Will Richardson at Leading a Digital School Conference

Will is an author, speaker, publisher, consultant, parent and co-founder of Modern Learning Media/Connective Learning.

Keynote Address 22 August 2015 - Educating modern learners: the opportunities and challenges of schooling in the connected world

Summary and thank you.

Will you have described our new learning environment as:

• Dynamic
• A kaleidoscope of colour and movement and knowledge
• Allowing us to: connect, network, engage in self-directed learning and to create.

All of the above is freely available outside of school. But what about inside school? No! Not always! Perhaps not often!

The picture you paint of what happens inside schools is a bit dismal. Not your fault! Compared with the picture painted above - it is!

You ask: How can/should kids learn in school?

And you suggest: Our job is to create an atmosphere/conditions where students want to learn.

Thanks for reminding us that we do "know" what these conditions are (we told you here today), but often we ignore them and do something else entirely.

Thank you for provoking us into questioning our current practice and structures so that we may continue to seek to change learning "inside schools" into the awesome, rich and passionate experience it can be.