Fit for the Future: Shaping Learning for the 21st Century

Vanessa Pittard, Director, e-Strategy, Becta

Gail Jones, Head of Technology and e-Learning, Broadgreen International School

Thinking about the future

In 10 years time we’ll be educating primary school children who will not leave school/college until 2033, and University until 2036-7

1983

Click here to watch 'Did you know?' official video on YouTube

The more certain end of things: 8 key socio-technical trends

• The information and data landscape

• Creating the personal ‘cloud’

• Working and living alongside machines

• Distance matters less, but geography still counts

• ‘Digital natives’ grow up and need to keep learning

• Weakening of institutional boundaries

• Rethinking the knowledge economy

• No ‘silver bullets’ for educational problems

The information and data landscape

• Capacity to ‘know more stuff about more stuff’

• Increased digital storage capacity

• Range of information – bio, genetic, spatial etc.

• Ready availability of data through the cloud

• Digital tagging and matching, data analysis

image: biopcrepairs

Personal ‘cloud’ creation

• Constant connection to a network

• Cloud-based services

• Mobility of devices

• Resources, communities and knowledge always at hand

• Personal information landscapes

image: symtym.net

Life with machines – ‘human’ jobs

• Machines in roles previously occupied by humans

• Not artificial intelligence, but complex systems managing data and critical systems

• The more routine elements of some professional roles done by computer

• Machines and embedded computing supporting human actions

Image: Gaea Times

blog.taragana.com

Distance matters less, but geography still counts

• Information resources separated from physical location

• Greater ‘sense of presence’ in remote interactions

• Social norms for ‘being together apart’

• Greater mobility within and between countries

• But physical proximity still important for specific interactions and for innovation and development

Digital natives grow up and need to keep on learning

• By 2030 over 50% of the population will be over 50, with 40 years additional life expectancy

• New adult-child relationships; care passed up the generations to a greater degree

• Working and learning across the lifecourse

• Engaging with technology across the lifecourse

Weaker boundaries: home, work, leisure, education

• Devices for learning and entertainment

• Disaggregation of information from the institution

• Adults combining working, caring and learning roles

• Technology supporting flexible working and learning

• Looser, more flexible institutions

Rethinking the knowledge economy

• Competitive R&D knowledge work will remain at a premium

• But digital technologies will enable:

– greater ‘off-shoring’ of knowledge work– higher productivity in service/product

development– standardisation of organisational

management

• Rise in demand for caring, face-to-face and personal service roles

image: the work foundation

No ‘silver bullets’ for educational problems

• Neuroscience, computing and bioscience won’t provide easy solutions to educational problems

• But advances in methods to address specific disabilities and difficulties

• Performance-enhancing technologies will present dilemmas

image: tejasthumpcycles

So what? ‘Fit for the Future’

Becta’s new programme

Phase 1 (to April 2010): Response Groups

Theme 1 – Learners’ personal cloudTheme 2 – Learning beyond a single settingTheme 3 – Making the most of data Theme 4 – New knowledge skillsTheme 5 – Education in a global context

Phase 2 (to April 2011 and beyond): Test Beds

So what? 21st century learning

So what? 21st century learning

Click here to watch ICT Excellence Awards 2009 winners Broadgreen International School on YouTube

vanessa.pittard@becta.org.uk