In Stephen Heppell’s piece in The Guardian of Jan 9th he makes an eloquent appeal, “Having already spoken to some of the children I know that many innovations in tomorrow’s learning will come directly from them and from their extraordinary, ingenious young teachers. But please, please, please will someone allow them the freedom and space to save education?”

I couldn’t agree more. On my recent visits to schools I have been horrifed at how little the staff and pupils are allowed to do. Sites and online tools that have immediate and obvious learning value are blocked by over-zealous and excessively cautious network administrators which forces students and staff into dull, dated activities. This point is also made by John Naughton in his column, The Networker, in the Observer of Jan 7th. Writing under the heading, “Welcome to IT class, children; log on and be bored stiff,” he castigates the IT curriculum as being unimaginative and out of date. To me it seems composed of stuff that is to today’s kids what using a hand-cranked calculating machine is to my generation. He goes on to reference the thoughts of Seymour Papert, that computers are essentially emancipatory devices, whereas schools are basically institutions of control.

If we want today’s students to be able to innovate with ICT in life, work and learning , we have to break out of this mentality of control. Naughton makes the point that the current curriculum is perparing kids to use the aging tools of an old paradigm – rather than educating them for life in a networked society where they will need knowledge and skills undreamt-of by the QCA.

Too true.