Bob Harrison kept close to the learning at the HHL 09 event. And he wasn't disappointed.

Louise Duncan: clear, practical and showing the way

The past six years have seen an explosion of mobile and wireless technologies since social entrepeneur Graham Brown-Martin first pulled together a small but growing network of educationists and technologists at Goldsmith College for the inaugural Handheld Learning conference.

And according to world renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil, the pace is quickening. He appeared by videolink to headline Handheld Learning 09 in London, which was attended by more than 1,500 delegates from across the globe,

Kurzweil, who has an uncannily accurate track record in predicting the future, said: “Mobile phones are misnamed. They should be called ‘gateways to all human knowledge’.” He also warned that education systems could be seriously challenged as:

• “Jobs are being destroyed at the bottom of skills ladder but growing at top;
• “ICTs have a 50 per cent deflation rate so kit will be half as cheap and twice as powerful every year;
• “Human knowledge doubles every 14 months.”

The three days of Handheld Learning did, however, give some inspiring glimpses of how teachers and schools and colleges are responding to the challenge but the central message from the presenters and delegates was: “How do we get from pilot to sustained and take the education workforce with us?”

Perhaps one solution to this challenge will come from VITAL a £6 million project funded by Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and managed by a partnership between the Open University and e-skills UK (the sector skills council for ICT), who launched their website at the conference.

Debbie Forster, e-skills project manager joined a panel which included Steve Moss, strategic director for ICT with Partnerships for Schools (PfS), the agency now responsible for all capital programmes including BSF and PCP, and Doug Brown, ex-DCSF and now special adviser for Becta. They were attempting to address the “step change” required in teachers' confidence and competence in the use of technology to enhance learning.

“I was Noffed” said ex-headteacher Debbie Forster, referring to the ill-starred national ICT training funded by NOF (New Opportunities fund), “and now we need a revolutionary spirit but not a war - and sometimes no tech or low tech is the answer”.

The VITAL project will be holding some regional consultations during November and Debbie Forster was responding to a challenge that the “rarely cover” agreement was having a detrimental effect on the time available for teacher development . She suggested that peer-to-peer, Web 2.0 technologies and the world-class expertise of the Open University would be a crucial element in the VITAL programme.

Should the 'digital native' concept make way for the 'digital invaders'?

Doug Brown suggested that a great deal had been achieved since NOF and he congratulated the “digital pioneers” who had led the way (being one himself!). He challenged the “digital native “ concept and said it should be replaced by “digital invaders” - all game players know that, despite initial resistance, invaders usually win!

Steve Moss, who carries  responsibility for ICT in the Building Schools for the Future programme, reminded delegates of an OECD 2001 report which suggested that the current school structures were not well suited to make the most of the potential of ICT and suggested: “Schools are still too systematically resistant to the transformational potential of technology.”

However, Steve Moss was hopeful that the new arrangements for ICT procurement and the innovative work of some LAs and programmes supporting change management - such as the NCSL BSF Leadership Programme - were beginning to have an impact.

As ever the complex issue of the digital divide raised its head and Becta’s Niel Mclean explained aspects of the Government’s £300m Home Access to Technology programme. “It is not stuffing technology down people's throats," he said, "but is aimed at low-income families and the model will empower and be sustained - it is a leg-up not a hand-me-down”.

“The project has piloted in Oldham and Suffolk where 92 per cent of eligible families took up the offer. Next year 250,000 households will be  involved and the aim is 750,000 families by the end of the project.” Surely this successful and worthwhile initiative will be able to make a strong enough business case to survive?

Zenna Atkins, non-executive chair of Ofsted, in a personal reflection, used her own children’s experience to illustrate the tensions within schools with pupils using their own devices. She pointed out that while “consumers are transformed by technology, teachers and institutions are not”. Perhaps Ofsted might be a useful starting point?

It is impossible to summarise all of the workshops and seminars and all presentations will be on the Handheld Learning website but one of the most inspiring presentations came from an Australian secondary teacher from Shepparton High School in Victoria. Louise Duncan explained how the introduction of iPod Touches and the Studywiz learning platform –  tailored for use with mobile phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) - had transformed the way the pupils learned and their levels of achievement.

In her presentation, "Essential ingredients for the implementation of mobile learning" (link to slides and video below) she said that schools should be clear and decisive about what they use and why. There is a lot of choice out there, she said, but the last thing a school community needed was indecision. Her school had adopted iPod Touches because the learners could use them anywhere, even tuck them under their pillows! And she showed a wide range of curriculum work they had carried out supported by innovative software.

Louise Duncan won this year's Lindsay Thompson Fellowship and is currently in the middle of a 5 week mLearning tour of the UK and US.

Tim Rylands was, again, inspirational, the awards evening interesting (see winners list below), John Davitt always makes his audiences think and this year a new research strand was coordinated by Mark Van‘t Hooft from Kent State University so the academics had their own home! The FE MoleNET project was popular and the SSAT ICT Register always produces innovative practice.

The epitome of effective leadership was provided by Ollie Bray (left), the depute head of Musselburgh Grammar School, East Lothian, who has been seconded to work with Derek Robertson, the inspirational figure behind Scotland's Consolarium project to exploit gaming technology for classrooms. Their seminars, supported by Learning and Teaching Scotland, demonstrated the profound effects their work is having way beyond Scotland. Seconding leaders like Ollie Bray to further spread their timely messages, is something that could be replicated by other national organisation.

But, for me, the “Best Practice in Action” day was the highlight with more a dozen 20-minute bursts of “best practice” celebrated, including Shepparton’s Louise Duncan who provided the icing on the cake at the end of the day.

There can be little doubt that Graham Brown-Martin and his “Learning Without Frontiers” team have delivered another stimulating, supercharged three days of grassroots best practice, technological future gazing and thought provoking challenges for the education establishment.

Handheld Learning 2010 will revisit its funky barbican brewery home on October 10-13, so it's a good idea to get it in your diary now!

Handheld Learning Award winners
Primary Learning and Teaching - Carl Faulkner, headteacher Normanby Primary School, Redcar
Primary Innovation - Normanby Primary School
Secondary Sandra Taylor - Ashton 6th Form College
Tertiary/FE – Keith Burnett Chichester College
Inclusion - KC Kelly Markwick - Oakwood Court College
Special Award - Dawn Hallybone, senior teacher at Oakdale Junior School,

Handheld Learning
Handheld Learning 2010
VITAL
You can see Louise Duncan's Handheld Learning 09 presentation here and The Handheld Learning 09 site has a wealth of videos of the presentation and keynotes. Louise Duncan's is here.
ALT workshop
ALT also has an interesting good practice workshop on 12/13th November to share cross-sector ideas. It's chaired by Gilly Salmon and, while places are limited, primary and secondary colleagues will be very welcome.