These are indeed interesting times; the world has changed and shows no sign of turning back. The opportunities for our young people have also changed, to be successful in the 21st Century you need to be good in groups, be creative, solve problems and think quickly on your feet. Working well in groups is hard to measure and we don’t yet assess thinking on your feet as part of a GCSE award!

Nine years ago I embarked on a research project to find and identify some new, quick and easy wins for creative and collaborative uses of ICT for learners and educators. I looked at many technologies and could already see a gap developing between speaking and listening and writing skills. Learners were also showing signs of increased levels of boredom and reluctant and disengaged learners were being recognised. I knew whatever I was looking for had to be live, relevant and exciting, an element of risk was vital too and it had to demonstrate an immediate impact. I ran a series of workshops with young people exploring animation, photography, music composition, dance mat competitions and games based learning activities using Wiis and propriety group based games devices. None of these hit all of my objectives but were astonishingly fun and very engaging. In 2008 I had already started making podcasts for my teaching audiences to listen to advice and guidance about new technology. I thought that something along these lines would be good to do with young people but it had to be live and as you know podcasts are anything but live. Doing a live podcast on the Internet as a Radio Show with some children seemed like the right thing to try next. I tried lots of different equipment looking for the perfect solution, configured it myself to broadcast live on the internet, got a Shoutcast streaming account and started experimenting with different ideas. This had to be something schools could afford, have their pupils and students organise themselves and have the wow factor (now called the “X” Factor!).

Imagine a world without email.

The content of the first email may have been forgettable, but when Ray Tomlinson first fizzed that message over the ARPANET between two side-by-side computers in a Cambridge laboratory, communication changed forever. That was in 1971. Since then email has remained, despite decades of technological innovations, the staple tool for communication between computers.

By rights it should be a redundant relic, rusting beneath the surging tides of technological evolution. Instead, email is more integral to our lives than ever. It is hard to imagine the most consummate maestro of instant messaging, inveterate IRC idler or turgid Twitterer considering, even for a moment, that anything short of the grim reaper himself could render his trusty email account unnecessary.