ICT and Society Learning in Uncertain Times

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ICT and SocietyLearning in Uncertain Times
TISA2

• Dr Chris Yapp
• Director, Internet Society of England
• Chris.yapp_at_btopenworld.com

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Today

• The futures
• bright but
• when is it?

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Interactive Multimedia changes...

• Individual lifestyles
• Work, its location and organisation
• Governmentlocal, regional, national
• Commerce, retail and finance
• Entertainment
• Education
• ALL IN ONE GENERATION

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Technology Forecasting?
The telephone has proved very successful in the
West in places where distant farmhouses are
connected by wire, as it enables them to
give each other timely warning of the approach of
tramps. It is also useful in cases of fire and
sickness Scientific American, May 1900
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Themes

• Prisoners of Language
• Timing
• Breadth vs focus
• Sources of Innovation
• Organisational Culture

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Prisoners of Language

• Books and computers
• 1,000,000 cars
• classroom of the future
• everyone will always want shoes

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Example
In the Future, Blind people will be able to
drive cars
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The Blind Driver

• Probability 0.8-0.9 with some 0.2
• Under Lab conditions
• Resources available today 1-3 years
• Likelihood 5-10 years
• On the road in reality
• 10-100 years

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Sources of Innovation
Manufacturer Active Process
User Active Process
Source Eric Von Hippell,MIT
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User-active innovations in IT

• WWW
• Human Genome
• Cancer
• AIDS
• Environment
• Entertainment
• Open source

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Problem Types
YES
Do we Know how To get there?
TASK Direction Setting
TASK Operational Management
Do we know Where we Are going?
NO
YES
TASK Process Development
TASK Concept Development
NO
After Eddie Obeng
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The Futures opaque..

• G3/ G4 mobile phones
• iDTV
• Digital and creative content
• E- M- Commerce
• E-Government
• Universal persistent broadband
• Universal IT literacy
• Not forgetting Biotech.

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So what do we do?

• The best way to
• predict the future
• is to invent it

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Our choice as a society

• Ask what kind of society technology progress will
  create
• Or
• What kind of society do we want to create
  utilising technological progress

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Values of the Information Society?

• Competitiveness with social inclusion
• Riskmanagement over minimisation
• Lifelong learning for all
• Social Innovation over technological invention
• Smallish is beautiful
• Participation over representation
• Interdependence over independence
• Value-added with values

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The Vision

• There is no vision,
• so focus on the big
• process not the
• big picture

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The Big Process

• Education as the key process for transition to
  the Knowledge Society
• But
• Its learning Jim, but not as we know it!

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Re-engineering Education

• The infrastructure of education
• The Curriculum
• The Teaching Professions

To put the learner at the heart of the system
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Vocational or academic?

• Lifelong
• Lifewide
• Lifedeep

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This implies...

• A Culture of Lifelong Learning
• Access to lifelong learning
• Content to support individual lifelong learners
• A social context for lifelong learning

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The Policy Dilemma
Speed
Local Determination
Universal Service
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Lifestyle Patterns Are Changing
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Learning on Demand

• Personalised, mass-customisation
• User-driven quality
• Teamwork-oriented teaching and learning
• Exams and Qualifications?
• Administration built-in not bolted-on to teaching
  and learning processes

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The Learning Organisation
Theory
Application
LEARNING
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The skill shift
Learning to think
Scientist
Training
Engineer
Technician
Education
Learning to do
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The skill shift
Scientist
Stable theory
Engineer
Technician
Theory weak
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A Learner in her life plays many parts..

• Student
• Teacher
• Librarian/Curator
• Researcher
• Assessor
• Counsellor
• Parent

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The Teaching Roles

• Master Teachers
• Learning Resource Managers
• Learning Coaches
• Educational Administrators
• Curriculum Managers
• Staff Development Teachers
• Advice and Guidance Professionals
• Trainees

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Learning as if the brain mattered

• Multiple intelligence theory
• Learning styles
• EQ and IQ
• Brain functioning

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What we do not yet know

• Navigation
• Personalisation
• Long-term storage
• Scaling
• Unintended consequences

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The New Renaissance

• A knowledge-led economy
• Blurring of Arts, Humanities, Science and
  Technology
• Risk and uncertainty
• People first, technology second