Niel McLean Keynote at NAACE

Live blogged! Please excuse typos and awkward wording

Niel McLean, of Becta, is talking about what technology is doing for students. He makes a point about how traditionally we have seen boys work in bursts, while girls seem to move through their learning fairly steadily. However, when ICT is involved in the learning experience, boys tend to become more steady with their activity.

People often say, we’ve been here before, with television, etc. People have used it as an argument that ICT will not follow through with the revolution. However, TV did fulfill it promise in that it impacted on what children expect from their childhood experience.

Now this is a theme I’ve heard several times, while here at this conference, demand-side empowerment. From the perspecitive of assessment, it means making assessment part of the learning process and making it personal. There are questions that learners ask that we have traditionally not answered well. The include:

  • Why suhould I learn this?
  • What can I learn about?
  • How could I study it?
  • How will I learn it?
  • How do we know I’ve learned it?
  • where will it get me?

Empowering learners is a phrase that he is using pretty regularly. Part of it is universal access, which, he says is doable. They could provide it in three years. Another part is the safety issues, which is coming up here in Torquay more than I expected it to.

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2 thoughts on “Niel McLean Keynote at NAACE”

  1. David,

    I think that asking these questions and more importantly answering them is absolutely essential to quality education. If students don’t know why they are learning what they are learning they see no reason to learn. If technology can help us in this regard fantastic.

  2. Hello.
    As an educator, I see teachers working hard to gain this new knowledge about technology. Their motivation? To stay current with changing times. However, when asked how this is improving student learning, it seems to get a little foggy. I personally find that web 2.0 tools are engaging and empowering for our students. But are they smarter, as a result? How is it impacting student learning?

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