT in learning and teaching, and business. I deliver training for these organisations world-wide, including in South Africa. I am qualified to teach in South Africa in fact. This record and experience speaks very well for itself without the need for a SACE seal of approval. My own company, Tablet Academy is one of the world's leading consultancy and training organisations, training thousands of teachers each year on the use of technologies in the classroom. We are one of the biggest iPad training organisations in Europe. We certainly won't be submitting our courses to SACE for their stamp of approval, that's for sure. They have already been 'certified' by thousands of educators, governments and education technology organisations across the world who have used or benefited from these activities and from our highly qualified and experienced trainers and consultants.

Transforming South African education needs urgent attention in two crucial areas. These are assessment and teacher training (including CPD). Assessment, I will leave for another day, but teacher training, I can speak on with some authority, and I say that the Government and SACE have got this very wrong indeed. The teaching profession needs to feel valued and trusted. This CPD regime leaves them little more than compliant hoop-jumpers. I sincerely hope I'm wrong about this but from the available information, I'm forced to conclude I am not...

CPD is a lifelong journey through learning for self improvement and for educators, contributes towards better learning and teaching in schools. Teachers need to be free to choose appropriate CPD activities for their individual needs as a part of an ongoing professional development review process. This might be subject-specific, general, or for leadership. But the choice of activity and the weight it carries should not be dictated by a process which is so top-down,  rigid, inflexible and controlling. Lets trust our teachers to make professional choices.

Tablet Pecking Orders…but it’s really now a battle of the Ecosystems

We often make big assumptions in education, as we do in everyday life I guess. When it comes to Tablet devices for Education, the assumption has been that the iPad is the ‘Gold Standard’ and all the others are somehow ranked in descending order beneath it. Another one of the current biggies is all to do with apps. It goes like this; Apple apps are the best, and Android have the numbers, but Windows is lagging behind. And of course, Apple had the head start and Android, with its looser system now has the numbers and multiple outlets. But does this longevity and volume really equate to choice? A closer look at some of the increasing number of Windows apps reveals some real quality products, especially when coupled with some of the Windows 8 system features. This is where the Windows ecosystem can really start to compete.  Android apps for education are really starting to come of age as well.

Now, I have no particular affinity or real tie to any one of the three platforms. I’ve done work with Apple and Microsoft and used Android in education settings and am very keen that education institutions considering Tablet device projects should take independent expert advice and consider all the options benchmarked against their real needs and aspirations for eLearning. And increasingly I’m finding that the new Windows 8 tablets are a real option that schools should seriously consider in a way that hasn’t really happened before the last half of 2013.  Apple now has some serious competition in the education sector – competition which I think they’ve not yet fully considered yet alone acted upon. This competition is good for education as products get better and solutions become much more affordable for all schools. It is no longer the case that better off schools go with iPads and the poorer schools have to take Android. Windows 8 devices have come in like disruptive technology to completely shake up this paradigm.

Often when making  tablet purchases for education use, the apps question gets thrown into the ring, and the more mature IOS apps are often used as a justification for huge investments in iPads for schools but its not just about the apps – its how they actually get used. Many people in education are waking up to the inescapable fact that whilst they are really great pieces of IT kit, going down the iPad route does leave you very isolated and locked into a particular environment without much inter-connectivity with all the other things you might need to do in school and further afield. This is where the Windows 8 mobile platform really racks up the advantage points – its interoperability with almost everything that your school or education institution needs to do both inside and with outside connections and activity as well.  After all, whatever your views, Office productivity tools are pretty ubiquitous, whereas iWorks ( Keynote,Numbers and Pages) might be beloved of techies,  and geeks but their functionality is way down the scale when compared to the Microsoft tools. Just compare the powerful functions in Excel with Apple’s Numbers if you really want to compare. And Apple have nothing at all to compare with One Note. When it comes to education use, these productivity tools really come into their own in a way that Apple or even Google Apps  just cannot currently match.

This is a real and growing challenge for Apple – the isolationist working it can often encourage and the lack of real connectivity which can hamper workflow in a school or other education institution.  Windows devices with their ease of connectedness to your desktop systems and Office 365 for Education available for free to schools start to become a really attractive proposition if you give careful consideration to what it is  your institution really does need, rather than knee-jerk reactions based upon assumptions of ‘gold standard’ devices and a pecking order down from there.

Do we really need screen after screen of apps?   if we are really honest, the answer is most probably no. If you look around some of the pre-installed apps (and Tiles,in the case of Windows 8) you can often find many hidden gems which can be used very creatively for learning and teaching. One I particularly like is the ‘Send to QR’ app for Windows 8. It allows you to use the Windows 8 Share charm to share a web page you might be looking at or using as a QR code with others….

And there are many more if you put away the preconceptions and assumptions and just go and search for them- applying the creative subversion principle along the way… and remember, a jigsaw has many pieces and requires careful thought and planning

Be Creatively Subversive with Windows 8

Its very often the case in education that we stumble across things by accident. And as educators, we often get to thinking – “hey, I could use that with my classes”. It’s very often not the way the thing we stumble across was meant to be used, but you know, actually, it could work with students in an education setting if we get creative with our thinking.  I guess this is a kind of  creative subversion (a term first used by Debra Myler back in the dim and distant last decade) and if we look at the Windows 8 tiles, a couple of examples jumped out at me recently. I'm sure I'm not the first to have thought about these, so I apologise in advance if I'm about to steal someone’s thunder.

The first is the Bing Health and Fitness tile. If you swipe through this, loads of teaching and learning opportunities jump out at you. There are the workouts for different times and places. Great for PE, obviously, but also for the life sciences as well. I mean why would you have a different work out when you are in a hotel to  the one you might use at your desk or even in bed? There are some fab fitness workout and individual exercise video clips too. Then consider the opportunities for cross curricular project work; the exercise, health and diet tracking tools are a really cool way to engage youngsters with really important health and well-being life skills.There’s shed-loads of useful info about healthy foods, additives and nutrition as well.

Continue swiping and you come to a section

which allows you to explore every part of the human body in 3D,and in incredible detail (some schools and colleges pay big bucks for software which does this – but this app comes free with Windows 8 …  happy days! ) as well as pretty detailed information on some common diseases and medical conditions.

The second example is the Bing Travel tile. Swiping through this opens up the world right in front of your students without having to leave the classroom! Not only do you get a huge list of destinations, but  wonderful 360 degree ‘panoramas’ of the chosen location to explore.

For each destination, you get loads of useful information including up to the minute weather reports, historical information, useful guides and even currency exchange rates. used in conjunction with Bing maps, this is surely a fantastic free resource for schools? Have your class plan trips around the world, compiling their itineraries in One Note workbooks and with more detailed research about each stop on the way like local flora and fauna, customs and traditions, national dress and foods. Plot the changing weather conditions on an Excel spreadsheet and graph the data, working out averages, means and other statistical measures like distance travelled and flight times. What about the cost of the trip,and currency conversion calculations? Get them working on group presentations as slideshows or even movies with narration and soundtracks relevant to each stop along the way. 

I’m pretty sure there are loads more things that could be done with each tile. And I’m pretty sure the developers had more than a sneaking suspicion that their apps would find their respective places in the classroom.

Creative subversion is a term I've liked to use for many years to describe what we do as teachers and educators every day. Here it is with with Microsoft Windows 8 in action! And how many other ways might there be? I'm off now to carry on exploring….

(Images are, of course, from Microsoft’s Bing apps )

Android Apps for Education – have they finally come of age?

I wrote a blog post recently about the three ‘killer apps’ you can find on Apple devices – Garage-band,  iMovie and Book Creator. And yes, its true these are far and away the best of the bunch in terms of creativity apps, pushing iPads ahead in the education tablet market stakes. However, the scene is a fast changing one and Apple will soon be facing an even more determined challenge for education market space from Windows and Android tablet devices, not only with better machines, but also with a new generation of apps for the classroom as well as a rediscovery of some existing ones…

Windows 8 and Android are finally gaining their education spurs. And looking at the Android platform, there are some great apps out there that you can use. So what can we get for our Android tablets that would be really useful in the classroom?

The folks behind the brilliant Book Creator iPad App are apparently working hard on producing an Android version, so I hear. We hopefully won’t have to wait too long for this (and Tablet Academyare about to launch a Windows 8 version called ‘Create Books’ )

Android Studio is a really good movie-making tool. OK, so it doesn't  have the Movie Trailer feature which is such a popular part of Apple’s iMovie, but you can only make so many movie trailers until the novelty wears off and boredom sets in, can’t you? This Android app is really easy to use and great for team project work.

When it comes to Garage-band, there are a few good Android apps out there doing much the same job – we just don’t generally hear about them do we? after all, Garage-Band is so utterly awesome. But Pocket Band,Groove Box and Walk Band do much the same thing on your Android tablet.

Pocket Band in particular has a great community of users offering help and advice  - I think its far and away the leader of the Android pack and you can even try it out for free before you buy by downloading the Pocket Band Lite app….Happy days:-).

Also worth exploring are…

• Simple Note (a note taking app like Apple’s Notes, but with many more export options. Great for use with a class on filed trips or outdoor class sessions).
• Create a Comic (get your students explaining bite sized concepts or parts of their course by creating a comic strip. They’ll love it and it really helps with deep memory retention of whatever it is they are doing).
• Sound Recorder (great for quick-fire observations and useful for recapping learning objectives or for taking home to help with work on essays or projects)
• Science Penguin (loads of great science resources and lesson ideas although the small banner adds between resources can be annoying)
• People (a contacts app which links to GMail,Google+ and hangouts for video calls. I find this app very useful for organising)
• Talk (Another great Google App for instant messaging, and VOIP audio and video calls)
• Quick Office (A productivity suite of tools for documents, spreadsheets and presentations, compatible with Microsoft Office which can be saved or exported to Drop Box, Edmodo, Microsoft One Drive, Google Drive or sent by email).
• Periodic Table (Lots of information, video and quizzes all about the elements. As a science teacher, I always look out for apps like this. 3D Brain and Anatomy Guide are other good science teaching apps)
• There are hundreds of amazing Primary school apps for reading, numbers, spelling, memory,  languages, and science. I’ve like to use many of these with my grandchildren. And they love them too:-)

There are Android apps for almost every iPad app you could mention, if you look for them. And I guess this begs the question, what is it which really determines our choice of tablet, especially for school use? Are we pre-conditioned by what we’ve already seen or heard or is it just the very clever marketing which has positioned the iPad at the top of our mental ‘must-have’ list? A really comprehensive needs assessment is a must before diving in to large scale tablet purchases. This will help you figure out which tablet device (or mix of devices) is the right choice for your school or college. And this could be iPads,Android, Windows 8 or a combination of all three…

Perhaps six months or a year ago, there might have been no real competition for the iPad in education,but I think this has now changed. Android has come of age with some fantastic tablet devices at really competitive prices (just look at the Tesco Hudl) and it’s slew of great education apps is now a match for most if not all of the IOS App store offerings.

So why not go check out the Android options before making purchasing decisions….

Some 'Killer Apps' for Android

I do quite a bit of work with Android tablets with Tablet Academy. One of the issues with Android, lets be honest, is that they are forever being compared with iPads. Perhaps this is inescapable as the iPad is held up as the 'Gold Standard' of tablet devices, however, Android is catching up fast.

I came across this blog post recently. It lists 101 great Android Apps for Education. have a look....you might be pleasantly surprised...

Where are the killer apps?

If, like me, you are an Apple fan who works with both Android and Windows 8 platforms as well, you often find yourself in the comparison game. Its not a good place to be. I'm a firm believer in making EdTech choices based on need (see my last blog post for more on this) and so I have no problem working across all three major mobile operating systems. I've worked with both Apple and Microsoft and I'm really impressed with what they both have to offer and with their commitment to education, be it through the Apple Professional Development programme or Microsoft's Partners in learning and Excellent Educators.
I've also done a bit or work with a fantastic Android device supplier and know that Android is catching up fast.

If I'm honest though, my iPad mini is the best piece of tech I've ever actually owned. For me personally, it does everything I need a mobile device to do. Thats not to say that other devices don't have their own places or niches. There are some great Android functions and apps and Windows 8 devices have this interoperability with desktop machines that is a real advantage for those who are a bit less tech savvy than others - its the simplicity and familiarity factors coming into play.

But in education, the Apple IOS offering is still ahead of the game when it comes to apps. The killer three really set the iPad apart from the competition. BookCreator, iMovie and GarageBand are the killer three when it comes to schools. The creativity goes through the roof when kids are set free to work on these apps and its a wonderful thing to see. My good friends at Apple in the UK have introduced me to some incredible individuals and schools who are making fantastic use of these three apps.

Android and Windows 8 are pushing Apple all the way for market share in education tablet device use. To me,what they really need to work on are the killer apps. Where are the Android and Windows 'killer' three to take on the Apple triumvirate? get this one cracked and we could see the battle for market share really hotting up

Tablet Devices - A Real 'Disruption'?

Here is an article which appeared recently on the website of Tablet Academy in Europe. The piece is interesting because it posits the view that mobile devices are the biggest disruptive influence to traditional models of education since the arrival of the internet.

This is a pretty big claim to make; after all, the internet completely changed the learning landscape and drove a coach and horses through the schooling model which had existed for over a hundred years. The one where the teacher was the most knowledgeable person in the classroom (it's now Wikipedia which can make that claim I guess).

The term, 'Disruptive Technology' was one coined by Clayten Christensen a few years ago to describe technology which disrupts the existing technology by doing things in new ways rather than by trying to replace the existing tech. If we widen out the paradigm, we can apply it to almost any new innovation which comes up against an existing or traditional model. Thus,we arrive at the appearance of tablet devices in education. It's arguable weather they are a true disruption, however, when used *as* a disruptive tool, they do have the power to drive real lasting transformation. The SAMR model, despite recent criticism, demonstrates how this might be so.

Tablet devices, with the iPad in the vanguard, have driven transformation in education. The on-line discussions, and increased interest in technology-driven school improvement from educators is evidence of this mind-shift. Schools,colleges and universities the world over are now adopting technologies for learning and the tablet revolution has contributed hugely to this.

When considering tablet roll-outs or BYOT (bring your own technology) schemes, it is important to do some research and take advice. Unrepresentative schemes involving very small numbers of devices making claims to be the first of this that or the other are generally best avoided, however there is plenty of good case study evidence out there, and plenty of folks who are able to offer advice.

Which platform to chose for your particular roll out is also important. You will probably get quite a one sided view from folks who have only been involved with one particular platform, whereas a more objective point of view might be obtained from someone with experience of all three major operating systems and device types. Contrary to what you might hear, iPads are not the 'gold standard' of tablet devices. Many organisations will be far better served by Android or Windows 8 devices. What is important is your individual need. Our tablet Academy Africa Windows 8 courses are proving more and more popular with many users who have preferred the tablet devices running on this platform for reasons of familiarity and inter-operability and informed sources reckon that Windows 8 devices will push Apple all the way for market share dominance over the coming months across Africa and the Middle East. Android devices, with their excellent Apps for Education from the Google Play Store make great choices, particularly where budget is an issue (although the higher end Android devices are superb).

I've been doing lots of work with Android apps recently, and they are closing the gap, and in some instances, overtaking iPad apps in terms of their use in learning and teaching. Windows devices give the benefit of both apps and web-based use with their ability to flip from app screen to traditional desktop view for more powerful functionality ( the Microsoft Office Web Apps are a great example of this).

And so when people say things like... Its not about the tech, its about the teaching  they are really quite wrong, in my view. Because the tech, and more importantly, the platform are the drivers of the shift to a much more self-organised learning experience which students relate to in this day and age (as opposed to the more traditional didactic model). All three platforms will play their own parts in this culture shift but the choice you make will be better served by being well informed before you make the shift and spend your bucks.

The Web 3.0 world of interactive creative mash-ups is pushing Web 2.0 out of the picture by using tools which are culturally relevant to today's learners (and that includes all of us, actually). Tablet devices and smart phones are pushing this web 3.0 world and with it, the Internet of Things increasingly centre-stage. Education can ride this change if we can dare to dare...and make informed choices.

Leading from the middle?

So do we still need teachers in this age of heutagogy? What are the necessary checks and balances, if any, to the notion of knowledge grazing?  Sugata Mitra takes it to the extreme  with his notion of the hole in the wall computer and self organised learning environments  but is this the way education is  going or is it more a case of a journey with many different  potential routes and destinations? Will there even be a final destination (in the form of an  exam or exams) in this age of lifelong learning where learning 'bites' can be rewarded with  badges evidencing achievement.

 Well, I believe we still do need teachers, because society is by its nature a structural paradigm and one   of the structures underpinning society is this concept of  'getting an education'. We rightly value        education in present day society just as much as we ever did. It is seen as the way out of poverty in the  developing world, it is valued as a prize to be achieved. Ask most people how they obtain a better job  or status in society and they'll tell you that doing well at school is possibly the biggest single factor  leading to such an elevation in status.  But is it still school that can deliver this? Two particular current authors of books about education certainly doubt this. Guy Claxton asks the question, what's the point  of school?  And Clayten Christensen posits the disruptive technology paradigm, so might the more  self directed heutagogical alternative to traditional schooling be a sort of 'disruptive technology' to    traditional schooling?

The glue which might stick all of this together for me is formative assessment. One of the biggest influences on teachers of my generation was Dylan William and Paul Black's work on formative assessment and the concept of Assessment for Learning, because it reminds us what great teachers can achieve, not by transmitting knowledge (of which they are not even the gatekeepers anymore) or by drilling facts into memory, or even to its most radical extent, pointing or signposting the way to set 'versions' of knowledge, but by directing the learner towards a path of self fulfilment and lifelong continuous achievement.

Society does need teachers and it perhaps needs to realign the concept of education to better fit an evolving understanding of the value of learning as an adjunct to development rather than the be all and end all. The days of passing exams to get through stages in education are probably coming to an end, at least in compulsory schooling. But what, if anything, do we replace them with?

Pasi Sahlberg, in his book, Finnish Lessons, might just point the way. In his re telling of  the story behind the success of the Finnish education system in recent years, he makes a  number of important points, but most of them can be traced back to societal shift. This,  when added to a realignment of the national structures governing education has driven  forward an agenda of huge improvement in the education (measured, it has to be said by  testing achievement in a way which is most un-Finnish: the standardised test). Trusting  teachers to assess rather than transmit knowledge has been a big driving force behind  this change. I saw this when I visited the country some years back, a focus on  continuous formative assessment forming the basis of almost every interaction between teacher and student. The professional status of the teacher in their society is high. There is much societal capital in being a teacher. It automatically conjures up the image of a highly educated child centred person in the mind of most Finns. It is something to aspire to being in the same way that being a doctor or lawyer does. The Finnish teacher education programme is built on the twin pillars of high academic achievement (masters level degree followed by excellent teacher training) and career long CPD

But it's rather more than just having excellent qualifications and top notch training. The system is free from external 'brakes' to slow down learning. Such things as external inspection and examinations are a thing of the past, replaced by trust and a willingness to keep faith with this excellent foundation of good people well educated and trained for their job. . The Finns have built in agency to their system as well as capacity, in that it is continually generating improvement due to the structures in place and the recognition of its importance to the success of their country in the world.

Assessment is why we need teachers. Not examinations, or even summative assessment, but assessment for learning. We need assessment to define the route map which can be followed so that kids can direct their learning toward their goals in life. We need teachers to question them on what it is they have learned, and how well they understand it directing them back and forth through their knowledge grazing journey. Teachers are needed to help them self assess their progress, and to help them reorient where necessary, not to tell them what to learn but to show them where to go on their journey through knowledge acquisition, and more importantly, skills acquisition.

It is generally recognised that there does need to be a curriculum of sorts I believe. Children do need to be literate and numerate and more than this, to be able to recognise that learning does need to have a direction, or set if goals if it is to lead to college, training, jobs or university based careers and professions. So there is still a place for school but not perhaps as we know it, for the Finnish lesson has been the disruptive paradigm pushing a change agenda.

Formative assessment might be the disruptive paradigm to traditional instructional models of schooling, and so this traditional model of schooling should be replaced by something more akin to real education. Badges are the disruptive paradigm to examination and summative assessment.

Good formative assessment signposts the way towards valuable achievement and attainment. Good teachers recognise that this is their skill-set and their evolving role. They can direct knowledge grazing toward fresh pastures without reining it in and keeping it in exhausted fields. This type of teaching encourages skills acquisition rather than knowledge transfer which is a redundant concept in this Information Age. Those pictures of Aristotle standing holding forth to a group of enraptured students are not what school is about. Perhaps having Aristotle sitting amongst the students subtly influencing the direction of their discussions is more apt if we are to transpose the image onto a more modern day vista.

Leading from the middle perhaps?

BYOD and 1:1

There's been a lot of nonsense about mobile device provision in schools talked in recent weeks. The South African Heads of Independent Schools Association  conference held recently appeared to have a very one sided exposure to this debate. Here is my take on this issue, gleaned from many years of working with both 1:1 provision of netbooks and tablet devices, as well as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) following wifi provision in schools. I think it is necessary to have this experience of both forms of device provision before forming an opinion. I have, and my view is that there has to be a 'meld' between the two.

The fact is that funding and rolling out 1:1 provision of one particular device is very easy in a very small school where there might only be a hundred or so kids, as is the management of the devices,  however, I've worked with schools where just one year group had double that number and it is this 'scalability' factor which appears to have been ignored in the conversations about 1:1 roll outs. Also, device suitability will almost certainly change with age. Whilst iPads and iPad Minis's might well be fine for younger kids, older pupils might prefer the familiarity of the Windows 8 mobile platform with its Office productivity suite. This means that a variety of devices might well be used in a school of over 1000 students. Android is making inroads into education territory previously inhabited solely by Apple. Some of the comments on Twitter I read about homogeneity being the most suitable approach to mobile device provision were quite concerning when made without the experience to backup that particular paradigm. We limit ourselves to one particular platform or device type at our peril....in my experience.
Tablet Academy Africa, launching in January next year will be completely platform agnostic, with advice given to schools on the various possibilities open to them across all platforms and devices.

And as to BYOD, this is in fact, already the reality in many schools particularly with the increasing ownership of smartphones and tablets by students. We would be foolish not to use this computing power in education. Yes, it does throw up issues of teacher workload (planning may well be more detailed) but also brings the advantage of using students as digital leaders in the classroom, which takes much of the responsibility away from the teacher over use of the technology. The wider psycho-pedagogical issues around teachers giving up 'control' in the classroom also swirl around BYOD, but as the prevalent reality, we must grasp this and run with it. Unless schools provide the same facilities as nearly every other place our students encounter in their daily lives,they will continue to mark themselves out as increasingly irrelevant to education,which is becoming increasingly informal. Wifi is becoming as essential to education in this century as textbooks were in the last.

 It comes to something when you can use your mobile device in the Mug and Bean but not in your school...