I must admit that the idea of watching a 20 minute video on YouTube is not something that I relish undertaking, but this particular video caught my eye as something that could be very interesting.  I was right.  It was well worth the 20 minutes spent watching it and I found it extremely thought-provoking.   Just where is technology and the internet taking us?  How will our use of technology impact on our lives over the next 10 to 15 years?  What impact does this have on education?

I’m currently in the process of writing (yet again) the ICT and e-Learning strategy for our school.   It’s such a difficult task because of the ever-changing nature of ICT and technology.  I have written it at least three times now and find that now I’ve watched this video, I’m going to change it yet again.

Technology is ubiquitous and, undeniably will become even more so over the next few years. I personally believe the challenge for education now is not to provide the latest technology, but to provide the infrastructure and associated safe systems to make the technology work for every pupil regardless of how they prefer to learn.  Whilst I was growing up I was taught that the definition of “church” was not the building, but the collective congregation of people turning up to worship.  Could a school be defined in a similar manner?  If the pupils bring the technology and resources then it isn’t the building and its physical resources that define “school” it’s the people, the interactions and their dissemination of knowledge.  When we truly are using mobile technologies, then learning can take place anywhere and at any time either singularly or within groups.  (Let’s not forget the benefits face-to-face social learning will always provide).

Education may have a long way yet to go to meet this vision.  The frustration arises in the realisation that the technology is not far off already being there.

So my challenge now is; if this truly is the future of education, how do I write a strategy to meet and deliver it?