Becta & beyond

With the recent snuffing of BECTA, must also come the warning signals for similar organisations in many other western countries including Australia.  While an outpouring of comments might suggest messages are mixed on the success of BECTA, inevitably a structure like  BECTA will have detractors, especially within its own homeland. But over the years whenever I sought a reliable research paper – BECTA was  first up. This was so when colleague Sue Beveridge and I were looking at background work to the IWB experience in the UK many years ago. And in respect to the evolution of LMS/VLE/ePortfolios etc again BECTA was always my key reference.  As Gerry White stated BECTA “has been one of the leading global lighthouses in the use of digital technologies in education and the envy of educators worldwide seeking to improve education through the use of digital technologies”.  What other organisations will fill the gap is hard to say will NAACE pull together to try and plug the gap of research, advice, support of the education community? The tide seems to be turning everywhere for ICT in education. FutureLab  was buried, and what are the implications for JISC?  In Australia we’ve seen the DER roll out, now with little surety of funding with either government? In NSW large scale programs such as Connected Classrooms, will complete their roll out within the next year, and cutbacks look inevitable to additional IT funding. Both State and National curriculum bodies are favouring core knowledge rather than knowledge skills and information literacy.  Has the cycle of investment in ICT now peaked and we are seeing a return to the trough of conservative initiatives in education- just at a time when its critical to support what for most  jurisdictions has been the true beginnings of a digital revolution. To quote Graham Attwell “there is no doubt that the closure signals the end of an era in technology development and implementation in UK education. Educational technologists in many European countries have long looked at the UK in envy. Reliant on either centralised government led initiatives, or local support and projects, there has been far less opportunities for developing and implementing effective programmes and strategies for technology in learning”.