I arrived back yesterday at about 8pm from the Scottish Learning Festival for 2010. It was an enjoyable day, mainly because it was nice to get a chance to have a days chat with Fraser Speirs, my old friend and colleague, and the inspiration behind the iPad project in Cedars School.
It was the fourth or fifth year I've visited the festival and every year throws up something different. There are always an eclectic mix of the great, good, silly, outdated and outlandish ideas to be hitting Scottish education.
The Scottish education minister, Mike Russell, gave a decent opening keynote, although he painted an overly positive picture of the changes that have come with A Curriculum for Excellence. His speech was rather notable for the absence of a mention of the current, or future, exam structure which I, as a parent, am starting to get concerned about for my own kids.
Apart from that we met the guys from Apple, which was nice. Also one or two representatives from other local authorities who seem keen to push forward the iPad project model. It must be hard in such massive numbers and difficult financial circumstances.
Aside from that, my only other lasting impression was one of extreme annoyance with a presentation by a young Scottish educational technology company who have a good idea and nicely produced resources but made a total hash of the launch of their latest offering. A lesson in what not to do!
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