It’s not that I am necessarily against the teaching of computing in schools. Running an organisation called Digital Explorer, it would be pretty contrary if I were. However, statements such as Ed Vaizey’s comment that knowing how a computer works should be “on a par with a knowledge of the arts and humanities” don’t really help.

It would be great if this latest fad in the national education conversation actually highlighted the good practice that exists in UK schools rather than repeating how poor everything is.

There needs to be a three-pronged approach to the issue of ICT in schools:

First, a decision about which items of ICT usage should be taught through other subjects (if they still exist in a years’ time). Examples could include:

• Use of word processing in English
• Use spreadsheets and databases in Science and Maths
• Internet research and analysis of reliability of sources in History
• Video conferencing with partner schools in MFL
• Digital photography and video in Art
• Online and social media safety in PSHE
• Blogs and digital mapping in Geography
• Use online campaigning tools in Citizenship

You get the idea. Pupils use digital tools to learn and communicate their ideas throughout the curriculum, a bit like previous national strategies on literacy and numeracy. This is already happening in many schools. It may well save time and energy for teachers if levels of competence in using various tools were agreed between departments. This would mean that as a Geography teacher you would know what your GCSE class should know about using spreadsheets and creating and interpreting graphs (they learnt this in Key Stage 3 Maths of course!).

Second, decide what should go into a computing class. ICT is probably a misnomer as this subject develops. This is where I become a bit stuck. What would I expect an intern to be able to do, when they come to work for Digital Explorer?

• An understanding of how to write a blog post and use html tags
• Formatting a range of digital media for use online, using tools such as image and video editing software
• An understanding of media sharing platforms and their relative benefits
• Use of digital mapping
• Basic coding (I taught myself how to write simple games in Basic using a Spectrum many moons ago and I think that this introduction made it easier for me to pick up using coding languages such as kml later in life)

I would like to be able to adapt and fix hardware in the same way that I would like to be better at car maintenance. I would love to be able to write little scripts that made life easier for me. In short, computing appeals to my creativity. I want to be able to make stuff. I find joy in the translation of lines of code into a wondrous digital environment.

The third aspect is rather more prosaic: infrastructure. Are there enough computers in working order for ICT to become a regular facet of teaching and learning across the curriculum? Will our attitudes to mobiles change with most students bringing a pocket to computer to school every day? Who will come to teach coding? Out of 28,000 new teachers in 2010, just 3 had computing-related degrees. I don’t blame them, when they can be out making a mint in the digital economy. Gove, do something clever, like subsidise company NI contributions if digital employees volunteer in schools once a week.

A caveat to end: technology is a tool not an end in itself. Digital Explorer uses technology because it enables us to share stories from the far-flung corners of the planet with classrooms across the world. Technology allows us to create and share content with a new ease. It cannot and does not replace the physical, personal and emotional journeys that lie at the centre of our work. This new emphasis on digital literacy in education must remember that young people still need to communicate and learn about ‘something’. My favourite example of innovation in ICT was the example of a school a few years ago now that had scrapped ICT classes completely and instead taught the Citizenship curriculum full-time, using ICT as a tool to support and extend the development of young people as engaged citizens. Now there’s an idea.

I am Elliott Murray, one of the chosen few who was given the incredible opportunity to visit Pakistan late last year. This year, I traveled over 3 months, across 3 countries in Asia, Thailand – Cambodia and India. I should point out that this is the first solo traveling project I have ever done, it would be very fair to say that the Pakistan expedition was a great starting point that gave me the confidence and thirst to explore more of the world.

In Thailand I spent one week volunteering at a self sustainable environmental community, consisting of 12 or so people from around the world. A lifestyle I had never been close to, and being fed on a daily diet of deep fried and oven baked dinners back home, was indeed a shock. Still, an interesting experience that taught me about how an alternative group of people live their life. We then did one week solo travel of Thailand. Pakistan taught me that their is no generalisation that can be made about a whole country, or community, that is always true, and that to learn about these things intimately, one must explore for oneself.

We then flew to Cambodia where we had arranged some time working at an orphanage for disadvantaged children in a small, remote village. We taught English, and knew that even our limited expertise of teaching was doing a great amount of good amongst this small community. Before Pakistan I was cynical in that I always believed if we where to ever make a social change for good, it must be achieved en masse. I then learned how small intimate projects change a selected group’s minds for tomorrow, who may indeed themselves take it upon themselves to re-teach what has been taught, to 20 more, and hence the cycle continues.

Finally I arrived in India, where I traveled independently. What I loved most was exploring other people’s cultures – drinking tea (or chi) with the locals, speaking with them and telling them of all the places I’ve seen in their country, and just understanding what their culture consists of. Whilst traveling I did see many tourists who would keep to themselves, and not be as talkative with the locals, and stay rather in their own bubble (taking private taxi’s opposed to local buses, staying in hotels with a price that could only be for foreigners etc etc..) which is fine, and maybe I would too have been comfortable traveling that way a few years ago, but since Pakistan I yearn to explore countries intimately, and find out what it’s real side is like.

Visiting Pakistan taught me to realise a country is always more than a 10 word headline, and that before passing judgment with a personal opinion, you must embrace it personally. It was without a doubt a huge part of my life, that has shaped the way I look at our world.

This is response to the news that climate change is to be dropped from the national curriculum.

My immediate and emotive response to this is that the government has this wrong and must immediately change their policy and include climate change within the science curriculum.

On reflection, I think that the following points should be taken into consideration.

Primarily, we need to shift our understanding of what the National Curriculum is and move back to it’s original intention. The National Curriculum is now viewed as a prescriptive measure that binds teaches, rather than laying out an entitlement for all our young people.

Should young people in this country have an entitlement that they can and learn from professional educators about climate change and sustainability? The impact of people on the planet and the choices we make? I believe firmly, ‘yes’.

The second issue is where in the curriculum these subjects should be taught. Should it be the science curriculum? Or should more emphasis be put on basic scientific processes? Participants in this debate, do not seem to have pointed out that this debate only concerns the science curriculum and not the curriculum content for other subjects such as geography. The relationship between people and planet and the processes involved could best be taught through the rigours of geography.

Last, the detractors of teaching climate change at all have used the faddish argument. Climate change is the issue du jour and as such can be included as a prescribed topic, but schools are free to include it as a topic or case study. My gut feeling on this is that far from being the issue du jour, climate chage, the increasing energy in our planet’s atmosphere is here to stay as an issue we need to understand properly.

Digital Explorer fully supports a pupil entitlement through the National Curriculum that allows for an understanding of climate change through robust, evidence-based classroom teaching. We look forward to seeing the government’s advisers recommendations for the teaching of geography.

What would I want from an education if I were to start again and does our education system deliver this?

- enough skills so I know that I can compete in a tough job market (or at least a good start in this regard)

- personal growth both as an individual and as part of a team or community

- the knowledge and skills to be able to keep myself healthy

- the opportunity to learn and develop my actions so that they are in tune with a more sustainable world

- develop a close group of friends, whom I can rely upon

- learn to value myself

- develop my creative outlets

What would you want from life and education to face our future, uncertain or otherwise?

You can follow their progress on their expedition website. Digital Explorer is working with the teams to see how we can develop their ability to communicate their experiences and become role models for the wider school community.

The expeditions will be using Digital Explorer’s [de] blogs platform.

With the final episode of the Pakistan episode launched last week, it’s time to celebrate the achievements of the young people as they start on their journeys and to thank all the funders, supporters and collaborators who made this possible.

Special thanks to the financial backers of the project, who put their faith in us to deliver something. I hope that they have watched the video below and are proud of what they have allowed to happen.

Now the long journey to find the funding for the next one…

Digital Explorer has recently launched a series of resources aimed at assemblies and tutor/form time. The resources are part of the Journey to Pakistan 2010 Expedition and are being released on a weekly basis along with a new video from the expedition.

The first episode (above) focuses on the ideas of Pakistan that the student team who were on the expedition before they left, with the second episode looking at the impact of the media on our perception of other countries. All the resources, will appear on the Offscreen Expeditions Teachers page.

In addition to the classroom resources and videos, teachers and pupils can read the students’ blog, make comments and vote in weekly polls.

Good morning class, here's your new teacher

I didn’t recognise Tenzin Tsepak initially. The streets around the main temple complex in McLeod Ganj, North India, were thronging with a crowd welcoming HH the Dalai Lama back on his return from a trip to the USA. Tenzin, of course, looked older, since we first met fifteen years ago. He was also now a layman. A “turbulent” marriage with a American woman had ended a number of years previously, and a diet of pizza and masala chai from the new monastery cafe had replaced the meagre rations of the monastic kitchen.

We caught up on this and that, eventually turning to what we were up to at the moment. Tenzin currently works as a translator for HH the Dalai Lama. I explained the work that I do with Digital Explorer and the problems that I faced trying to create a compassionate response from young people in Britain regarding issues that seem very far away. Why should a teenager care if his trainers are made in a sweatshop or that the ice shelves around the Antarctic and disappearing with their wildlife because of climate change?

How does one increase mindfulness concerning issues and problems that are so distant from our everyday lives? Initially, Tenzin thought that I was asking a direct question about addressing suffering.

“It is there in the teachings, how we should deal with suffering.”

I explained that it was a problem of contemplating the suffering of other people and environments in distant places.

“Aah. This is subtle.”

We both laughed. There are no easy answers.

“They should meditate on this.”

We laughed again.

In my mind’s eye, I imagined a geography teacher stood in front of a class in Derbyshire.

“Right class, we’ve been studying Antarctica for the past few weeks. What I would like you to do now is meditate on the effects your personal habits have on ice shelf degradation. Let’s start with a mantra… Om…”

Ridiculous in so many ways and so right in others. I don’t see this form of education becoming a likely piece of pedagogical innovation any time soon, but it does raise questions about how and why we educate. Empathy exercises were fashionable for a time, role-plays and drama, but these seem more conceptual than compassionate activities designed to enhance understanding.

We talked about the recent expedition to Pakistan, and the importance of direct experience to create a compassionate attitude for others less fortunate and environments under threat. We agreed that those few who do have the opportunity of direct experience had a great responsibility to share and help others understand.

As we hone the expedition and education model for Digital Explorer, I have come up against this barrier of how the journey of a few can become a gateway for understanding for many. We are making great strides in creating transformative journeys for teams of young people, with the Pakistan expedition being our most successful to date.

The next months will be preparing the educational programme. This year’s expedition was the first that hasn’t been live. The security implications of broadcasting live video revealing the team’s identity and location, opened up some exciting new ways of working. We have decided to broadcast each day’s episode with associated blog posts on a weekly basis (starting on 10 November on www.offscreenexpedition.com). This not only allows teachers and pupils time to enjoy and debate the issues surrounding each episode, but also creates a three month window for the expedition participants to talk to schools and youth groups and for the expedition leaders to work with teachers.

And this is the real lesson that I learnt from talking to Tenzin. No amount of digital wizardry can replace the simple impact of one concerned and impassioned human being sharing their experiences directly with another.

This is the fifth entry in a series of expedition based Google Earth tours from Digital Explorer.

Download the Google Earth tour – Road to Shimshal 2006

You will need Google Earth to view the tour. If you don’t have Google Earth, you can download it for free:

Contact Digital Explorer, if you would like to make a Google Earth tour for your expedition or fieldwork.

Have a look at the School Grounds Project to see how to do a micro-expedition in your school grounds, using a whole range of multimedia tools. There’s also Digital Explorer’s blogging service for school expeditions, have a look at a trip to the Alps last year.

Finally, don’t forget to register to be sent updates of new resources and opportunities.