TechNews is a Becta technology, news and analysis service aimed at those in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. I’ve subscribed to this service for a number of years and find it very useful as a means to keep informed of developments and timescales, particularly in relation to device hardware and networking. The following are extracts of some of the items in the most recent publication, which are subject to Becta copyright protection, which I consider of particular interest to us in developing our capacity:

Near Field Communication

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a very short range, low power wireless connection technology. It is a development of RFID and contactless card technologies and is likely to be increasingly found in mobile phones, smart cards, and consumer electronics. The technology is very intuitive to use as it involves bringing two devices very close together (a few centimetres) to create a connection, without the need for configuration or set-up.

NFC devices respond on demand to any request signal and have been used to create smart posters and smart objects. These smart objects communicate with NFC enabled computers, phones and handhelds. The NFC device transmits either identities or even small packets of data such as a URL, which is then picked up by the NFC-enabled device. Projects such as Transport for London’s Vortix, have trialed using smart posters to guide travelers through the London Underground. In this system a user touches their phone to an NFC poster and they receive a URL. The phone then connects to the Internet and downloads travel information. In a school, smart posters could be used to direct students around planned learning journeys, to test understanding once a lesson is complete, or to allow learners to interact with objects and locations in the real world. (see Ubiquitous computing in Becta’s Emerging technologies for learning volume 2)

Galileo navigation satellites move forward

The European Union has approved the development of the Galileo satellite navigation system. The system, similar to the US Global Positioning System (GPS), will be built with components supplied by a variety of EU countries and is planned to be operational by 2010. The system will have five services, many of which will be free to air, requiring no ongoing subscription. The services available will be Open Access, Commercial, Safety of Life, Publicly Regulated and Search and Rescue. The open access systems should reduced the cost of location based computing, geotagging projects and certainly offer more choice in the products available

IWB interoperability specification

Becta has announced a new initiative to improve teacher’s ability to share Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) content. Currently most IWB software use proprietary file formats, meaning that content developed using one whiteboard will not work on a different company’s product. Becta have commissioned work to develop a national standard whiteboard file format to allow files to be created and shared easily. Industry will be invited to become involved in this process.

Information & Communication Devices

Several manufacturers have released information about their ICD developments. Intel with devices that run on Linux, have 4.8” screens and support WiMAX wireless broadband. A device known as mtube, will use both WiMAX and Wi-Fi wireless networking standards to connect to the internet. The Linux based mTube is designed to run PC like software and has a 1 GHz processor, 8 GB of storage and a 2.8” screen but weighs less than 150 grams. Asus have been giving details of the next versions of their Eee PC which is intended to be in production in the second quarter of 2008. The new notebooks will feature larger 8.9” screens with increased resolution and will be WiMAX ready and will come in Linux and Windows XP versions. The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project has moved forward mass production starting in November and both Peru and Bolivia have committed to purchase a large number of the low cost notebooks.

Ollie Bray has an interesting post on some other emerging devices. The potential for transformational change provided by these devices and their effective use is a common theme in my recent learning technology discussions.

Anti-bullying

The BeatBullying charity in co-operation with YouTube has launched an online anti-bullying video channel. The channel will provide advice for children being bullied in a number of short videos. A moderated community will also be available for user to chat about their experiences.

Curricular Content

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has launched a new, free content service for secondary schools. Based on the successful open courseware initiative, the site presents education materials for both students and teachers in secondary schools. Subjects covered include science, engineering, social studies and foreign languages.

Futurelab in conjunction with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England are conducting a research programme, Beyond Current Horizons, to investigate the future of education and technology and produce a long term and challenging vision for education in the context of socio-technological change to 2025 and beyond.

The futures review paper gives an overview of the futures studies field, summarises some previous futures work from organisations such as the UN, Shell and the UK Ministry of Defence, and begins to explore some of the implications this work might have for education. The paper has a distinct programme purpose and therefore I found it a tough read, but the three broad categories; automation and artificial intelligence, ubiquitous computing, and brain/world interface are particularly interesting (from page 38)

The paper is designed to stimulate debate. Supportive of this is the opportunity to contribute in multiple ways including the getting involved with the ‘Power League’ consultation tool contribute to some of the issues around the Programme’s research. Within the consultation tool are links to a wealth of research & publications on futures in areas as diverse as;

Coping with complexity
Institutional spaces
The meaning of work
Childhood & knowledge

Future visioning is part of developing our roadmap, but trying to synthesis ‘beyond horizon’ scenarios certainly challenges me on how to cope with complexity. It also highlights the comfort of working with ‘current’ future, and, more importantly, the challenge, opportunity and potential impact of what we do with ICT in Scottish Education in the near future has on the Horizon we will achieve.

Is our future, one where access to Information and Communication will be ubiquitous for learners, using Information & Communication Devices (ICD’s) of their choice?

A Scotland where reducing real cost of ICD’s, stable economic climate and desire for personal ownership will allow rapid permeation of devices to the student population. Effective learning environments will encourage, harness, & support this ubiquitous access. These learning environments will continue for the next few decades to be organisationally and physically structured as Local Authorities and Schools. They will develop a curriculum that acknowledges and utilises real time access to information & communication through technology and enables learners to personalise and self determine interaction with learning situations. They will have an infrastructure, which enables function by providing connectivity for ICD’s and effective access to content. This curricular and consequential pedagogical change will require significant infrastructure development to enable our formal education environments effective access equivalent to that available within the wider environment.

If this is our future, our challenge is to facilitate effective Information & Communication access in our learning environments that provides world leading educational opportunity.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve met with colleagues, with responsibility for ICT in education, from 13 LA’s to discuss their current, planned and future aspirations for ICT to support and enhance learning. I’ve found these meetings exceptionally useful in developing my understanding of what might form a shared vision and strategy for learning and technology. The challenge for me is to translate that understanding into actions that support you in managing change; this blog is one outcome, hopefully providing a mechanism for sharing information.

We are all on a journey to a future, the good news is that, I think, we are all on the same road and pointing in the same direction, we have brought a small range of different vehicles to travel in, some of us are further along the road than others but we aren’t miles apart, we have a similar perception of what that future could look like and we all want the support of our fellow travellers to ensure we travel as effectively and efficiently as possible and don’t get lost on the way.

Our vehicles for future learning are powered by the improvement potential of creativity tools, 1:1 Information & Communications Devices (ICD’s), personalisation, games based learning, resource accessibility, engagement and empowerment etc. Adding weight to the vehicles and reducing their speed and manoeuvrability is genuine concerns over, security, appropriate use, connectivity, capacity etc.

My meetings have highlighted that the drivers of the vehicles are highly motivated, enthusiastic, experienced professionals committed to maximising benefits for learners. Hopefully, together we can become leaner and more powerful, avoiding wrong turnings by using the same map.

I would really appreciate an invite to discuss the aspirations of colleagues in all Scottish LA’s, please email me at J.Low@LTScotland.org.uk if you would be prepared to do this.

I agree with Alan’s observation that many of the ICT developments and applications currently being debated as applicable for use in education are already widely available in the public domain. Effective ICT provision in schools is increasingly complex and its availability is education critical. Current and emerging technologies are often our ‘future’ technologies, and if supportive of learning, require wide availability, supported and used by learners and teachers in our schools. How we enable availability and access is the challenge that we are all grappling with. If we can improve agility and acceptance of change we can narrow the gap between current and future ICT in our schools. Creating an environment that accommodates change is challenging.

This blog was set up to capture our thoughts, ideas and collaborate on the potential educational application of some emerging technologies during our seminar at Stirling Management Centre.

The seminar was an opportunity for change & improvement managers representing Scottish Local Authorities, TEI’s and LTS, to advance our shared understanding of practical and desirable directions for future technology application in Scottish Education.

I would like to build on the success of our seminar by using this blog to publish some of my thoughts, but predominantly as a mechanism to share the publications and contributions of others that I find interesting and could help us develop the effective use of ICT to improve Learning & Teaching.

As an analogue native, I’m apprehensive about this step into publishing to the world, in particular, that I appropriately credit authors, copyright and IPR. Therefore, any good ideas will be someone else’s, any mistakes my responsibility, and the reproduction of any copyrighted material is not a challenge to the owner.