At a desperate loss for inspiration this morning, (last night there might have been some marking, some reports, some crashing of a certain not to be named laptop, and a small instance of temper losing). So I am defaulting to the genius of someone else who feels as passionately confused, frustrated and excited by education as me….and interrogating the hell out of them. Sort of.
 
Ben Barton has been in educational publishing for the past 18 years; he’s started a couple of companies, worked for large organisations and now consults and enthuses about all things education. He’s been working as a tutor and teaching assistant for the past couple of years; and he has a great blog called: www.keystone-education.co.uk/blog.

So, Ben, what excites you about education?
What really excites me is how technology can move our students on further and faster than at any time before. I’m also excited about the New Primary Curriculum, www.teachmeet.org and a generation of teachers who are better trained and more visionary than at anytime before.
 
And what concerns you?
What really concerns me as we enter an election campaign is the fact that while we expect teachers to be experts we plainly have generalists at the head of our education system. Be it David Laws, Ed Balls or Michael Gove at the DCSF we haven’t got an expert, merely a career politician on the way up or down. I think we should go the USA route and allow the PM to hire the best of the best to support our teachers.
 
What one thing could the government do to improve the state of education today?
Free laptop for every 11 year old as they arrive at secondary school. If we swapped this for the Children’s Trust Fund we would save millions and put EVERY child on a level playing field at secondary school. Oh yes, and get rid of Grammar Schools. Pay for education if you can afford it but please, please dont judge children at 11.
 
What has been the most important technological advance for schools?
Whiteboards have been useful but I think the use of the digital camera is the most important because its the most ubiquitous and has brought simple technology to classes across the UK. The visual element is critical and digital cameras alllow students to become artists, movie-makers and really helps their writing.
 
And what about the most pointless?
I am sceptical about VLEs. My son uses one to upload his homework and its the most unfriendly and out-dated system going. Where central government tries to manage an individual school’s software (through ‘approved’ suppliers) it goes against community, autonomy and pragmatism.
 
What would you do if you were education secretary for a day?
Give out a load of laptops.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 8:40 am and is filed under Assessment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.