Shaping Scotland's Digital Future

I promised I would wait to see what was reported about Shaping Scotland's digital future before I blogged about it. In the event the coverage in Herald and Sunday Herald only scratched surface of the event which covered a lot more than was reported.

Here are bullets from my 15 minute slot on podium at Glasgow Science Centre.

- there is a clear skills and confidence gap among deliverers in schools , colleges and workplace in adopting best practice in integrating digital tools into teachng and learning.
-in some sectors this holds back potential innovation in delivery and assessement
-learners and industry would like assessment on demand but to a national standard intelligent use of ICT could deliver this and does not have to be an objective test ( yuch)
-Provided that evidence is authenticated, valid and reliable we can already and do accept evidence in most mediums. The sector chooses how they want to assess. ( evidence on youtube, flickr, blog. wiki all possible see SQA guide to assessment and SQA Assessment 2.0 papers.) It will be good to see greater innovation coming through Curriculum for Excellence in school sector.
- Our challenge is from OfComm we are a nation of consumers of rather than a nation of creators and this needs to change
- We have one of best qualified workforces but lowest productivity in the world
-We need to move from passive transmission models of learning and more broadly top down ways of working to much more active and contributory states both for those in learning and those in the workplace.
- We need to challenge belief that low tech industries should be low tech workplaces- there is not an industy in Scotland which is making the best use of technology.
- ended by asking audience about what they do as well as belonging to social network ( audience mainly young digital natives)
- How many of them googled the speakers before they came along today.
How many thought about managing a digital identity
Had multiple identities
- use msn , twitter or other for more than personal close friend activity
Used virtual worlds as well as Bebo, Facebook etc
Shared creations more than their identity
Images created through Flickr or other
Music mixes , music that had composed
Publshed video from their telephones
Used delicious or digg and other collaborative tools to help with you learning

Interesting and reflecting the Ofcom study most of audience were happy consumers but not active creators. They need more support to build their personal learning networks.

We have just completed a UK study on Next Generation User Skills which we'll stick into this debate shortly.