I’m interested in new learning spaces and how the environments that we create can contribute to effective learning. I am convinced that the places in which we work and live have deep emotional effects on us, influencing our mood, behaviour and performance. The design of effective learning spaces in schools, colleges, universities and libraries is much more than bright colours and funky furniture – it is about emotion, engagement and experience.
I’ve spent the past 30 years working in IT in education. At the start of this journey I was really excited about the potential of IT to transform both the education system and student learning. In my view IT has failed to make a real impact on learning except in small areas of excellence. In many applications of IT we seem to be preoccupied with the resource itself and use it to do what we have always done rather than using it imaginatively as an enabler of the processes of life and learning. The links between the environments that we create, the IT that we use and what we expect of our people are the key to success in making IT really work for learners and using it to enhance the learning spaces that we create.
Creativity and new ideas have always been of interest to me. We need to think the unthinkable and be prepared to try new ideas or we will simply spend a lot of money and stay as we are. As Mark Twain is reported to have said:

“You can’t trust your eyes if your imagination is out of focus”