NESTA announces consortium for digital education

11/01/12

Education Secretary, Michael Gove, today announced a £2m programme to research and fund the use of innovative technology projects in education.

The work will be led by NESTA with partners including Nominet Trust and The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) with Futurelab. The £2million programme will initially run for two years, and will run practical programmes to explore how technology can be used inside and outside the classroom to facilitate learning, and to ensure young people can take full advantage of the opportunities a digital world offers.

Geoff Mulgan, chief executive of NESTA, said: 'Students today live in a rich digital environment that is insufficiently used to support learning - their experiences of the digital world are very different inside and outside of the classroom. We are delighted to be working with a range of key players in the sector to advance the use of technology within education, and in particular to help young people learn not just how to use digital technologies, but also how to code and programme them.'

The widespread adoption of broadband and wireless technologies in schools, a generation of more tech-savvy teachers, and the significant moves to provide schools with greater freedom to innovate, have created conditions in which digital technologies can play a greater and more impactful role in education. The consortium will develop the evidence base for this through a programme of practical activity that will create new products and services that support learning in a digital age.

This coincides with the government's wider announcement today that the existing ICT curriculum is to be replaced with new courses of study in Computer Science. In 2011, NESTA's landmark Next Gen report, led by Ian Livingstone and Alex Hope, argued for computer science to be brought into the National Curriculum as current methods of teaching ICT did not equip young people for the demands of a high tech digital world.

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Notes to editors:

A job description for the role of Education Director will be published today. Further details about the programme will be announced shortly.

For further information please contact Jan Singleton on 020 7438 2606/ jan.singleton@nesta.org.uk

About NESTA

NESTA is the UK's foremost independent expert on how innovation can solve some of the country's major economic and social challenges. Its work is enabled by an endowment, funded by the National Lottery, and it operates at no cost to the taxpayer. NESTA is a world leader in its field and carries out its work through a blend of experimental programmes, analytical research and investment in early-stage companies. www.nesta.org.uk 

About NFER and Futurelab

NFER is the UK's leading independent not-for-profit education and children's services research and assessment organisation. It provides evidence for organisations from national governments and local authorities to schools, charities and private sector companies to improve the education and life chances of learners. NFER recently merged with Futurelab, an authority on enabling technologies in teaching and learning, whose cutting-edge research also influences policy and practice. www.nfer.ac.uk www.futurelab.org.uk