Photo credit: Mr Ush

Ewan McIntosh the mercurial host of yesterday’s #Bectax event suggested the 150 participants – taken from across education, tech and media industry – have a well earned Easter break before reflecting on the conference.  So I’ll take his word and blog the morning after!

The event (hats off to BECTA and Katz Kieley @katzy by the way) had some real highlights – the ambitious live video feeds from 12 schools, the high octane speed networking, the challenge sessions / pitches and the pechu kucha style quickfire sessions. There was also a dynamite presentation from a legendary school librarian who challenged schools to be brave and open up tech for all students and staff

There was a torrent of backstream activity and a lot of great twitter posts from young people from the schools throughout the event. What was tough was integrating all of this seamlessly into the programme to give real power to those not in the room. Also – as seems inevitable with a technology conference – the tech failed a few times – which meant some of the students were switched of.  But that’s not to say we shouldn’t try to bring so many schools into the debate and take risks.

One twitter post this morning rightly said ‘Becta X – ok but what impact will it have?’. For me the debate definitely got caught up too much in box and wires issues such as wifi, filtering and networks and not enough about what changes we want from the education system as a whole. There was also less about teaching and learning and of nothing about design, space or infrastructure. One of the 2 elephants in the room were also: what if BECTA isn’t here after the next election and also what if technology becomes a less important factor in the next government’s thinking about education. I would also have liked a ‘grill the policy makers’ session and much more input from the learners themselves.

That said – I would rate Becta X a real success for 3 reasons: 1. its rare for an education government body to pull together a mixed group of educationalists, technologists, policy makers, industry people and young people and simply ask – what next? 2. It modelled an approach to solution focused policy making– the challenge sessions took 5 questions created by practitioners, professionals and learners and asked teams of to come up with a pitchable proposal in 1 hour. Some were ambitious and would need major cash, but others were low cost and high impact.  Imagine what we could do in a day or with the students there? 3. there was a real sense of energy in the room and with those joining the event virtually to reboot education and continue that debate. As for the impact – the brave move for Becta would be to mainstream these events and ideas into the heart of their work. It would be a great shame for this to be just another talking shop – and the students would switch us off.

Related posts:

1. BECTA X to Nick Gibb – social media in action
2. Why school environments matter
3. School capital investment – getting our house in order

I had a great chat with Katz Kieley - the mastermind of a fantastic programme of events in the digital world called B-tween. She has been asked by BECTA to set up a collaborative event at the end of March called BECTA X. My chat with her is now a blog on their site

For me, the use of social media is starting to infiltrate a lot of the processes and the debate itself in education. Another example, was a lot of traffic last night on twitter about the debate about new schools and what comes next after the next election. Maybe its under most people’s radar – but the exchange between Bob Harrison @bobharrisonset (tech adviser) and Sam Freedman @Samfr (special adviser on education to the conservatives) last night – and a further intervention from social media guru Steve Moore @stevemoore4good about Nick Gibb’s comments on cutting school capital investment – is a great example of policy debate being out in the open rather than being kept behind closed doors.

We keep saying the debate is hotting up – I think we haven’t seen anything yet and social media will play a major part in the outcome. One question we have though – where are the Labour Education team in this debate?

Related posts:

1. Using social media to change education policy
2. School capital investment – getting our house in order
3. Technology and school buildings

This is an absolutely vital time. This major investment in school buildings has made a difference, and we really can’t afford to go back to not spending money consistently on infrastructure. The sheer scale of this investment is hard to absorb for many people, and it’s been ill-served by some of the ‘research’ flying around.

The Great Schools Commission [a cross-party group set up by the BCSE and chaired by former education secretary Estelle Morris] is looking at an evidence base in the UK and abroad that says this matters. It’s not about crude research expecting attainment to rise instantly. But when you see new and refurbished buildings that are understood by teachers and learners, and designed to support what the school is, then I think the argument is pretty conclusive.

I recently met Mr Castle, an assistant head of Elm Green school in Lambeth. He had taught in six schools across London, and spoke of the difference that this majestic building is making. He said “the building allows the staff to teach, it doesn’t get in the way”. They can use double-sized classrooms when they need to, and small ones for quiet work. They have an amazing space called the market square for recreation. It’s making a difference to how he and his fellow teachers feel about teaching.

Getting our house in order

We’ve got to get our house in order, as we cannot justify the costs that have been associated with the Building Schools for the Future programme. But cutting the costs are different from cutting the investment. We need different approaches to procurement. And I think we need a national advisory council at the heart of government that can talk directly about school investment to the secretary of state. Quangos like Partnerships for Schools and BECTA, by their very nature, are not best placed to explain or defend investment to a wider audience.

I’m clear that whatever school system you have, it needs good environments. We’ve got to make the arguments: it’s about the achievements and outcomes for young people, and about jobs. You look around the world and other countries are investing in infrastructure, so it’s also about UK plc. And we should appreciate the skills that we have taken years to build up in design, construction and the supply chain.

Investment on this scale hasn’t just happened because someone waved a magic wand. We had to make a case, and we have to again, with and around other public spending priorities. I was recently at the Conservatives education policy launch, in a fantastic academy in Walworth.  They wouldn¹t have launched it in an allotment shed. I think that we need to communicate to both front benches that this investment matters. And we can’t do it on our own.

This is an edited version from an ‘in conversation piece’ article with Sarah Richardson, Deputy Editor, Building Magazine. Ty is speaking at the BSEC conference next week with a hard hitting presentation – ‘the truth about school buildings’.

Related posts:

1. Technology and school buildings
2. The Swedish Schools model – will they work in the UK?