Tuesday 9 December 2008

Vision of Education in the year 2020?

Last June we held an open day on the use of ICT in the school. This was successful in terms of what we got across if not in terms of actual numbers who visited the school. It was definitely quality over quantity.

We have been thinking about what we could do for next year. Add into that mix the desire to run an Islay TeachMeet. The TeachMeet idea was met with very loud enthusiasm when I suggested it at TeachMeet SLF08. Though I suspect that was more to do with the drink than it was an actual commitment to coming to Islay.

I have spent some personal reflection and lots of time chatting to Andy Wallis. We decided that if people were going to make the effort to come to Islay then we need to develop the TeachMeet model to something more.

We are both passionate about education. Education being delivered and accessed using the best and most appropriate tools that are available and not about the next , shiny new technology. I feel that sometimes we all get caught up in the ‘ooo look at the new toy, what can we do with it’ syndrome(I have to be particularly careful that I don’t do this.)

So the idea we had was an unconference to look at where we all like to see education going. In particular where we see it when this year intake formal education (Age 5 in Scotland) are able to choose to leave school (Age 16 in Scotland) in the year 2020.

We wanted the dialogue to be as wide spread as possible. So we have a wiki put in place. This wiki is not about the unconference. Its about education. The unconference is part of the discussion on education.

So what do you think education should look like in the year 2020? What do you see as the stepping stones to allow this vision to be realised? What do you think are the threats?

Don’t put these answers/visions/solution/arguments/proposals/anything else here. Put them onto the wiki at education2020.wikispaces.com.

Also, please talk to your colleagues, pupils, parents, cleaners,etc about this. Get their ideas. Start the conversation. Most teachers haven’t considered this

Blog/twitter about it. I want it to be a place where everyone can make a voice heard.