Futurelab conference

Futurelab conference in London - on the themes of futurecasting and learning spaces, very interesting presentation by Frank Locker
thoughts on the train - lot of what I am doing is based on futurelab research - get quotes - relaxed learning, inside out learning, push technology - pull learning, or draw learning - start with this quote

What are they learning? mixed community, evenings, weekends, out of school - all the things that I believe in, the hidden curriculum

Project is only a trial - taking me out of my comfort zone — working with PC based kit and challenged youngsters

seeing how it feels for other teachers, working with technology that they are not used to, pushing the boundaries — leaping into the void

Mostly having fun

A pen that records what you write and turns it into text?


Beyond Current Horizons

What is futures work?

possible — probable — preferable

futures-not predictions

lots of institutions looking at futures — government, MOD, business, CIA - but education does not really feature

“I want more interactive interactive whiteboards’ — depressing quote taken when asking about futures in schools

Technological determination — the future = new technologies

tech doesn’t fall from the sky — we shape it

In education — the media is changing, but is the content?

Is employment the primary purpose of education? Or exam success? Statistics? League tables? How do we measure individual or institutional success?

creative, socially comfortable, fit for the world, flourishing

fun... someone who can collaborate, listen, read, find things out, have an awareness of network

We need futures for education

slaughter

“It is a matter of great fascination to me that Western industrial cultures have been obsessed with
building the future through the development and application of ever-more powerful technologies
yet, on the whole, they have missed the human and cultural significance of the futures. Hence, they
continue to stagger myopically along without the many powerful insights available through
disciplined futures studies.” taken from the above, 30/5/059


“ The rhetoric of education...

need to look at the 100th monkey — the scientific name for this?

using brain waves like a joy stick — to control, a little phone vibrators built into clothes and attached to sensors, useful for the blind?

notions of “knowledge economy” inappropriate (lander)

importance of understanding community (Riley, Nash, Holt)

millionfutures.org.uk - wish website - wishes for the future - nice looking website, but also great for research

powerleague.org.uk - can be used in schools to develop debate - maybe good for IB?

www.visionmapper.org.uk - a tool for long term planning and strategy

Not to predict particular gadgets, but to look for general tendencies that will be likely to inform and shape context

inforamation landscape - data - deeper, denser, more diverce

‘Know more stuff about more stuff”

gather , store, use, share more data about more of our world than at present

what will happen as the digital natives grow up?

adult/child relationships changing

over 50% of the population will be over 50 by 2030

healthy old / unhealthy old

information not tied to institution - blurring line between work and leisure

working life may be longer

public / private roles merging

thrust towards mobile and locative based - geography/location becoming more rather than less important - where you are - what opportunities you have may depend more on where you are

recognising how we work with machine intellegence - statistical information - ‘if you like this you will also like...”

machines taking over human stuff - but not in the robotic sence

new ‘intelligent’ search engine wolfram

socio/technological scenario “networks change the nature of knowledge”

individual no longer sovereign

from individual to collective

role of social networks amplified
pervasive technologies cognitive enhancement distributed intelligence

social -

networks will become more important in filtering and managing data

end of industrialised model of the ‘educational institution’

home education ‘3rd party’ learning exchanges

open access to material

blurring of education/professional/personal

demographic - getting older

intergenerational and lifelong learning - work/play

Is the knowledge community a true picture?

polarisation and inequalities

global competition for knowledge elite

recognition for informal workers - roles? caring?

Richard Sandford and Mary Ulicsak www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk

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Tim Rudd

Children are listened to and then ignored...

BCH research

learning spaces for the future?

research and development - create-a-scape

fountineers

publications - what if

The pedagogy of the hat and the sofa

the teacher who mistook his cane for a snake - hat for a cake

vision mapper tool - learning spaces cards - school power league

pre engagement / visioning workshops

The bit of glass I lent against the beans to prevent them from wind damage blew down and shattered at 2.00am I woke, could not sleep, got up at 3.00 to work

that bit of glass was from a 1970’s school language lab - lots of money on infrastructure - just how much use didi it get?

how do you know how to get to the pupil question why do I have to know this?

transmission mode

design for now - or for the future?

risk averse system - dead poets society syndrome?

if we work to the metrics we design to them too

the structuring effects of structure

protection of professional identities, specialism and practice

systematic transformation

model new practices through co - design approaches

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Frank Locker

Transforming Learning Spaces: Thinking Beyond the Classroom

real issues have to do with social dynamic of school, not technology

engaged critical thinkng, creative, collaborative, active and applies relevant out of school sharing resources personalised constructivist make learning visible

constructing - not filling

Teacher is guide, teachers collaborate and work in teams, learning is cooperative, relevant, problem based / project based with authentic evaluation

notschool.org.uk

learning is a social experience - building relationships, small schools small learning communities within big schools - the magic of 150 - 150 is about the biggest group that we can cope with

met school, providence, RI

entire curriculum wrapped around the individual interests of the students

only work in school three days a week

very successful model

http://www.bigpicture.org/


tinkering becomes thinkering becomes thinking

QR? room - science at one end and arts at the other - a lot of learning just has to do with doing stuff

If you want an innovative school - start a new one!

maine learning research

all project based with teachers cooperating - based on interests of the pupils

pupils just at work - engaged - no need to police - pupils want to be there

problems - materials, clear up - rest of school

gallery spaces as teaching spaces

teachers working in teams - know the students better, know the parents better - talk about the students, rather than the subject

The hope index - how a child feels about themselves

Minnesota New County School

taking students out - what are we worried about? maths teacher sending them back in

critical skills programme

coalition of e-central schools

puritanical measurement system - afraid to think outside the box

model is primary school type model

everyone is an expert on school - because everyone went to school

will schools in lower socio - economic settings be more alternative than in the higher - parents in the higher bracket were successful in school themselves

the ‘better’ might be the creative, dyslexic, troubled - like monkton

relationships - embraced and comfortable - tight shoes and uniform as opposed to sandals and tee shirt

Frogsong - example of communal living


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Beyond Current Horizons

Carey Jewitt and Nick Lee

tech, knowledge, creativity and communication

london knowledge lab - exploring the future of learning with digital technologies

multinational companies - companies that follow the sun - projects that can only come about through collaboration

haptic technologies

childhhood - bio-politicsand human futures - Gaia’s revenge v De Grey - live for 1000 years

mosquito device - music on tubes - turned on it’s head with mosquito ring tone - alerts students to texts in class without teacher being able to hear

the symbolic power of the titanic - heading towards the 100th anniversary

gravitational pull of the distopia

ready to learn - like a meerkat

also dependent on the time of the day and the time of the week - and the weather

a child still has to ask me if the can pee, or take a drink, and use my formal title... so they can get out of the classroom - is this success?

natural light in the room - instant no brainer - improves learning (french rooms?)

adults wiggle every hour
teenagers wiggle every half hour
children wiggle every five minutes

grouping students by age eases broadcasting

magic of grouping students of different ages empowers peer to peer learning

freeze frame technique - have pupils enact a scene - students have to say what person was feeling and thinking at the time

peer to peer leaning - you learn best when you are teaching

what was your most powerful learning experience? - often not in school, often the risks were high

factoids
emoticons

you can handle more students on a per teacher basis if you co teach/group teach

8 different intelligence’s - Dr Howard Gardener

Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"):
Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
Musical intelligence ("music smart")
Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")

we teach to tests - within a ruberic - the Branston pickle...

iterativenarrativehapticrubrikofpedagogicludology

default to the industrial model - the devil that we know - Ben and the art room example - fearful of what?

learning emotional things - learning physical things

a chill out zone

co-design with pedogogists and children

people who stroll about on the phone

a memory about making a sailing boat from an old violin case, and sailing it on the White Stone Pond