Since returning from the Learning 2.0 Conference in Shanghai I have had a great many discussions with friends and family about the ideas of the conference. I really enjoy discussing this sort of things with people who may not share the same passion and vision for the use of ICT in learning as it allows you to empathize with where they are coming from and broadens your thinking. It is all to easy to surround yourself with only people with the same views and think that yours is the dominant paradigm.

I really enjoyed listening to people like Jamie McKenzie and Alan November as these guys really think things through. I really struggled though, with Jamie’s forum comment of “every teacher should play video games (this is the first generation of teachers that don’t understand the games their children play)”.

I am not sure that a lot of the teachers that I had really understood my “play” deeply. I think that teachers still need to really be clear about what things kids should have as goals or ultimate outcomes and really push kids towards those outcomes. I am not sure if being good at immortal combat is one of those goals is one of the outcomes that I have for kids.

I think that it is up to us to be very clear about the attributes we want from the kids we turn out of educational organizations. This is especially so for the elites of the schools who will be our future leaders. We need to insist that they reach these outcomes and give them the best possible support for reaching them.