Schools in the cloud – the e-education revolution

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Take a look inside New Scientist magazine and you’ll notice recruitment adverts for Sparx, an organisation dedicated to revolutionising the learning experience by releasing the power of the world’s most sophisticated technologies into the education environment.

They’re looking for the best, most driven teachers to deliver a step-change in education. They’re also looking for people who devour data, unlocking its potential to power the classroom of the future. Plus product directors, games developers and software engineers, all of whom will help embed new technologies into educational environments for the first time.

A quiet revolution?

Sparx is just one of a flurry of organisations and individuals proposing and harnessing new technologies to improve and inspire better education right across the planet, bringing the joy of learning to everyone, no matter how remote, poor or ill-equipped.

Take a look at the big picture and it looks as though we’re in the middle of a quiet yet unstoppable revolution. So far mostly used to drive e-commerce, new technologies are finally being brought into play for the benefit of young people everywhere. And as a result there are some very interesting times ahead.

Sugata Mitra’s ‘school in the cloud’

Newcastle University-based Sugata Mitra has won this year’s coveted million dollar TED prize 2013 for his school in the cloud idea, an innovation whose focus falls firmly on enquiry-based learning. The organisers of the Technology, Entertainment and Design Conference were impressed by Dr Mitra’s ideas for “building a school in the cloud”, the latest in a series of innovative and successful educational projects.*

Dr Mitra is already famous for his hole-in-the-wall computers, which he installed in Indian slums from 1999 onwards, in turn inspiring the book Q&A which eventually led to Danny Boyle’s smash hit film Slumdog Millionaire. Following on from its success, Dr Mitra then set up the Granny Cloud, where retired British volunteers teach Indian children via Skype. His ‘school in the cloud’ idea was born of his faith in self-learning, and offers self-educational software to young people in remote areas of India, having proved through his hole-in-the-wall initiative that youngsters are perfectly capable of teaching themselves.

*
Independent London school goes wireless

Just over a year ago a worrying Ofsted report, which examined 167 primary, secondary and special schools, revealed a chronic lack of computer skills, with half of 14 – 16 year olds not being taught ICT in any shape or form. But things are changing fast.

Back in 2004, the independent boys’ City of London School was languishing in the technological doldrums. Now it’s at the forefront of the e-education revolution, embracing the idea of ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) and putting in place a wireless network to connect everyone involved, including the school’s staff, pupils and visitors.

As a result, more than 900 children between aged ten and eighteen and their 200 teaching and admin staff will be connected, as will attendees at the school’s many private events. Once the not-so-proud owner of a handful of clunky and insecure wireless access points, the school now enjoys 67 Xirrus access points covering almost 100% of the premises, giving access to all staff and the entire sixth form. The next step? To implement something similar for younger pupils, created directly in line with the age group’s specific learning requirements.

Google blows a beautiful raspberry

In a world in which current information and communications technology teaching is widely thought to be inadequate and most people who know how to code are self-taught, the search engine giant Google is funding the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

The hope is that 15,000 free Raspberry devices donated by Google will inspire British children to learn coding skills and encourage the next generation of computer scientists. Which is good news considering that the last decade has seen the number of UK youngsters studying computer science drop 23% at undergraduate level and 34% at graduate level.

What does the future hold for e-education?

Are these four initiatives the tip of an iceberg, with computer skills and technologies coming to the educational fore at last? The world is facing unprecedented challenges over the next few decades, and young people need to be properly equipped to deal with them. Let’s hope these stories really do represent the dawn of a new era.*






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