Digital Signposts

Domesday Reloaded (Part 1)

George Auckland by Rain Rabitt  Licence  CC- BY-NC

Firstly,  I think we should all congratulate George Auckland  and his team for breathing new life into the 1984-86 Domesday Project. I have met George several times and have been privileged to hear him to speak at conferences, and have never failed to be moved by his knowledge, modesty and vision. George can now add Domesday Reloaded to his significant achievements.  Domesday Reloaded is a “full extraction of the community disc  - This is the material which has been published online as the centrepiece of the BBC “Domesday Reloaded website.”

The significance of the original BBC Domesday Project should not be underestimated in the history of audio visual learning. Undertaken in 1984 and first published in 1986, Its mission was to capture a snapshot of life in the UK by combining geographical information with cultural media, data and statistics. In some ways this can be seen as a forerunner of today's crowd-sourced interactive media. A collaborative venture between the BBC, schools and the general public, two laser-vision data discs contained over 80,000 images, OS Maps and professional video footage. Its scope can be gathered from this detailed promotional video.  Unfortunately the combination of the high cost of hardware and its technical complexity meant it was never able to fulfill its true educational potential. It is not surprising that many of those concepts would re-emerge later, facilitated by Internet based platforms.

My initial reaction was excitement and elation, the first thing I did was to look where I grew up and read the comments, most from schoolchildren, some I knew. Judging by the Twitter stream resulting from a search on “Domesday.”  I was not alone. “Memories” is the recurring theme, and the stream is littered with anecdotes of personal involvement or recollections of a place.  Very interestingly quite a few folks suggest that Domesday extended their vision of the possibilities of IT, especially in relation to learning.

At the time I was a, (young), ICT advisor with Bradford LA and privileged to be able to run a Domesday project with  local schools who would “borrow” one of our systems for a month, (we had both the BBC Master and RM PC186 driven players). The schools set up projects using the kit and evaluated their potential through teacher feedback and students work. Sadly it is unlikely any of that still exists.

Following the live Twitterstream, as I write this; I am amazed by the number of tweeters who have identified, and are already sharing their original contributions the project. A  thread running through the tweets is an unbridled craving for this type of resource. It will be interesting to watch, over the coming months, how this project brings people together.

Domesday Reloaded once again offers great opportunities learning and I am sure schools throughout the land will already be planning projects based on Domesday.
Children (and adults), can engage once again engage with the country we live in and compare our lives  then and now through contributing to the site.

It is pleasing to hear that future of the original community content, plus the updated site  will be assured by the National Archive as stated in this BBC news item

“The revised Domesday archive will finally be closed to new contributions in November, at which time it will be handed over to The National Archives Future generations will be able to access this unique snapshot of life in Britain online for as long as the Internet keeps working.

Part 2, will look at the wider implications of Domesday.

 

Unlocking Education, setting learning free

Image Credit: Ashley R Good, CC licence

Many educational debates are framed very tightly, focusing on minutiae such as curricula, testing, schools, buildings or technology. Although they can be very valuable, such debates often lock themselves into a specific place, an email list, or only reaching a restricted audience. Whilst such topics are very important, they are fragmented; there is a bigger picture of education and learning. Therefore it was good news when Doug and Andy kick-started Purpose/ed as a national, now global conversation, extending across a range of channels. Although there have been Great Debates on education in the past Purpose/Ed is a ground up initiative.

So, for my Purpose/Ed contribution I will argue that the purpose of education is to unlock our world so that we can all have an active and meaningful role in shaping it. Education should help us unlock the wealth of knowledge, ideas and experiences that are often shut away, sometimes deliberately, where access is only permitted to those who have been granted the key by passing tests.  

OK then; how do we go about it?  The old cliché of unlocking and opening minds seems to be good place to start.  I would define an unlocked mind as belonging to someone who can see value in all members of society, who is willing to challenge fixed ideas.

This doesn't require, special tools or technology, just a commitment to help people improve their lives, a common sense of purpose to advance the common interest of humans, in a real world context, such as this example in Afghanistan where books have been the key. I agree  with the article's hypothesises that it may actually be easier to open minds where a predominant culture, and/or economic circumstance mitigate against this, and I think we can see this happening around us.

In our Western culture I see school and institutional learning as restrictive, their cultural rituals automatically deny us access to alternative opportunities for learning, locking us into a pedagogical treadmill of knowledge and facts,  but without a meaningful context to apply them. Ewan rightly asks "Do we want people to learn at all?"

Although, normally, classrooms are not physically locked, it is very difficult to escape their hold and influence. Timetables and subjects lock us in to a rigid paradigm of stop-start learning.  A real alternative is to unlock the the doors and create a welcoming space where communities (children, parents and experts), can learn together and benefit from face to face contact.

Knowledge, competencies and skills can be acquired individually; any place, any time, using current technologies and tools, including those that provide formative feedback. Sadly many of these are locked down in schools, especially our social networks. One only needs to look at Granny Cloud and Facebook to see their value as social glue.

Finally in order to unlock our world we need to have open access to our culture by opening our archives which offer a counterpoint to the official histories, and our academic research in order to let all participate in, and benefit from our collective wisdom.

 

These are just a few personal starters for unlocking education, I hope the comments may point to many more.

Flickr & Getty - Predatory Moves or an Uneasy Alliance?

 
Image Credit: The Advocacy Project  CC Licence BY-NC-SA

I often need images to use in presentations or workshops, so one of my first ports of call is Flickr's advanced search  tool, to help find images with a suitable Creative Commons licence.  Earlier today, I was searching for images of schools and learning around the world, and found the stunning photograph which was exactly the image I was looking for. Checking the metadata I noticed the request by Getty Images to licence the image.

I had read about the Getty Images partnership with Flickr, but this is the first time I have seen it realised on a Flickr Page. What immediately concerned me was that the apparent request, from Getty was not just to licence one or two images, but to acquire the rights to the whole of the Advocacy Project photostream collection; currently standing at 8,989 images, all with a Creative Commons licences.

If the licensing, for this superb collection of high quality images, was transferred to Getty it would be a sad loss to Flickr and its community. However, it would be an even greater loss to all who share an interest in education, culture and humanitarian issues around the world.  It would deprive access to the collection and our ability to use and share the images and add to their substantial metadata and narratives. If you have not already come across these pictures, I would recommend taking some time to browse.

Subsequently, the images would no longer no longer show up on Flickr but re-appear on the Getty/Flickr [sic], page  as thumbnails c/w small watermarked preview and shopping basket. Getty's terms clearly state that owners of the image must re-licence them as All Rights Reserved.

I think it is fine that Photographers are able to submit their images to Getty for possible licensing, (although I don’t think the terms are too favourable: 20%-30% of Getty's sale price - depending on model); or Getty trying to licence images with an All Rights Reserved status. That is one thing, but to trawl Flickr in order to harvest collections that have been made accessible to the public under a CC licence, is a predatory move which should be strongly resisted. It is also worth noting that a CC licence cannot be revoked, so if you have downloaded a CC licensed image, from Flickr, that has subsequently been acquired by Getty, you are still perfectly entitled to use that image under the terms of the original licence.

I have sent a Flickrmail to the Advocacy Project outlining my concerns, and look forward to reading their thoughts. Obviously, Getty does offer payment therefore I am happy to make a contribution to the Advocacy Project fund for any images I use, (Indeed I already have done so). If we want to preserve our access to these and similar quality images then perhaps others might consider doing likewise.

A Clean Slate, Blank Canvas or Painting by Numbers

Image Credit: Testar Logistics; CC Licence

I was away sunning myself last week, so I missed, the predicted and inevitable announcement regarding the abolition of the Becta, QCDA and the GTCE, and unsurprisingly, the social networks, mail-lists and forums have been buzzing and there have been some excellent blog posts covering a broad range of viewpoints, reflecting on the new, and unfamiliar landscape as it emerges.

Whist there has been a fair bit of hand wringing, and some folks wanting to take action to 'save' these bodies'; irrespective of their merits or otherwise; now that it has happened, it is important to recognise that  we have a 'clean slate'. Not necessarily a bad thing, because all interested in learning, especially in the formal and compulsory education sectors now have the opportunity to significantly shape  the future direction of how technology augments learning.

Now, the question is how are we to approach this; as a blank canvas or a painting by numbers exercise?  The latter is the easy option and in my opinion doomed to failure, resulting in a poor pastiche, (see image above), of what has gone before.

The challenge is to bring together all stakeholders to work on a broad canvas, rather than each individually and meticulously trying to keep within the boundaries of their allocated areas. The grass roots conferences, movements and networks have a key role to play but they cannot do it by themselves, other stakeholders need to be involved;  Naace, Edugeek, Mirandanet, JISC, Futurelab and the startups and commercial companies who wish to operate in education. I am sure there are many others I have missed; who may wish to add themselves in the comments below.

To conclude, many styles and approaches will be needed, Constructivist, Futurist, Abstract Expressionism, Conceptual, Impressionist, Super Realist, Folk Art, Surrealism and Graffiti. Any more?

Last and First Post

 

image credit: Scoobyfoo; Licence

Quite a few folks that know me, have mentioned  that I haven't written a  'full' blog post for nearly 6 months, a fact of which I am painfully aware. Revisiting my back catalogue provides the evidence that I have never really a frequent blogger, although I am still quite pleased with some of the posts to be found there. Clearly the current situation is not really working,  so now is probably as good a time as any to make a fresh start with my online presence in the back So for the time being  I going to be posting at http://theok.posterous.com/  I think Posterous has more of the immediacy of Twitter, the space where I have been spending a lot of my online time.

Also; now is probably as good a time as any 'cause:

• BETT is always good for a few quick posts to get started
  
• Good time to move away from Typepad's paid service, and use the money saved for other projects
• More flexibility in type and range of posts and media
• Widen readership and hopefully make it more useful and stimulating
• The name itself; everythings digital now and we have a good idea of where we might be heading, so Digital Signposts probably outlived its usefuleness

So sitting here on the train to London for BETT,  time for another new start, so come on over to The Continuum.....always open for discussion and comment, and a  Happy New Year to all.

The river of digital content......

 (Adapted)  Image Credit : Will Lion   CC Licence:

This recent Guardian, article takes a close look at the forthcoming National Digital Resource Bank (NDRB), one of number of initiatives such as this and this, designed to make digital resources readily accessible to teachers and students. Even better news that the NDRB resources are being made available under a Creative Commons licence. This will allow teachers and students to remix and share these assets using any of the easy to use desktop and online tools at their disposal, and it is a great leap forward. All credit to Gary Clawson, CE at the North West Learning Grid and Fiona Iglesias, NDRB's project manager for getting the project underway and hosting it on an open source content platform. This is a good vantage point from which to look at the issues related to educational digital content.

Digital resources can, and should, play a significant part in contemporary learning. In order to take full advantage of their opportunities, we need to think beyond the hole filling, swap-shop, or easy life scenarios alluded to. As Noel Jenkins, rightly suggests in the article, digital content should be used to develop critical thinking in students. This is best facilitated when students are engaged, remixing, adapting, commenting and building on the resources. 

My involvement, in recent years, with numerous projects centered around digital resources, has enabled me to come up with a list of considerations which might be helpful to anyone considering similar projects, using or managing digital content in education.

1. One Stop Shop 
2. Approved
3. Hidden away
4. Prescriptive
   
5. Value
   
6. Training
   

1. The One Stop Shop

Digital content is growing exponentially, a broad river of information fed by numerous sources, an unstoppable flow of resources from content holders. Therefore portals and content providers should not assume their content will be the definitive site, a one stop shop that meets everyone’s needs. It doesn't matter how it is promoted, the connective and networked affordances of the Internet will guarantee folk will get the resources they want from many different sources.

So the overarching question must be; why just use one source, when we can build on, and combine resources from NDRB, Flickr Commons  The Internet Archive. Casseopiea, ArtBabble to name but a few? What is becoming very clear is that digital content, and the way we are able to manage it with technology will continue to improve, in terms of quality, accessibility and usability.

2. Quality Control, and approval

 

One of the the biggest obstacles to making resources readily available is individuals or  committees trying to define 'quality assured' content, This can lead to bureaucracy and bottlenecks slowing up the release of resources. It is also possible those vetting, are not necessarily practitioners or experts in an appropriate field, or have a full understanding of the potential of a resource. It is much easier, more efficient and cost effective to moderate content using a simple alert/reporting system. This will ensure resources get out into schools, in an accessible form and let teachers and students engage with them in order to:

• rate, recommend and review
• tag
• edit and remix
• upload/share/republish

User rating seems to be as good a way as any to identify content that is useful' for others, it works well for YouTube and other community social networking sites. I do have sympathy with the need to check for copyright infringement case. However if this is done in isolation it won't help teachers or students come to grips with this essential element of digital literacy. Copyright and IP should be central to digital literacy. In order to make best use of CC licensed material, the first thing to do is learn about  the licences and use them appropriately. (See training, 6, and thumbnail credits, below). These diagnostic tools from JISC should also prove invaluable here.

3 Hidden Away

Many digital resources are freely accessible online, once downloaded they should be just as easy to find and ready to use intuitively. There is always a danger they may be hidden away, either by accident or design; in a repository, a VLE, used primarily for low level multiple choice quizzes, or just become shovelware with no guarantee they will ever be used. 

Perhaps we should be giving much more mileage to the idea of Bricolage.  Let's promote and distribute digital resources using social software tools such as Delicious. Perhaps we should be developing tools that work for content, the way Spotify does for music.

Interestingly enough, there is no mention in the Guardian article of mobile learning, or gaming although it is now becoming evident that these are the emergent technologies likely to have profound implications for learning. Smart phones, mobile projectors and augmented reality are already here, ignoring them is missing a trick. For a simple example you need look no further than this free iPhone app  featuring works from the National Gallery. Becoming familiar with QR codes and folksonomies is likely to be much more beneficial than worrying about SCORM compliancy.

4. Prescriptive

It is still common practice for most educational digital resources to be targeted to age, subjects keystages etc. Whilst this may be a perfectly logical approach for a narrow prescriptive curriculum, and can add some good illustrative material, it does not tap into the real learning potential of digital content. In the light of connected data and personalised learning it seems clearly nonsensical to tie down a resource to a very predetermined and narrow focus. We have tools and networks at our disposal to do much more with rich content than shoehorn it into outdated practices.

5. Value

Historically the business model of content providers has been to charge for exclusive access to content, either on a subscription, or a one off basis. This may have been fine before web 2.0 as  value was determined by scarcity. Times have changed, as the news industry is finding to its cost.

Whilst the stated value of the content might be, (xnumber of thousands), such figures are more likely to be a reflection of the digitisation / development / management cost, rather than the intrinsic value of the asset. A good example of this occurred a few days ago; when looking for  video on outer space and earth; I managed to located two, (both high quality production), collections of  video clips. The only difference being; one was free, whilst the other cost a three figure sum for a, (restrictive), license that prohibited remixing or online use. In the context of this post, relatively worthless.

6. Training

The article states; "teachers will barely need any training to use the new resource"  is a highly debatable point. I would agree that training is the wrong term here. It's not about a set of ICT skills, (although these are essential for working with and managing content which would be (7) if the list were continued). Primarily it is about exploring the pedagogical potential for using the content that goes beyond merely illustrating a subject. It is about developing and understanding of how objects  can be used across a wide range of disciplines and how they can help us understand diverse cultures and derive new meanings. These were some of the considerations, we addressed when developing the Newsfilm Online support materials (beta site here). My view is that teachers should be encouraged to collaboratively engage and play with content in informal and collaborative workshops. This process was very effective for the Newsfilm Online workshops we, (The  University of Hull), ran throughout the UK during 2007/08.

Thumbnail Image Credits
One Stop Shop marc e marc BY-NC-SA
Committee room Catablogger   BY-NC-SA
Squirrel ifijay  BY-NC-ND
Folders Blue Square Thing  BY-NC-SA
Artworks Husky  BY
Training Ciao_Rudd   BY-NC-SA

Don't worry about the commitee...

Image (remix) Credit: occ4m  CC Licence 

A recent post by Neil Winton highlights the issues of IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) in digital resources created by teachers. Neil's post also prepares the ground for a debate on the opportunities digital resources offer teaching and learning, something I will cover in more detail in the following post. Although Neil's post referred primarily to QA of resources and their suitability for inclusion in glow, the subtext and comments discussed the 'ownership'  of the resources, and the complexities around the issues of a teachers' own time and any monetary value.

Accepting the probability that such IPR clauses may be written into, (many), teacher contracts, and that legally, resources created by teachers are the property of their employer e.g. Local Authority (LA) or school,  it now seems high time that all parties get together to openly discuss the IPR/employer issues in the context of Web 2.0 and user generated content in order to arrive at a workable solution.

It is highly improbable that the likes of; Flickr, You Tube, social networks and digital publishing tools were considered, or even around, when IPR clauses were written into teacher contracts. More likely, they were drawn up around a scenario of teachers writing textbooks or publishing collections of worksheets.

Ewan notes in the comments, teacher publishing is not yet mainstream,  I suspect this will remain the case, certainly for writing books.  As Ewan suggest those teachers might consider setting up a, (self employed), business to do this, or they could be up-front and negotiate  an agreement with their employer. On the other hand Web 2.0 offers teachers, who would not normally consider writing a book, the opportunity to create and publish digital resources and indeed make themselves known and establish a presence within educational communities. Indeed many are already doing so. This point is particularly well illustrated by the excellent collaborative sideshow below, (one of many), from Tom Barrett,  which demonstrates the possibilities and opportunities for teachers to become involved and why the old terms of reference are no longer applicable.

Collaborative Google doc Presentation resource created and developed Tom Barrett, contributed to by many under a Creative commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 License. If you would like to contribute to this resource, please contact Tom

This kind of resource does not need committee approval; applying a Creative Commons Non Commercial Share Alike license will prevent any employer claiming exclusive IPR; but they would be entitled to adapt, share and add their name to the credits and gain attribution. I believe this might be of greater value to them than the monetary value, if any, of the resource. Alternatively, they could choose to ban such content in schools or lessons, but that does not seem very wise, and I really cannot see many be willing to go down this route.

In conclusion I would argue teachers don't need to be too worried when creating digital resources. LAs are not really, (or if they are - should not be), in the business of acting as agents for resources, teacher developed or otherwise. Instead they should be encouraging teachers to participate in developing new resources, and realise they would benefit by association. Where LAs and official bodies might also offer support is in facilitating CPD and other initiatives that  help teachers who wish to create and share materials, work together and avoid the pitfalls of using third party copyright materials in their resources.

I think it is unlikely LAs would be willing to pursue IPR claims on teacher generated materials through the courts, (it costs a lot of money, more than they would ever make be likely to recoup selling the resources), and such a move would certainly raise eyebrows amongst council tax payers.

So hopefully there will be a move towards official support and encouragement for teachers leading the way in developing learning materials. They certainly should not have to worry about some committee or legal dept.

A Hootenanny in the Cloud

image credit: Scottish Dance Records by  bob the lomond  cc Licence

I don't really suffer from a shortage of music, (7.6 days worth if I listened to it from end to end), but I'm always up for hearing more; either online or by going to (mainly local) gigs, hoping some of the magic might rub of on to my playing. So when @iusher flagged up Spotify on Twitter a few days ago I thought I'd give it a go.

Initial impressions were good; excellent streaming, with little or no buffering and a wealth of tunes; this seemed Ideal for checking out an artists archives or to do keyword search on a genre.  Since Pandora was killed dead, here in the UK, I have been using and having some fun with blip.fm  but it's still rather insular; whilst Last.fm doesn't cut it for me.

It wasn't until @GeorgiaWonder, (who played for the Teachmeet at BETT), posted a collaborative playlist that the true value of Spotify became apparent. After some playing around, I decided to launch a themed playlist: Caledonia - which has  one simple rule; all tunes must have some connection or link with Scotland, I posted 12 songs initially and have added one or two since.  This has taken off like wildfire and the playlist now stands at over 140 and covers genres ranging including Rock, Punk Folk Strict Tempo Dance Bluegrass Comedy Poetry,  The traditional includes folk from Ewan McColl and Karine Polwart, there's's dance music from, (naturally), Jimmy Shand and from this era Phil Cunningham, great rockers such as Frankie Miller and  the late Alex Harvey line up next to the pop of Lulu and Sheena Easton; Andy Stewart and Billy Connolly supply  laughs, and Robin Williamson carries on the tradition of the Celtic bards. Perhaps one thing that would make Spotify a killer app, would be the opportunity to see who has uploaded individual tunes; (and catch the culprit responsible for adding The Bay City Rollers!!). Perhaps also a online chat or comments would complete the picture, making it do for music, what Twitter has, for our personal social and learning networks.

And great fun though it is; this is about much more than sharing tunes; the playlist reflects a shared, yet very diverse cultural identity,  I would be surprised if any of the collaborators didn't discover a few new tunes.  Woven into the  musical experience were anecdotes, banter and whisky.  So, to anyone reading this please  join in the - you don't have to be Scottish - just the music. Here's the link

Since then  I have been thinking quite deeply about how  we access/store/listen to music; is the time coming when  like a lot of our other data; a great deal of our music will live in the Cloud?.  Spotify certainly suggest this might be a possibility.  Since using it I have had little desire, to visit my library on my HD. Spotify seems much more immediate, and there's always a surprise in the  next song.  How I will listen to music in the car driving up to Teachmeet Borders later today is of course, a different story!

Seriously though, if it is now possible to have this degree of interaction, community and  collaboration for music, it can also be achieved in other areas. We can do it for  knowledge, we can do it for learning, for learning resources, and offer some real shared community learning.

Just what is it about BETT?

 

It is that time of year again when a large percentage of the educational ICT community converges on West London for the annual BETT (ed tech trade), show, one of the worlds largest. Last year nearly 29,000 attended the event. In light of the current financial stramash it will be interesting to see how this years figures compare

There have been some subtle changes taking place in recent years with some notable absences amongst the exhibitors. I believe a substantial body of visitors have developed a critical approach to ed-tech, and are less likely to be seduced by the unproven rhetoric of the gizmos and the gadgets. Many, (including myself), will be attending to network, meet up, socialise and have conversations about the application and future of educational technology. It is likely many will attend some of the fringe events including Bettr and Teachmeet, which promises to be one of the biggest yet, as word spreads.

Although Twitter was around last year, I predict it will have a much bigger impact on visitors conversations, and indirectly on the exhibitors, as tweets encourage visitors to visit, avoid or highlight some aspects of the exhibition. I suspect tweeters may well find quite a few extra, (unwanted?) followers from exhibitors who understand the power of Twitter. I logged on at  6.30 am  and BETT tweets were coming in thick and fast. What was most encouraging was the number of overseas visitors tweeting in their own languages. 

Trends? not sure, but I suspect that VLEs, aka Learning Platforms, plus some filtering, blocking and control masquerading as online safety. I may be wrong,! There are, of course, some excellent talks and the Hepple.net stand, (complete with real students), was one of last years highlights. Personally will be taking a very critical look at 'content' whatever that might be.

See you there.

Let's forget about the 21st Century

The 21st century meme has been appearing regularly throughout the edublogosphere. John Connell has posted some excellent contributions to the conversation on 21st century skills and 'literacies' here and here, whilst  Doug Belshaw has been developing  his thesis on the concepts. I highly recommend subscribing to their blogs.

The first thing that strikes me is that the 21st century is a very long time, certainly in a technological context if not an evolutionary one. If you consider the technological developments in the 20th century, never mind the 21st, It seems ridiculous to offer predictions for more than next 5-10 years.

I am convinced that our obsession with 21st century is holding back the debate on skill and literacies. It sets up an artificial construct between the traditional and the emergent. As John Connell says:

"I just don’t understand the mindset,... ...that assumes that, the moment you start to promote one idea, all other ideas are to be demoted or discarded. I see it so often today. We must be free to isolate an aspect of education so that we can discuss it in detail without everyone falling into the trap of believing we are advocating that aspect to the exclusion of all others."

It is unlikely that great innovators of the 20th century were concerned about  creating something for the "20th century" It seems more likely that  extreme dedication to work in their respective fields, is more probable.

Secondly, it may be impossible to completely disentangle the shifting elements that make up the skills and literacies we currently need, because some are cognitive and others functional. I am sure some will make a good stab at this, but I think this is probably the province of an academic paper.

As Doug suggests, we need a new term, and he's still looking. By far, the best I have come across recently , was from Prof. Sue Thomas at a  recent conference at DeMontfort University: "transliteracy" - to be literate across the literacies - this definition probably allows us a bit more breathing space in our definitions, because it allows for the multi-layered capabilities we need to develop, in order to derive real benefit from technology. 

"The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks."

What is important is to distinguish cognitive from functional or practical skills, (whether those are an using interactive whiteboard or cursive handwriting).  The need and relevance of these can change quickly and dramatically.

Having said that I feel it is completely wrong to dismiss the discussion on 21st Century skills as a "fad", using that reasoning one might as well say  same about the internet. It is a fallacy  to say that nothing has changed, (even in this century), and that we can operate using the same models.  A good example is video; it is only 6 years since Becta launched the first Digital Video project for schools. It was no coincidence that this happened at the time when the kit first became practical and affordable in schools, unfortunately there was, at the time no real outlet for the work produced, and the real benefits never saw the light of day. All that has changed, the tools are low cost, easy to use and widespread. So now more than ever we need to consider the visual literacies such as the language of film, visual grammar,  etc otherwise we will have kids not grasping the potential " as Dai Barnes noted in his blog:

"They know they can upload stuff but not many of them actually do. In fact, very few of them have actually signed up for an account to subscribe to their favourites or connect to friends. The way they communicate videos with each other (have you seen this? bare funny!)"

The technologies have changed the way we operate, the way we learn, or could learn. We can learn from each other in a technologically enhanced way and  as Steve Wheeler points out

"You and I no longer need to occupy the same location to converse. We can use text, audio or video in a number of modes and through a mind dazzling range of technologies. And there is a record - an archive - of our conversation if we want one."

On a technological timescale writing, appeared quite recently, and printing with the attendant mass publishing and increased literacy, only a few moments ago. I agree with John that it is unlikely text will disappear completely, but its presentation, use and context may change significantly.

The technologies are there, the conversations are global and instantaneous, so lets use them and not worry too much about which century we are in.

 Image by Graham Wegner with this CC licence