Thoughts from left field….
Posted on | August 18, 2006 | 6 Comments
If I needed reminding (which I do not) of the critical role played by my good friend and colleague, Robert Skey, in the initial specification of SSDN/Glow (when we worked together on the project from 2002 through to 2004), I got that reminder in an enjoyable email conversation we had today. I remember arriving in the Scottish Executive in late 2001 thinking I knew quite a bit about ICT and about technology trends generally. My illusions were checked considerably when I met the intelligence and the ‘left-field’ thinking of Robert. He had a real power-user’s knowledge of the new technologies (but, as he acknowledged himself at the time, little knowledge of education). At least I could lay some claim to the converse, so we made a good team in that embryonic period for SSDN/Glow.
His natural diffidence means that he would probably prefer me to quote him anonymously, but it goes against the grain for me not to give credit where it is due!
So, a couple of questions (amongst others) that Robert posed for me in our conversation today:
.1. The fusion of humans and technology and the impact of this on social class – do we create an underclass of people who do not adopt the synthesis through their fear of technology and if so, who from today’s generation are these future underclass. You? me?
This was in the context of a discussion about the digital divide. Robert also had some interesting views around the possibility that, unlike the division between the economic haves and have-nots in the non-virtual world, poverty may not always be a significant factor in its digital equivalent. The current ubiquity of television and mobile phones (the poor seem to have pretty equal access to these) possibly presages a time soon when access to the Web will be more or less universal via ubiquitous and cheap hardware and networks, and the only real losers will be those who, for whatever reason, choose not to join. An interesting thought.
2. Privacy. Modern ICT users are the least private of any generation (blogs, webcams, flickr libraries, google, etc) yet we live in a world built on fear of identity theft and the shadow of our neighbour. Is this simply because the youth know better and the statesmen have yet to adapt to a modern world built on different principles of privacy? How might this affect future laws and modes of society?
The balance in our society between a desire for privacy and a wish for personal and collective openness does seem to be shifting in favour of the latter, although I feel there is still a long way to go before this issue crystallizes one way or another.
I’ll be thinking about these thoughts of Robert’s…..
Technorati Tags: privacy, digital divide, Glow, SSDN, social class, technology
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November 1st, 2006 @ 10:18 am
[...] Stuart was just one side, though, of a key triumvirate that resided in NED at that time – Stuart, Eleanor Emberson and Neil MacFarlane. This small group started the process that has led to the point where we are now, where Glow is ready to begin roll-out in earnest to every school in the country over the next 9 months or so. They saw the need to ‘connect everything’ and indeed, between them, they produced a key paper (I have a single hard-copy version of it in my possession) that, in the space of just 4 or 5 pages, outlined pretty much all the major aspects of Glow as it exists today. The prescience of this small group simply cannot be underestimated. The only major aspect that Robert Skey and I were able to add to that original outline concept was that the whole thing had to be web-delivered! [...]
December 1st, 2006 @ 9:19 pm
[...] I invited myself along to a meeting of SICTDG, universally known in Scottish education as SickDog after their abbreviation. This is a group of people that I have a lot of time for, a group that deserves to be listened to and heeded a lot more than it is by many in the education firmament in Scotland. They comprise a disparate group of ICT advisers, network managers, heads of service and others – but they all share a deep-rooted commitment to the necessary place of ICT in teaching and learning. The part that many members of SickDog played throughout the process of consultation, specification, procurement and, latterly, implementation of Glow contributed massively to the current health of the Glow programme. It was this group that came together again and again during 2002 and 2003 to fashion, assemble and re-assemble the constituent parts of the SSDN requirements document (I did not even know this existed on the Web until I looked just now out of interest – this was an interim spec: the full spec that was used in the procurement process was version 10.0) – there were many heated discussions over questions such as: what should a learning environment look like? what tools will enable genuine collaboration in the classroom and beyond? how do we knit together the SSDN learning platform with existing MIS environments? why does Jim Birney insist on asking only awkward questions? and many many more. My erstwhile colleague, Robert Skey, will testify to the crucial role that this bunch of committed spirits played in promoting the SSDN vision. However, there is an added aspect of my respect for this group that derives from something more than simply their critical role in the development of SSDN/Glow. I like this group because so many of them are idealists who have nonetheless chosen to toil in the salt mines of pragmatic politics and administration. The idealist who retains his or her idealistic purity by shunning the real world of change and influence and persuasion are no use ultimately to me or anyone else who seeks change in education. It is the idealist who is willing to compromise some of that idealism to shift people and culture and practice inch by inch towards their objectives that make the real difference for the greatest numbers of teachers and students in our education systems. [...]
December 1st, 2006 @ 9:30 pm
[...] Thoughts from left field….12/01/2006 09:19 pm2 Comments [...]
January 13th, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
[...] Prototype created by Robert Skey [...]
January 23rd, 2007 @ 3:38 pm
[...] I was pulled into NED in 2001 from West Lothian Council, and I immediately recruited someone who was to prove absolutely crucial to shaping SSDN, Robert Skey. As I have said elsewhere, Robert’s “intelligence and “left-field” thinking” made my own job as project manager a thousand times easier that it might otherwise have been. During those 18 months or so that we spent working with our colleagues across the country to draw up the specification for SSDN, we were joined by Isla Jack and David Rankin. Both had other areas of work at the time but both played key roles in the critical process of consultation and specification. Later, Hilery Williams, now working in East Lothian, contributed the vital material that was to form the part of the SSDN specification designed to ensure maximum accessibility for those with additional needs. [...]
April 21st, 2007 @ 6:46 pm
[...] I mentioned the thoughts (from left-field, as I described them) of my good friend, Robert Skey – I posted on his words a while ago. [...]