BETT, the Educational Technology Show takes place at between 11th and 14th January 2007. The show attracts some 28,000 visitors bringing together the global teaching and learning community. It really is the place to be. The show usually features a good mix between experienced exhibitors and presenters in the field of educational technology.

The feature stand this year is "Tomorrow's Learners Today" and is supported by DfES and Partnership for Schools amongst others.

When technology can do anything we wish, says Professor Stephen Heppell, the question becomes: What should we wish for?

The stand is divided into two. One half will showcase a school each day. Pupils on the stand will be surveying visitors and exhibitors about their ideas on future schooling. At the end of each day, the results from the surveys will be announced.

• Lampton School, Hounslow (on Wednesday)
• Homewood School, Kent (on Thursday)
• Castle Manor Business and Enterprise College, Haverhill (on Friday)
• Edensor Technology College, Longton Stoke (on Saturday)

The other half of the stand will feature BETT Brains - and will consist of leading experts on the design of future schools. Many Building Schools for the Future (BSF) case studies will be presented over the four days and the presenters include:

• Peter Wain, Becta,
• Mike Rumble, QCA,
• Hannah Jones, NCSL
• Kate Stewart, Learning Designer, TeamAgogo
• Carole Chapman, Notschool - Virtual Learning
• Dan Sutch, Futurelab

... along with several representative from Partnership for Schools (PfS) and not forgetting Stephen Heppell presenting daily. I will also be on the stand talking about my work with Stepping Stones School on Friday and Saturday, so please do come along and meet me on the stand, D62.

 

   

 

You can read more about the feature stand.

If you want to see what went on last year, take a look at the BETT 2006 Review movie

I attended another school design meeting today at Warwick School for Boys in Walthamstow. I presented some of our CABE research and showed them some of our case study schools... this stimulated a good discussion about what some of the issues are regarding the design of a new school.

Our discussion broadly covered these issues...

• Future technology.... mobile phones, portable computers, smart cards, PDAs
• Curriculum design.... teacher-led, personalised learning, workplace learning, university studies
• Building design.... classroom size, utilisation, ownership, corridors, toilets

What was clear that these couldn't be discussed in isolation since the learning spaces can depend on the organisation of the curriculum, and both the design of the building, curriculum and technology

Again, involving stakeholders in the design of the school is well understood. In fact, the Head and her team understood lots about school design having been involved in this process for some months now. She was keen that I should meet the children who are on the school design panel (this is in addition to the School Council.)

One thing is clear, we need to plan for the certainty of uncertainty. This requires us to be creative about building flexibility into the design of future schools and how both the curriculum and technology is implemented.

It's been a while since I blogged anything, not for the lack of anything to say, but last week consumed all of my time and more. Last Thursday, Hal, Leonie and I travelled to Birmingham to present the designmyschool.net project to a host of delegates at the conference, 'From the Inside Looking Out' organised and run by the Design Council at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole.

Both sessions were fully booked and delegates showed great interest in the designmyschool.net software and were able to see how this could be used in learning environments to support the design process. Never has there been a better time to reconsider what the future school might look like, engaging all stakeholders in the design process is an absolute must. With the government committing even more money to refurbishing, rebuilding and building new schools the time is ripe for our work to be on school design agenda.

The designmyschool.net website aims to raise pupils and teachers awareness of the design issues surrounding school design, and also serves to promote the discussions between pupils, teachers and school leaders. Although the website profiles the pupils' perception of their learning spaces it wouldn't be safe to assume that the responses to their questions provides a comprehensive view of what should happen or influence the design of the school using that data alone.

Highlights of the day includes listening to Prof. Stephen Heppell give the closing talk to the conference and drinking what might be the most expensive hot chocolate in Birmingham.

Read more about School Design

edited: 7th September 2005
------------------------------------

Mark and I attended a school design meeting in Hampshire last Thursday morning (3rd February 2005) to present our CABE research and provoke some thoughts and ideas for how the school might 'move forward' on developing not just buildings, but the ethos and values of pupils and teachers through exploring the school design agenda.

This is an independent school and we met the Headteacher whilst Mark and I were working at Stepping Stones School. The Head was very interested by the design work and ethos that had been engendered at Stepping Stones. The objective was to consider how we could better utilise the existing buildings and space, building on the excellent teaching and learning opportunities that the school already provides.

We also visited the school in the previous week so that we had some appreciation of its size, need and organisation.

Present at the session were five heads of department, the 'business manager', the Headteacher, a governor (day 2), Mark and I.

After an initial introduction by the Head to explain the outcomes and activities for the two days, he handed over to Mark and I to outline the research work that had already been done. Given that the staff had already a nicely bound copy of the CABE - Building Learning Futures report in their hands (our PDF, not the published copy), I choose not to repeat what was already in the report, but to show some of the examples of radical approaches to school design and organisation:

• Australian School of Maths and Science
• Chafford Hundred School
• Unlimited School, Christchurch, NZ

The staff were interested to learn more about the interdisciplinary approach to curriculum organisation, with no "subject classes" and mixed age group teaching. Also, they were interested by the drive for ICT rich environments, the mixed, large, open spaces for working which were stimulating and engaging. I showed them the VR of the Unlimited school, built on the 3rd floor of a department store.

After about an hour or so, the attention was drawn towards a few provocations in relation to current practice at the school. e.g. supposing Mr xxx was teaching in a class of 40 pupils, what would be the implications for pupils, and the member of staff.

For each question (there were 3) we brainstormed 'what would it take to make this happen' for example... larger, more flexible spaces .... ICT rich environment ... more 'experts' .... ownership of spaces by children ... independent learning...... etc etc

We brainstormed the needs from each of the three questions before turning to the first scenario that the Head had written. The first was purposely written as a 'conservative scenario' - much of the schools' current practice remained the same, e.g. same year groups, same curriculum, same ICT suite etc. There was room for new shared classrooms which were bigger and better equipped, but it did mean staff having to give up 'their' teaching room. The discussion centred around the under utilised spaces in the school, each classroom had a utilisation of 40-50%. They are currently far too small, even for 18 pupils.

It became apparent that the conservative approach just wasn't ambitious enough and you could sense the feeling of dis-enchantment which seemed to ripple around the room. The staff had just heard all these great ideas and opportunities, but the scenario stifled their thoughts and vision. I appreciated the value of exploring constraints as this had the potential lead to far more engaging debates. I was keen to take some of the key outcomes that we had brainstormed earlier, i.e. more flexible space and personalised learning (ala Chafford Hundred) and build the scenario from those features.

On Day 2, we began looking at Scenario 2 which was termed as 'Less conservative' - this had features such as mixed age group teaching, children having access to their own laptops, etc. I really enjoyed the discussions which followed. I sat and observed how some of the provocations from the document had a positive outcome on the views of staff. Mark noted a change in opinion to having a set of laptop computers rather than fixed desktops for example, and it came to light that all of the teachers had read the report and made several references to it.

The two days was hugely thought-provoking and enlightening experience for me, and I believe created space for staff members to consider how we could build on existing design and develop new spaces, new areas which will have an impact on the welfare of pupils. Of course, there is more to be done, we should be engaging pupils in the design phase, in fact, all stake-holders from parents to governors are essential to the design process. The need to engage stake-holders was well understood by the staff and they were keen to pursue this further.

I look forward to watching the design process develop.