breakout 4
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Breakout 4. Understanding sustainable socio-technical change. Becta Research conference 19 November 2009. David Ley, Becta. Emerging technologies. Becta’s work on emerging technologies. Research and analysis (horizon scanning, tracking, evaluation) - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Breakout 4
Understanding sustainable socio-technical change
Becta Research conference
19 November 2009
David Ley, Becta
Emerging technologies
Becta’s work on emerging technologies
•Research and analysis (horizon scanning, tracking, evaluation)•Commissioned research programmes and projects•Commissioned reports from experts and analysts•Industry and research lab liaison•Dialogue and debate
http://emergingtechnologies.becta.org.uk
The technology adoption lifecycle (Moore, 1991)
Technology Adoption Curve
Key trends•Web 2.0 and social software •Context aware computing•Pervasive computing (ambient intelligence)•Increasing mobility•Low-cost mobile computers •Emerging display and interface technologies •Consumerisation of IT •New approaches to the delivery of IT (eg cloud computing)•'Green' IT •New information handling technologies
Technology use by children 2007/8/9 (Ofcom)
Average time in hours spent each week by gender on selected computer-related activities (Source: Web 2.0 technologies for learning, Becta 2008)
Consumerisation of IT
Trends contributing to consumerisation of IT
•Underpinned by ubiquitous internet access, web technologies, mobile/wireless
•Increased range of affordable, attractive devices, content and services aimed at consumers
•Technologies are easier to use
•Consumers familiar and comfortable with technology
•Consumers have access to the means of content production and distribution
•Increasing commoditisation of IT hardware
•Standardisation and reduced complexity of technology driven by the web as a platform.
Consumerisation of IT
What does it mean?
•Consumer market increasingly important
•User expectations of technology availability and choice increasing
•Users are shaping technology development (Web 2.0, open APIs, perpetual beta)
•Boundaries between work, social and leisure domains blurring
•A long term shift in the relationship between organisations and their IT users
•A shift in the way technology is adopted and used.
Consumerisation of IT
Implications for education: technology is the new normal
• Need to balance IT imperatives of reliability, security and efficiency with greater user flexibility: managed diversity
•Increased personal choice (learner owned devices and services)
•New relationship between organisations and IT users
•Users expect technology to be available and used
•New models of delivery (eg blended/online) more accepted
•Parents empowered by access to online information and services
•Web 2.0 supporting new interactions and communities
•More rapid innovation and adoption of technology
Context aware and pervasive computing
What is it?A range of technologies combining to give systems the ability to sense and respond to contextual factors: eg location, objects, environment, social networks, ‘presence’, user preferences, mood and behaviour in order to anticipate user needs. Processing, sensing and connectivity embedded in objects and locations around us: the ‘internet of things’
Underpinned by:•Identification technologies (RFID, 2D barcodes, NFC)•Location technologies (GPS/Galileo, wireless, machine vision)•Sensor technologies (smart dust, MEMS: accelerometers, sensor networks)
•Ubiquitous wireless (WAN, LAN and PAN)
•New interface technologies
•Semantic web
Source: www.bvdp.de
Context aware and pervasive computing
What it means?•Personalised relevant information and services
•Processing, sensing and networking embedded in objects and locations (pervasive computing)
•Focussed responses, reduced complexity
•Less need to enter text or manually search for information
•Unnecessary information remains hidden
•More human centred interfaces
•Vast numbers of new data sources
•New applications to take advantage of pervasive computing
Will move from discrete applications today to integrated systems responding to multiple context related inputs in the future
Context aware and pervasive computing
Implications for education•Systems deliver personalised content, proactive support and assessment suited to learner need
•More intuitive ways to navigate increasingly complex information landscape
•Content delivery optimised to device, location and user
•‘Follow me’ services support learning across different contexts
•Ability to work with new data sources in real time (eg environmental sensors)
•Opportunities to interact and learn from objects and locations in the real world
•Identification of available resources and services
•Smart buildings and classrooms
•Augmented reality educational applications (overlays relevant digital information on our view of the real world)
•Affective computing (tailored to mood and attention level)
Foresight Insight Action
Institute for the Future
Section title goes hereThinking about the future
Why consider the future?
Assumed futures shape national debate on curriculum, assessment, practice & investment
Why consider the future?
Education a site for realising learners’ aspirations
Why consider the future?
Commitment to learners: we will prepare you for the world
Which future?
•‘The future’: inevitable, singular, universal• Global, technologically-rich knowledge society
•Marshalling support for current practice• “we have to do this because it will be...”
•No role for people to contribute• Nothing to do except keep up
Which future?
•Alternatives exist• Uncertainty & free will
•Future is open• Not yet happened
•Future consequent on present action• Reaffirming individual agency
“The rhetoric of education is that it is preparing young people for living in the early 21st century. The reality is that it is doing no such thing. If this were otherwise, then educators would be constantly demanding the very best insights, the very latest understandings from the futures community.”Slaughter, 2002 (http://bit.ly/slaughter)
Section title goes hereBeyond Current Horizons
Aims of the programme
To ensure that we have identified and prepared for a range of potential social, technological and cultural futures, and that we are enabled to develop the tools and strategies to support our children and families for whichever of these comes to reality in 2025. Technology Futures Unit, DCSF, 2007
Principles
Educational futures work should aim to challenge assumptions rather than present definitive predictions
Principles
The future is not determined by its technologies
Principles
Thinking about the future always involves values and politics
Principles
Education has a range of responsibilities that need to be reflected in any inquiry into, or visions of, its future
Activities
•Commissioning research: building an evidence base•Foresight: mapping recent developments beyond the present• http://beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/evidence
•Scenarios: a set of alternative plausible future worlds• http://beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/scenarios
Eight technology trends
Challenges & recommendations
Challenges
•Should education continue to be organised around the unit of the individual learner? • Enlightenment notion of ‘individual’ threatened by
ongoing connectivity• Social networks crucial for managing new
information landscape• New divisions of cognitive labour
Challenges
•Should ‘the school’ retain its dominant position in assumptions about educational futures?• Link between ‘learning’ and ‘educational institution’
weakening• Diversity & complexity of learning provision• New models of educational exchange • Disaggregation of educational services
Challenges
•Should preparation for competition within a knowledge economy remain a primary goal for education?• Standardisation of roles within corporations &
decreasing worker autonomy• Offshoring & automation of ‘professional’ roles• Increase in (low-status) roles
Recommendations
•Design a ‘curriculum for networked learning’• Supporting individuals to learn & work effectively
within and across social networks• Assessed in concert with tools, resources,
collaborators• Managing trust & reputation• Connect learning to other areas of personal, social &
working lives
Recommendations
•Create open, flexible & networked relationships across diverse educational institutions, both formal & informal• Increasing access to & participation in high-quality
educational experiences• Recognising and valuing experiences across different
domains• Supporting learners in navigating diverse learning
landscape
Recommendations
Develop a mentoring & networking workforce• Countering possibility that diversity of educational
provision amplifies socio-economic inequalities• Enabling learners to balance education, work, care
and personal development choices• Diversification of professional teaching identities to
include workplace & community expertise
Recommendations
Create public forums for debating socio-technical change & education• Establishing education as a public good & site of
response to socio-technical challenges• Engaging educators, parents, policy-makers,
businesses & communities• Make consideration of the future an ongoing and
contextualising activity
