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Seb, a thought provoking post ...

Powerful stuff Seb....I agree with your point about the Cameron speech.

What are the implications of Sugata's theory for the e cpd programme in FE and Skills?

Thanks Bob. In response to your question, Sugata's focus is on children as learners not young adults. But his "a curriculum made up of questions" could be re-framed for older learners as "a curriculum made up of problems", as against a curriculum made up of materials and even activities; and that squares with, for example, Peter Norvig's suggestions in his keynote speech at ALT-C 2007 [PDF transcript of speech - other assets available here]. This is sidestepping your question a bit I know, but the point seems to me to be that providing copious contexts for learners to find things out for themselves, and to concentrate on motivating them to do so, rather, mainly, than "teaching them how". This post on problem based learning has links to an approach on these lines in an HE context. Bear in mind, also, that the teacher input required under the Sugata model is at least an order of magnitude lower than in conventional delivery.

Tricky one Seb. I want to agree with you and put the boot into Cameron as much as the next man. But as far as Becta organising a good event... A swallow does not a summer make, and much as I've enjoyed Becta projects and work over the years, I do think they have a lot of hard work and thinking to do, especially at the moment.

Ian. No, one swallow did not make a summer. The point I was trying to make in a too oblique way is that "learning with technology" is not something that should simply be left to teachers and learning providers to organise. Partly because getting it right - as in Sugata's examples - requires a sea-change in approach that is challenging to commonly held and conservative - that's a small "c" - views about teaching and learning. (To its credit Becta has worked hard to challenging such views.) Secondly some aspects of technology in learning require things to be done at scale for them to work, with funding pooled not delegated. It is for these reasons that I think David Cameron's singling out of Becta is particularly misguided. Seb

Great post, Seb. I first saw Sugata speak at Online Educa in Berlin a couple of years ago and his Hole in the Wall experiment and findings were very inspiring. I wrote about it myself when reflecting on "Learning as You Like It".

It seems increasingly untenable for us to continue with old outdated models of education and learning while we sit in a technology enabled world, with a far better understanding of the learning process, at all age levels. At least some of the fundamentals of the status quo should be questioned more radically than Cameron's simplistic adoption of private education methods and values.

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