Becta-X - a real student/educator movement?

 Becta-X was a great experience today, not only for me (someone who has a vested interested in tech and education), but for my students who were involved throughout the day via twitter and eventually SKYPE in the afternoon.

The premise of Becta-X was to have the discussion about education and digital media but covered a vast array of issues from filtering in schools to the creation on a professional facebook/schoogle for teachers (which my students have already wire-frame designed....). 

The day was extremely complex with one presentation, panel discussions and pitches with a live twitter feed from 15 schools across the UK and finally live feedback on pitches from my students via SKYPE. Kirsty Young from Just-b productions managed the logistics of the day beautifully, but I was once again wowed by a guy who I have always enjoyed reading and was delighted to see fronting the day - Ewan McIntosh. The wonderfully incisive and witty presenter skillfully summarised, teased out ideas, guided us through complex ideas and made the whole day flow beautifully (despite his comment about NUFC...)

To summarise my own humble thoughts from the day, I think that...

• the technology is only as good as the pedagogical purpose behind it 
• teachers and learners need access to excellent resources and ideas which are easily transferable
• although we need centralised support, we also need the flexibility to personalise technology to the school and individual context
• schools should manage their own filtering depending on their own context
• technology is ubiquitous and not going to leave us
• learner voice is essential at all points in education - we can learn so much about tech and engagement from the "consumers" as the Play Station man said
• ignore naysayers and do what is best for the kids at all times
• the students at Cramlington Learning Village are awesome!

A brilliant day and hopefully just the first step on the path to a brighter future!

Comments

[Chris]

Viva la revolución. Really well done for yesterday, buddy. I was at Futurelab with @joedale and @digitalmaverick- an interesting day but nowhere near as fascinating as following the #bectax stream. You must’ve been very proud of your bunch. That said, felt like there was a lot of putting the tool first, rather than the pedagogy. Mmm.

Anyway, the revolution bus is going well- still looking forward to a trip up north, that's for sure!

[AsherJac]

It was great to have your students' input, it added huge value to the day, both as a presence to remind us what we were there for (learners not tech) and because their ideas and comment were excellent.

I also think you've made a great summary there. Just one point I'd like to pick up on is about schools managing their own filtering. Whilst schools must have a degree of control, most will apply a precautionary principle. They would rather block something (or more likely, whole swathes of the internet) than have any risk that something untoward might crop up on it. It is just this thinking that means that this site (or my own) can't be seen in most schools, because blogs are blocked en masse. I think there needs to be some central direction to say to schools, actually you do a disservice to your students by blocking these sites and so we won't allow you to. Rather, we will help you educate yourselves and your students about the nature (good and bad) of them.

I guess this comes back to a general worry about the day: that as a group of early-adopters and enthusiasts we may have ignored that the big challenge might not be how do we push ourselves to do more, but how do we drag along those who don't have the same confidence or see the risk-reward balance differently.

[Chris]

Good point about filtering - I am lucky to work in a school where we ask for something to be unfiltered and it happens, no questions asked. We trust our staff that if they need something unfiltered that they need it for a pedagogical purpose, therefore it is unblocked within an hour. You are right about centralised pressure on schools to liberate the web in their institutions but what I was thinking was the choice for schools to get around the LA filters.
Thanks for the comment on our learners - I was very impressed with them too!

[Chris]

We need to sit down with a couple of key peeps - have you come across Michael Wardle? He is awesome, good friend and is definitely on the bus...