Are we really like the Walking Dead?

I had a dream the other night....an old school sheriff in a sleepy town woke up from a coma into a post apocalyptic world and found a world overrun by zombies.....at least I think they were zombies.....well.....when I say zombies what I really saw was that everyone wandered around, heads down with faces in a plethora of smartphones, tablets and kindles. This group of biters were oblivious to anything and everyone....well unless you you managed to bump into one and they devoured you.....wait, that wasn't right.....eh....ooh...I know !! I know !! now I remember, they devoured your bandwidth and fed off free wi-fi. In amongst this story our sheriff journeys along collecting a band of survivors who face a series of dilemmas as they battle this dangerous epidemic of the modern world, yes......the zombie overlords of the ministry of education !!!

So lets go back to earlier that day ....as with most ideas and thoughts that bubble up on my head, I am on the train. and like any other day I am reading my newspaper.........(just like the terribly social people of yesteryear in the picture) and an article that makes me think is all about the shadow education minister saying children need to be taught attentiveness skills to help combat the influence of social media. Children "need to learn the ability to concentrate for sustained periods, especially in today's world" was the exact quote that caught my eye........especially the part about today's world. What exactly is he meaning by today's world? If you look at that picture again, this was the world of today back then. A time without mobile's, emails, laptops, tablets and so on and so forth. To them, yesterdays world presented challenges with the age of automation, refrigeration and conversation. Simpler times.....perhaps...but do our children face anything different?

Now I might add at this point that while reading my newspaper, I checked Facebook, Twitter and oh yeah......quickly jotted some notes down on Blogger.....a multi- tasking skill of the digital age that I have taught myself over the years.

Now, back to the original quote about today's children. "Concentrate for sustained periods", especially in today's world. I don't deny or oppose the idea that there is a need to shift some educational goals but once again the soft and easy target is Mobile and Social Media. The point that seems to be missed although blatantly obvious to everyone else is that today's world has evolved.....and us with it. So what is it that the ministers and shadow ministers don't see?

A comment I heard the other week made things very clear to me, there is a need to teach kids analogue just like we had to learn digital. It is therefore critical in my opinion is that we have to approach it in a manner that is appealing to youngsters. Education has to be in touch with how they like to learn. To target social media and mobile technology as the problem is hardly going to stop them from putting the tech down and picking up a book but you could use it?

How cool would it be if we built elements of the curriculum online? How much more engaging could you make homework if you introduced gamification? and how about awarding badges as a reward for homework? These are things that are already out there, so cost implications aside why hasn't it happened? Let's be honest, like the zombies....the kids would bite.

One of the finest examples of how out of touch they may be is the talk of increasing the number of hours on the curriculum for Greek and Latin !! I agree, it is important to teach the classics and I still rate them amongst my favourite classes at secondary school but it must be relative and the opportunity to use technology would open the subject up to greater potential as well as engaging the yoof of today?

The classroom has changed, not the kids and are we really wanting to stop them using technology? Be it tablets of yesterday or tablets of today we need to provide the tools of engagement but out of touch politicians are not the only ones to get in on the act. I was reading another article which spoke of the link between ADHD and mobile/social use. It seems a 66% spike between 2000 & 2010 could but isn't attributed to a more people being diagnosed, could but isn't attributed to a greater number of kids being tested at parents request but like the other easy option they cite that the reason is probably linked to a generation being addicted to dopamine fuelled online activities such as emails, testing and social media! I always see this as a cheap and easy target  but what makes me smile in all of this is that the writer would probably not have the career they have today without the very thing they attack, given their huge Twitter following, frequent TED talks and other avenues of self promotion. There is one final thing before getting back on track, the recent neknomination furore. How simple was it for people to blame social media rather than the lack of alcohol awareness education?

Kids aren't zombies, although they do have an insatiable appetite to learn and in a way that they want and it's our job to feed them. If we always blame what they embrace then there will only ever be one outcome.

The task for the education ministry, is to concentrate on one thing.......how difficult can that be?

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

Learning Technologies 2014 - Day Two - Neuroscience....makes you think !

'D

Okay, so given I woke up at 3:45am on the morning of Day One  at Learning Technologies I had hoped for a pleasant evenings sleep to provide me with plenty of energy for what Day Two had in store however, given the Copthorne Tara is located above the train tracks and the mini bar fridge (unopened boss) was encased in a cupboard that provided cavernous acoustics every time the fan switched on......about every 45 mins !!!! then I can assure you rested I was not. It was a welcomed sight though to see the coffee pots in the Olympia and I did stock up before heading in for the Day Two keynote speaker Beau Lotto provided a truly fascinating talk on perception, creativity and context :-) You can see a bit of what he talked about here on a previous TED talk. I wasn't sure initially what to think when he started the session with the words "anything interesting begins with doubt"  :-) but I really enjoyed this.

 So after some more coffee and the onset of a blast of energy, I headed downstairs to see what Sarah Bell (account director at City and Guilds Kineo) had to say about the work they had been doing for Compass Group. From the minute Kineo got together with City and Guilds I was curious what direction they would take, and idle curiosity led to a very pleasant surprise.

The Managed Qualification Service is a great piece of work which has great potential beyond its Compass journey. I loved the interface which looked fresh and engaging, food for thought indeed and something I do want to find more out about.

Next up was lunch......I know, you are beginning to wonder if I did anything else but this time it was with Brightwave together with Marks and Spencer. This was to look at their Heroes customer service blend which was designed to improve the knowledge in flowers as well as drinks and spirits.

Again, the interface was crisp and clean, a theme that was more than apparent among many of the platforms on offer over both days. The success of the programme is there for all to see and this is down to the blend it has on offer. I can see many opportunities to cross this over into areas in many sectors.

and yay it came to pass that time was pushing on and there was time for one last session before Gatwick was calling. So given this year I am looking to shoot some video for work i thought a trip to listen to Mark Copeman of 845tv . He give some pretty good tips for those starting out in video and this was followed up with a session by BP on the diversity programme they produced which is heavily video rich.

Video is certainly something I want to do more of this year but not in isolation and as a stand alone or replacement to workshops etc. I intend to integrate into all learning areas, pre, post and within our programmes. Much to do ands much to think about.....can't believe it took me a week to finish this....hey oh, off to watch some Winter Olympics. ......might be something else to write about in there :-)

@LearningXDude

Learning Technologies 2014 Day One - Don't mention the apps !

This is Jenny. A couple of years back she was encouraged to go all out and get an App for learning in her organisation. After 12 months of research and development, supplier engagement and iOS7 by Fisher Price she has just been to Learning Technologies 2014 and found out that it might not have been her greatest moment.

Now it's funny when I think of this as it rings true with a lot of what is (and has been) buzzing around for a while and certainly on my now annual pilgrimage to LT it seemed to be something I heard mentioned a lot and I got to thinking some more after Brian Solis delivered his keynote speech on the opening day. A couple of stand out points he made (which sounds like an injustice as his whole talk was stand out) stuck with me, first up, the point about how we are losing muscle memory, and how it begins to feel strange when you pick up a pen. Now you wouldn't normally think too much about that (although these days I can bench press 120lbs with my text 'n' tablet thumbs) but when you do start to think about it,  how many times in your workplace have you heard someone make a comment about handwriting on paperwork or applications forms etc? In 99.9% of cases the person who wrote it is probably under 25 years of age and then the current education system gets blamed. In other words as Brian said people claim the world is changing but sometimes it isn't the world that needs to change. Generation C (connected) are merely living the their life in the moment. Whereas some of us have made the lifestyle choice to become digital, we need to teach our kids analogue?

Awwww.... Now the mobile / anti app theme rolled on when Terence Eden of Telefonica spoke about the practice and pitfalls of mobile learning, he likened an app to a puppy, often yearned after but can require a similar amount of care and attention. There are thousands and thousands of apps out there and most are rubbish, lets be honest, totally rubbish. Reason for that is the lack of understanding as to what is required and ultimately if required at all. In most cases the perception is that everyone will want it. Reality as demonstrated by the case study from Helen and Alison from the NHS is that it takes and awful lot of time and money to get what you want and it is not always successful......of which at that point the manager who wanted the puppy suddenly finds the other toy they got for Christmas is much better. Now perhaps the most interesting thing about this session was that the team from the NHS are sticking with their strategy to produce more apps, partly because it is probably right for the target demographic but also because they have learned lessons, taken on board feedback and actually adapted other strategies to suit the need. Internal platforms to build there own content is now order of the day although costs are not necessarily that much cheaper.

So the conclusion here was there should be clear evidence of need, you have to work harder at the promotion of the app and most of all make it future proof and flexible..............if of course you do really need one :-)

Next up in my schedule was Doug Belshaw and Tim Riches and the topic of open badges, now I have followed the world of badges for a good few months now, mainly from afar but they intrigue me. I can see a use for them but only once the right project or reason comes up for them, I have an idea around contact centre agents and cross product skills training but the challenge for delivering this would be the stigma that is unfairly associated with them. The perception that they are for kids is merely attributed to the fact that they work so well in an educational set up but with big hitter corporate supporters in NASA, Disney/Pixar and Intel coupled with a 1400% growth in badges over the last couple of years it has to be something worth exploring? Doug and Tim would like to see badges as a new type of learning currency that foster community, provide authenticity and even as a potential recruitment tool.

Badges have the ability to provide a connected learning platform but I wonder if they might have to rethink the marketing strategy in order to break the stigma.

So last up of Day 1 for me was a talk about Google Glass by David Kelly @LnDDave this was a fascinating insight into one of the Glass explorers who are getting to play !! prior to commercial release.

2014 is being tipped as the year of wearable tech and what was good about this talk is the emphasis is not on the tech itself, not even on what the tech can do but on the possibilities it brings. Glass provides an immersive experience and aside from looking like a squirrel retrieving a nut from its cheek when using the touch pad it is hands free which provides amazing opportunities for surgeons and engineers to name but a few. Of course big brother theorists will have a ball given the fact the product is linked to what Google knows about you and its own products but then it doesn't stop me wanting a pair from Santa at the end of the year.

So that was my Learing Tech Day One experience, part 2 will follow as soon as get some sleep :-)

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude