LILAC day 2: Lord Puttnam's keynote

As I said before, LILAC attracts only the best keynotes, and you can't get much more impressive than Lord Puttnam. I think some delegates were a little star struck!

Lord Puttnam

Source: lilacconference.com via CILIP CSG on Pinterest

Some key messages from Lord Puttnam's talk:

• We need to be more imaginative for the future.
• Knowledge is a vital currency but there is no central bank. Libraries and schools should take on this role.
• Digital society allows us to learn from each other but requires respect.
• Learning Environments provide the settings where informed responses to challenges of digital world are fostered.
• We must prepare students for increased unpredictability.
• Average is over: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/opinion/friedman-average-is-over.html?_r=1
• 2030 is the crucial year for sustainability.
• Every UK policy needs to be robust enough to keep pace with other countries.
• Change is only certainty.
• Voice recognition technologies - available on iPad3 and others. Inevitability. Needs to be incorporated in pedagogy. Oracy must become strong feature in teaching for everyone. Fundamental to employment.
• Technology hasn't made same impact in classroom than other settings. Example used of skilled surgeon from 1912 being put into a modern operating theatre - they wouldn't know what to do. Put a talented teacher from 1912 into a modern classroom and they would be able to teach. Glacial pace of change taking place.
• We have to know much more about learning potential of students, challenges they face.
• We should adapt teaching methodologies to new technologies.
• Investment required in professionals (personal, financial). Educational world must be required to up its game on regular basis. It is the economic underpinning.
• Brand identity issue - "librarian" hung around our necks like a millstone. Public perception - lack of understanding about the breadth and importance of what we do. Achievable with concerted effort. British Library has done this well.
• Cost of technologies should not be prohibitive. Question of prioritising. Need to make it happen.
• Being articulate is a life skill.
• Students can make their own self assessment based on teacher's perception and behave accordingly.
• Distance has dissolved.