Politicians and Digital Tattoos - my letter to The Times

My letter to The Times (published 21st September)

Schools have an important part to play in teaching young people how to remain in control of their digital footprint online.

Sir

Justin Trudeau joins the growing line of National leaders where the indiscretions and misjudgements of youth are visited on the older statesman. His ‘blackface’ photograph will sit alongside Tony Blair’s ‘air guitar’ and the notorious Bullingdon Club photo of 1987 of David Cameron and Boris Johnson. This pattern is set to increase as Millennials with significantly more extensive digital tattoos begin to take up political office. Looking ahead as society we face a choice: we either draw our leadership from the narrow pool who have never committed an indiscretion; or we accept leaders who have made mistakes and have learnt from them. Accepting Justin Trudeau’s contrite response of ‘deep regret’ is surely the preferred path.

Will Michael Gove allow ICT to revolutionise British Education?

Last week Michael Gove made a very interesting speech to a group of distinguished mathematicians and scientists, unsurprisingly, about the importance of Maths and Science education. One of the most significant parts of the speech was when the Secretary of State came on to discuss the place of ICT in schooling:

"Harnessing technology in the classroom

"In addition to the debate over what is taught, and the issue of who does the teaching, we also need to think about how the teaching takes place. So as well as reviewing our curriculum and strengthening our workforce, we need to look at the way the very technological innovations we are racing to keep up with can help us along the way. We need to change curricula, tests and teaching to keep up with technology, and technology itself is changing curricula, tests, and teaching.

"ItunesU now gives everybody with an Internet connection access to the world's best educational content. Innovations such as the Khan Academy are putting high quality lessons on the web. Extremely cheap digital cameras and the prevalence of the Internet allow teachers to share best practice and learn from errors." [My emphasis]

Gove raises a number of important issues here that have the potential to revolutionise British education:

• It is refreshing that the Secretary of State is indicating that wants to see a much more collaborative approach towards the sharing of best practice, resources and content. He acknowledges that ICT has an important part to play in providing the vehicle for this to happen. A more collaborative approach both between schools and between the Maintained and Independent sectors is clearly the way forward. ICT has enormous potential for bringing teachers together and putting teaching and learning at the heart of the educational agenda. Clearly there are small pockets where this is happening, but we have a long way to go.
  

• Does Gove's reference to iTunesU and to the Khan Academy indicate that the Government is happy to give up a degree of central control of educational resourcing? We have had a supply-driven - as opposed to a teacher demand-driven - educational agenda for most of the past twenty years. The DfE and LEAs have allowed educational suppliers to set the agenda for too long - suppliers telling schools what they need (Interactive Whiteboards, VLEs et al.) rather than teachers demanding want they need. Standards will rise by stepping back and allowing teachers to commincate and share how they are promoting learning.
  
  I am sure that his approach is driven by fiscal restraint. However, it is encouraging that Gove's solution is to embrace existing platforms rather than falling into the trap of his predecessors who no doubt would have wasted an enormous amount of money setting up a "national teachers' collaborative network". (I'm sure that Apple are delighted to receive the endorsement of the Secretary of State for iTunesU!)
  

• Most interesting is Gove's reference to testing. e-Assessment has long been the elephant in the room in the classroom ICT revolution debate. I have argued previously that the British examination system has become too dislocated from key working practices in wider society (In the C21 adult world, when does anyone ever sit in silence without access to technology? - See my previous blog post e-Assessment - the case for the defence). Is Gove here indicating that he is willing to embrace e-Assessment as part of the GCSE and A-level assessment regime? Given the imaginative work being done by the team at AQA (see my Can e-assessment maintain the "Gold Standard"?), I certainly hope so.
  

I am sure that the key to raising educational standards is for the Government to intervene less, to encourage teachers to share best practice and to remove the administrative burden so that they can spend more time being creative about how they promote pupil learning.


Michael Gove's Speech in full: Improving maths and science education Wednesday, June 29 2011

"Who are we to throw stones when Google moves us all into glass towns?"

One of the consequences of the transparency and openness that has come through the Internet is that we have to live with our indiscretions and embarrassments more than any other generation. The searchability that Google provides combined with the elephant-like qualities of terabytes of storage mean that it is likely that we will have to live with episodes we would rather forget for the rest of our lives.

Given the events in Westminster during the past fortnight, this increased openness and the transparency has huge implications for those who hold public office. It is reassuring that the MPs at the trough are getting what they deserve and it is equally pleasing that the Daily Telegraph has published lists of "saints" who have not abused the system, However, I am concerned that the next generation of politicians is likely to be far too grey. If, even in the world of old fashioned cheque-book journalism, our elected representatives are finding that they are more accountable than ever before; how much more will the next generation of politicians be scrutinised?

After two weeks of the Daily Telegraph's revelations, we now know that many of our politicians are human and have feet of clay, but let me strike a note of caution before we take the high moral ground. "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone." To a greater or lesser extent Google has moved us to living in glass towns. We are all human; and it is a normative human experience to make mistakes and to do things of which we are ashamed or embarrassed. I have a huge sympathy with David Weinberger when he said

"An age of transparency must be an age of forgiveness."

I have no problem with our public officials being held to account for how they conduct themselves in office, but my fear is that the most able will be put off running for public office lest the indiscretions of their youth or in their private lives be splashed across news sites - and that will not be good for democracy and good government.

[Title quote from Jeff Jarvis WWGD? 2009 p.232]

An education policy of smoke and mirrors

Martin Stephen, High Master of St Paul's, evaluates the Government's Education Policy in a well written piece in the Daily Telegraph today. Click here.