Digital Futures

A few weeks ago I was asked to be part of a Digital Inclusion panel discussion at NetHui. The theme for this year’s Nethui was “the Internet is everybody’s business”. The 3 day event covered a range of issues including education, privacy, security, copyright and a particular focus on digital inclusion. The education forum on Day Zero was hosted by Mark Osborne and Andrew Cowie of CORE Education, and was well attended. The focus here was on ‘Equity, Inclusivity, Purpose, Passion’ and there was a range of challenging and useful presentations. There were speakers from a range of providers in the education sector, including Connected Learning Advisory and National Library, as well as teachers like Caro Bush, Kimberley Barrs and Diana Wilkes. ...

Received this email today: Just looking at the wiki page and spotted a comment underneath one of the subject discussions…calling others a dick. Not the worst comment to make in the world I know but I’d hate the wiki to turn into some kind of facebook page where the kids can start insulting each other. Within our school, syndicates use wikis that are a mixture of public and private, with all students having a login that they manage and are expected to be responsible for. The aim with our shared wikispaces, is that they are online places where students can login, create content, share with others and comment on each others work. ...

Last Friday the 21st Century Learning Reference Group here in NZ released their “Future-focused learning in connected communities” report. The document is worth a read, but if you’re busy, read the summary. RadioNZ has already picked up the story, and reported these key points: ".. the ministry should recognise digital competencies as essential foundation skills. Defining and refining what “digital competencies” actually are, and deciding how to measure them will be problematic. The NZ curriculum, as far as I’m aware does not contain any standards or frameworks for what this ‘digital competence’ may look like. ...

Not my thoughts though. The thoughts of Eric Schmidt, head guy at Google, in an interview with the BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week. Eric Schmidt on a digital future Hat-tip for the link to the always excellent Stats Chat