The Futurelab Research Day was hard work, and all the better for it. The sessions shared experiences of projects, discussion papers and research reviews, and posed difficult questions to an audience more than prepared to offer their perspectives from a wide range of different communities. The day was thought-provoking, and I went away with ideas, not only about the topics addressed, but also about what we might need to do to prepare ourselves adequately for the tasks of planning for the future of education. I was reminded of Ted Wragg’s call for ‘intelligent action’.

Before I summarise my response to the focused session on Digital Inclusion, I’ll share two thoughts about our preparation for the challenges which face us. Futurelab produces a variety of resources and publications to help us to review and reflect on starting points, questions and what we might know already.

No-one in our group raised their hand to indicate that they had read any of this material on Digital Inclusion. This is a pity, as these are rich and provoking resources, and we use them with our university student teachers who will be ICT specialists.

It made me think about how in this ‘Knowledge Age’, we are all so busy trying to deal with all the information available and the clamouring deadlines, that we have little time for reading and reflection to prepare us for such an event.

Bite-Sizes and Bullet Points are not adequate to the task we have ahead of us. Perhaps we could declare a National Thinking Day, when we all stop clattering at the keyboards and shop checkouts, go for a walk and think about what matters to us now in order to help us prepare for the future. The second thought was related to how our discussion group found it difficult to focus on the challenging questions.

We were all high-achieving, professional people who know about the dynamics of discussions, yet we needed a bit more time and space in smaller groups to work off our sense of frustration and un/certainty about the ‘state of things’, before we could really listen to each other, ask the Delphi questions and begin a dialogue of possibilities. There was a wealth of experience, expertise and enthusiasm in the room, and we need to recognise how to acknowledge that and develop strategies to learn from each other.

Digital Inclusion

The session had three threads: a presentation by Keri Facer of the work that Futurelab has been doing in this area (http://www.futurelab.org.uk/themes/digital_inclusion ); discussion; and a presentation by Roz Hall of her work as a creative practitioner in evaluating a wide range of projects responding to people’s experiences and needs. The materials from the presentations will be available on the website, so my summary focuses on some of the key words or ideas which struck me as I listened.

1. Participation. Digital inclusion is NOT offering digital technologies as a solution to issues of inequality and social justice. The projects and reviews look at ‘contours of participation’ and how people might be able to make informed choices about access to, and use of digital technologies in their lives.
2. Experience and expertise. The members of the discussion group, and the people who produced and responded to the Futurelab materials, draw upon a wealth of experience, expertise and understanding of complexity in this area.
3. Myths and monsters. We still keep referring to ‘digital naturals’ and ‘immigrants’ without acknowledging that the emerging research findings paint a more complex and nuanced picture of people’s learning lives with digital technologies. We still tend to label communities in ‘deficit’, without exploring the patterns of participation, and whose priorities are being supported.
4. Contradictions. We welcome collaboration and personalisation with digital technologies. We’re not so keen on surveillance, tracking and threats to privacy.
5. Assets and Networks. How do we acknowledge and draw upon the assets within and between communities?
6. Measures How do we keep on trying to measure, assess and evaluate what we value?
7. Power and Ownership. We need to keep reminding ourselves of the power relationships between the people and communities engaging in digital inclusion projects and policy. Do we take people seriously? Is what we do authentic and relevant?
8. Play. Never underestimate the power of play in making meaning. When did we last give ourselves time for this?
9. Research! How do we get better at telling stories with conceptual ‘punch’ to funders and policy makers? We have research expertise to ask questions, analyse data, interpret evidence and conduct studies ethically with sound methodologies.
10. People. Our knowledge is embodied in real, whole people, not projects, initiatives, targets or sets of standards. The themes of Digital Inclusion, Teachers and Innovation and Learning Spaces are all about people.

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