Guardian Innovation in Education (#IIE2011)
I spent today at the Guardian Innovation in Education event at Prospero House, London. It was the first time I've chaired a session or spoken on a keynote panel (you can read about what I spoke about here and there's a pre-conference interview here).
It was a day of two halves, really. The programme promised much in the morning, but it was only Mick Waters, former head of the QCDA that stirred things up and said things that had people nodding heads, sending out tweets and writing things down. The session on leadership I thought was particularly awkward as the panel had little or no experience of being in such a position. Thankfully, the session chair Russell Hobby from the National Association of Head Teachers was able to step in with some pertinent points.
I had a similar feeling of being short-changed in the session entitled Innovation in workforce development: the importance of teacher training and supported professional development to empower teachers to innovate. The panel didn't have enough breadth of experience (or specific examples of good practice) to give us any meat.
Thankfully, the conference organization, the venue and the afternoon session were all great. I chaired a session featuring an eclectic mix of speakers from games designers to academics which seemed to go down well. At least I kept everyone to time! Lord David Puttnam was fantastic in his keynote, teasing out issues in the education system. I asked him the Q&A what he believed to be the purpose(s) of education He replied that he considers it to be all about helping people to optimise their talents and feel 'successful' (which gives them confidence). Puttnam recounted the story of an American journalist he knows who was in London during the August riots. He found our youth to be 'fearful' and wishing to live 'normal lives'. How sad.
Apart from David Puttnam's keynote, the session I enjoyed most was Best practice: Showcasing the benefits and challenges of adopting innovative technologies in education. This featured a couple of people of whom I was already aware (Ollie Bray, Abdul Chohan) and two that I wasn't (Simon Elledge, Martin Palfrey). They shared with us their successes and failures at the 'coalface' implementing learning technologies. I think a lot of people went away with ideas from that session.
The final session was the keynote panel discussion of which I was part. This ended up, after much shuffling over the last few weeks, comprising Ian Fordham (Education Foundation), Douglas Archibald (Whole Education) and me. I very much appreciated Douglas' suggestion to the conference organizers that people had 15 minutes to talk to one another on their tables, with a truncated Q&A session at the end of the day.
Overall, then, a success for the Guardian in attracting big names (Google was a 'knowledge partner, they got David Puttnam to keynote) and in some fantastic conference organisation. A little more thought about who they get for which sessions next time might be prudent. Thankfully, the feedback form champagne draw took place before the keynote panel session ended, meaning people (probably) didn't have a chance to rate me...
