One of the things we have all learned from our lives in this century is that people plus technology breaks cartels, brings surprises. People can make newly significant contributions and the old barriers of entry crumble.  

As a professor of new media environments I find that 52 of our Bournemouth Uni students were working on Avatar, straight from college; my film of the year (so far!) has been Monsters – created by a CGI geek with a £1,500 camera and a great sense of narrative. Cinema is reeling (no pun intended) from this assault by new, unexpected and young contributors. Some of the dullest conferences I have attended have been brought to life by a lively twittersphere critiquing the on-stage stooges. My expensive newspaper buying habit has given way to a direct (and free) feed from the news agencies with sporadic annotation by online pals and trusted commentators. The hi-fi in my house, and the GPS in my car, are now both my phone. All rather unexpected. 

It is perhaps surprising that education has been very little impacted by new entrants, or disrupted by surprises: text books sales, technology platforms, schools and universities may have changed their pedagogic approaches a little, but they remain the same old providers. Exams are full of comfortably “met before” questions; teachers worry that they have left “no surprises” for the exam room. It all feels very, very static. Dangerously so. 

And yet we are facing a world absolutely full of surprises. There is something about new technologies that allow us, icarus like, to fly close to the margins – deeper oil wells in the ocean, more planes in the air than ever before, tighter margins on banks’ capital. And inevitably at the margins, things go wrong: oil leaks we don’t know how to cap, a volcanic ash cloud shutting down airspace, economic collapse. How do we prepare our learners for this unstable world? Surely it is technology in learning that should be adding the surprises, connecting with the new providers, challenging us to think afresh, making the impossible easy, shocking us.  

I was struck by the impact of Planet Read project in India. SLS (same language subtitles) added to Bollywood movies produced a huge leap in literacy rates, by osmosis, through TV! Surely, we should harness the ability of technology to astonish us, and to offer completely new alternatives. “Same old” won’t do in a world full of new and unexpected problems. ICT (Information Communications Technology) is our shortest route to a genuine and useful disruptive experience.

Professor Stephen Heppell, Bournemouth University,
Chair New Media Environments.

The Scottish Government has recently started to consider the development of a Technologies for Learning Strategy.
Join the conversation at: http://www.technologiesforlearningstrategy.org.uk/  

Professor Stephen Heppell is a leading voice on the role of ICT in learning.Previously his pioneering work established Ultralab as a world leading learning technology research centre. He has advised governments and national agencies throughout the world on the strategic development of ICT and is a member of BAFTA. In 2009 he was awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award from British Education and Technology Training (BETT).