The use of mobile or ubiquitous technologies to enable transformational improvements in learning and teaching practice has become something of a phenomenon where everyday devices from mobile phones to game consoles and mp3 players, social and media sharing networks and much more have created a rich and diverse learning landscape that exists beyond the school or university gates. Schools need no longer be “buildings”.

London is host to an annual event that has become the worlds largest conference to focus on these issues where over 800 innovators, early adopters, thought leaders, education professionals and policy makers come to discuss and explore the impact that these ubiquitous, affordable technologies are having on learning and what this means for the future of our educational institutions. The event is called Handheld Learning 2008 and will be held at The Brewery, Chiswell Street, EC1 during Oct 13th - 15th.

Lead speakers include author, Steven Johnson. social media scientist, danah boyd, Professor Stephen Heppell, Futurelab Research Director, Keri Facer, MIT Media Lab Chief Learning Architect, David Cavallo, former Sony Computer Entertainment Chairman and President, Chris Deering and many others.

Steve Moore will be hosting a 2gether morning of surprises (naturally) to engage a panel of speakers and the audience in a debate over how the technologies that learners already use outside of the school can be embraced for learning rather than being banned which is often the current position. Confirmed speakers in Steve session include Matt Locke, Channel 4, David Langridge, Microsoft and Richard Warmsley, T-Mobile with other to be announced shortly. There’s an Awards Party on the evening of the 13th, also at The Brewery.

Early bird registration is available until 31st July and includes a FREE Nintendo DS with game as well as entry to the Party. The DS is yours to keep but we ask that you bring it to the conference for a fully interactive experience during the 3 days. Those who attended 2gether08 receive a further 5% reduction on registration by using the code “2gether”.

Please join us and help keep these events connected and the ideas and actions continuing.

Register here

What is digital health?
Digital health is the measure, positive or negative, of our relationship to the digital technology we use to get things done in our work and life.

Prominent examples are how email stress affects our mental health: constant interruption in the long-term leading to depression, negotiating some of our key relationships through Facebook, social-networking fatigue and the level of panic and insecurity around admitting to not quite understanding work-related software. And who wants to admit that in this day and age they still don’t understand what a wiki, Basecamp, RSS or social-bookmarking is?

Our use of digital technology is at the centre of our work, our goals, our self-image and our relationships. We navigate most of our modern life through it. Regardless of whether we are fluent or pigeon-literate in it’s use, our digital health is the extent to which that use; truthfully brings benefit to us, our projects and our organisations.

A new view of ourselves
For Marshall McLuhan (not to mention Gregory Bateson) new technologies are ‘extensions of ourselves’:

“The personal and social consequences of any medium, that is, of any extension of ourselves, result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.” - Marshall McLuhan.

Digital technology brings us this new scale (and indeed speed) and consequently our experience of ourselves has expanded into the digital realm; we already are digital. We need a new framework within which to think about a holistic notion of a healthy being and doing in our modern life.

A new health for our new century
We’ve had the idea of physical health for centuries and last century brought us the concept of mental health. This century brings us a new kind: digital health.

At 2gether08 we throw this idea and it’s logical consequences open to the world and ask: What new language, models of thinking and models of doing do we need to deal with this new phenomenon?

How can our digital technology most-positively facilitate our collaborations so that we can truly make an impact beyond 2gether08, the next decade and the next 100 years?

More info on The Digital Health Service.

Two years ago Channel 4 Education decided to move much of its £6 million a year budget for broadcasting off TV screens to web-based platforms , leading to partnerships with Bebo and MySpace, experiments with mobile phones and games consoles, and investment in the School of Everything social enterprise.
Channel 4 decided that in order to reach young people they had to cut broadcasting during school hours - where they would not be watching as they had previously - and instead go to the places online that young people used.
In taking that approach the broadcasters had to learn about the very different world of social media and the web. One of the key people involved has been Matt Locke, recruited a year ago from the BBC Innovation Labs, and how commissioning editor.
In this interview Matt - “a geek not a broadcaster” - suggests that Channel 4 education may offer some insights into the way that the £50 million 4IP fund may operate, as Channel 4 use TV commissioning funds to invest in other tools and platforms.
He talks about:

• the way that the web has changed the notion of clearly-defined public and private spaces to borderless personal and social spaces
• the importance for broadcasters and journalists of understanding the different “register” of these places - from message boards, to Facebook, or exchanges in multi-player games.
• how this means that the role of broadcasters in a cross-platform environment is not to push content down pipes, but to engage in conversations in many different places and levels.
• the need for broadcasters, who are good at reaching millions of people, to partner with smaller organisations who can carry conversations and actions forward, and develop a legacy beyond the programme

This opens up the potential for Channel 4 to operate as a funder of what might be called public sector start ups - small organisations that they can work with to help deliver their public service remit. Matt says he will be looking to meet just these sort of groups at the 2gether08 Festival.