Paradise lost |
a number of missed opportunities - why didn't they listen? well, you can imagine why. Interesting to look back on though - and sigh a little |
A Grid Club for all |
Back in the summer of 1999 I did a lot of work - with others' help too - on a proposal to build a nationwide grid Club to provide a host of linked activities and communities on the so called National Grid for Learning. The whole project is interesting (missed opportunity for the UK or what?!) - but the snapshot view of children at 1999 is esp interesting. |
a University for Industry? |
When Gordon Brown walked off a platform having given a speech he uttered the throughaway line that "there really ought to be a University for Industry" and an exciting concept, potentially, was born. At Ultralab we were asked to run the on-line pilot - project leader Leonie Ramondt's exceptional OnLine Learning Network was the result. Sunderland University ran a face to face pilot. Read about how good it might have been, here |
Good practice for the Standards Task Force |
Back in April 1998 I built this good practice database for a sub group of the old Standards Task Force, to show how teachers could and should populate each others teaching with the exchange of effective ideas - viral and "helping people to help each other". It took off, teachers loved it... never became policy though (no surprise). It was heroically written in Claris Home Page and Filemaker by the way. |
the BBC's future |
Well, we tried. Fascinating paper this - internal to the BBC (certainly was well received by the DG and was on his desk for some time)... but, well they dropped the ball I guess. Recommendations, where shall the BBC go?
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Millie Mail 1 (one mail per pupil) 1997 |
Millennium mail - one identity and mail address for each learner. Visionary! A huge Blair government promise that I did a LOT of work on - sadly abandoned after big business said "oi, that's our job" and noone in No10 argued. Oh well... |
Millie Mail 2 (one mail per pupil) 1997 |
lots more milliemail detail here - not really a write off when it didn't happen, because it went on to be the heaart and soul of Oracle's free-to-use Think.com (Tony didn't get it, but Larry did!) |
Indicative specifications for digital movie contributions... |
...to the UK's (at that stage virtual) national college of school leadership. Here are the guidelines I suggested. QuickTime was a remarkable video technology with a host of features - from sprite tracks to searchable text subtiltes and so much more. What a world it would be now if things like the BBC's unambitiously dull iPlayer had embraced the possibilities... Paradise Lost indeed. |
Information Communications technology in UK Schools |
An independent inquiry, chaired by Dennis Stevenson, into which I put a lot of effort. It proposed much that was adopted - but also things like a universal ID for students and teachers, which were not. Looking back, far too much of the wisdom contained in the report (which is here, in full) has been lost or muddied - hence its inclusion, despite a huge impact, in this Paradise Lost section. |
these pages last updated: Thursday, April 14, 2011 11:26 AM