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

70 people attended Monday’s launch of The Centre for School Design at 1 London Bridge.

The speakers included Baroness Estelle Morris, Stephen Bayley and Steve Moore as well as introductions from myself and my colleague, Ty Goddard. We also got hold of a few key people to share their views on video.

Tweet highlights from the night include:

Your tweets:

• SuButcher Ty Goddard speaking: Really been getting to grips with what social media can do for education policy – thus #c4sd /via @c4sd
• carbonoutreach Smart design=priceless! RT @EEPaul @SteveMoore4Good talking on tech encouraging interaction on school design http://twitpic.com/zq5sk #c4sd
• UKConstruction Stephen Bayley talking at #c4sd says Pevsner overlooked school design http://twitpic.com/zq42q /via @EEPaul
• SENSE_Media @ianfordham Afterglow from #c4sd launch <- Agreed, great night! Looking forward to a conversation sometime soon!
• kateandrews @ianfordham @c4sd @JeremiahAlex @EEPaul Great to meet you all last night. @stevemoore4good @sense_media Great to see you too!

For completeness, our own tweets at the time included these:

• Estelle Morris “really important that when we finish a project that the information that we pick up doesn’t go nowhere’
• Stephen Bayley – schools are ‘a memory palace’ – imagine if Harry Potter had been set in a modern school?
• Bayley: ‘very little formalised thinking about school design’ – classic school boards built to a cost rather than a principle
• Stephen Bayley – talking about Dotheboys Hall http://www.historyhome.co.uk/readings/dotheboy.htm
• Bayley: “Most schools architects think current govt approach is wrong”
• Bayley quoting ‘Everything that is bad is good for you’ http://tinyurl.com/yhng2u8
• Bayley: “great architecture needs great clients” and “God first made idiots as practice before he made school boards”
• @stevemoore4good “shift in focus from schools to understanding what a great teachers is.” (quoting ‘great teacher’ article-Atlantic Monthly)
• Ty Goddard: “Schools are getting more right than ever before and it’s widely acknowledged that school design matters”
• Ty Goddard: “Welsh approach to schools capital investment is exciting – England could learn from them.”
• Ty Goddard: “Key thing is to funnel everyone’s ideas into the next govt – whoever it is.”

Thanks to everyone who came along – we look forward to involving as many people as possible in the new project – but in the meantime, please follow us on Twitter and join the LinkedIn group?

Related posts:

1. Why we established The Centre for School Design
2. New ‘post bureaucratic age’ think tank puts school design centre stage