Anthony Bouchier: Digital learning in Scots schools works

There was confusion on 8 September when Education Secretary Mike Russell announced the cancellation of the Glow Futures procurement.

Coupled with the disappearance of Learning Teaching Scotland, it seemed to signal the end of one of the world’s first educational intranets.

But as the dust settles, it is clear the Scottish Government has made a brave and correct decision. In the five years since Glow was first commissioned, many cheaper, even free, ways to deliver online services to schools have appeared. There will be some hiccups as the content of Glow transfers to these platforms, but it will be very slight pain for very considerable gain.

As the great and the good of Scottish education meet in Stirling today to debate the future of Glow, there is, unquestionably, a digital revolution taking place. Schools all around the world are embracing change – there will be paperless schools in Korea by 2015, Turkey and Australia are providing laptops for every pupil, and the Indian government is to distribute ten million £23 tablet computers to schools over the next few years.

The fall in pricing of educational hardware will have two key effects. Firstly, it will reduce costs. It costs no more than a few pounds per child for digital e-learning rather than hundreds of pounds for new textbooks. More importantly, the introduction of tablet computers will move the agenda from empowering the teacher through the internet to empowering the child.

We have seen the respect educationalists have for Scottish education. I have sat in Indonesia and discussed the Curriculum of Excellence with local educators who consider it the best blueprint in a digital age. I have met Taiwanese officials for whom “Glow” is one of the few English words they can pronounce.

Ultimately, it is still the quality of teaching that determines what children learn. Outstanding teachers get the best results whatever the technology. But outstanding teachers now demand multimedia content to engage today’s child.

• Anthony Bouchier is CEO of Twig-it.com