Editorial

Perhaps the only thing that we can agree on is that our present systems for measuring attainment are flawed, perhaps not even fit for purpose, and frequently fail to measure the real achievements of the learner or even give credit for them.

Despite the advances in assessment for learning, and even this is not fully understood and applied effectively by all teachers, we seem to have developed a fetish for measuring, assessing recording and reporting, but only on very selective and unrepresentative aspects of our children's educational progress. Reams of statistics are created, pored over, misinterpreted by biased media, used to fuel political slanging matches and, in poorly managed schools used against teachers themselves.

If paper-based systems can damage that which they seek to improve how much better (or worse) will the situation become once computerised testing can give instant levels and targets. Will compulsory e-portfolios, carefully cached by Google's spiders follow the current generation of children throughout their lives, that poor English test result in Year 6 there forever for an employer to judge them on? Impossible? Given the propensity of some employers to adopt any manner of pseudo-scientific psychobabble to select the "best" employees, if data is there they will seek to use it.

Cynical mode off, at least in part, but as The Prisoner had it, "I am not a number!" For younger readers who may have trouble here - cult TV programme from the 1960's).

That some Naace members have strong views on issues such as e-Portfolios has been evident in recent and in depth discussions on the issue, both on NaaceTalk and on BECTA's learning platforms forum. Ray Tolley offers one view in his paper in this issue of Computer Education but as yet there appears to be no agreement on exactly what constitutes an e-portfolio, how they should be used, where they should reside and under whose control.

As with other aspects of education government may deem them "a good thing" and attempt to impose standards. This may of course encourage the end user, the learner, to run a kilometer or two in the opposite direction! They can already choose many and varied places to showcase their work - art, photography and especially music, if they wish, and rarely will that be where the school dictates. Yes, they will have their work in progress area on the school learning platform, together with assessment items but that is for the benefit of teachers, not any wider audience that the wish to impress.

We must keep in mind that not only are many learners increasingly independent, and the personalisation agenda will support that, but that any system we introduce that is centrally dictated will rapidly be overtaken by newer technologies. Would anyone care to guess what Web 3.0 will enable, let alone what comes after. Will an e-portfolio as currently conceived be relevant even by the time today's Reception classes leave school. Just because we can do something NOW, does not mean that we have to. We may simply build for a past that has already vanished. In any case the end users will choose the what, where and how of selling themselves and their skills using whatever technology is available at the time.

So, what else is in this issue? We have a fascinating paper from NFER exploring how e-assessment can contribute to the measurement of pupil progress and the raising of standards. This suggests that improved use of more data could actually enable teachers to unlock the potential of their pupils. Meanwhile Phil Neale considers the dilemma for data posed by 14-19 developments. Terry Freedman explores the role that Web 2.0m technologies can play in both summative and formative assessment while Peter Yeomans considers the role of interactive markbook technologies. For something different, and a glimpse of the future Bob Harrison looks at Future Learning Environments. There is also our regular contribution from Alaska, where Dr Jason Ohler reminds us that "Literacy: being able to read and write the media forms of the day, whatever they may be." In the current world of Web 2.1 that is increasingly the literacy of the image and not the printed word. The concept of media collage is one that we cannot afford to ignore.

A final thought. During the summer I found myself in the Glenbow Museum in Calgary and was able to visit the superb new Blackfoot Gallery: Niitsitapiisinni: Our Way of Life. (Visit it online at http://www.glenbow.org/blackfoot/#). By sheer good luck I was able to join a guided group led by the exhibition director, the son of a Blackfoot chief and an historian at the university. His stories and related philosophy were inspiring but I was particularly struck by one article of faith amongst the Blackfoot that we really cannot afford to ignore. Broadly it is this, that all people have talents and skills that they should be encouraged to develop and exploit for the benefit of the tribe as a whole who, collectively, will draw on those talents as needed. Thus the man chosen to lead the buffalo hunt may not be the one chosen to lead the tribe into battle, another having those particular skills.

The Blackfoot encourage individuals to develop in their own way, at their own pace and to exploit their individual strengths. We seek to standardize, to ensure conformity, to ignore those individual skills (except where someone is "gifted"). Perhaps the time has come to develop and celebrate the individual and diverse talents of our young people and to encourage and nurture those immensely varied capabilities rather more than we currently do.