Tim Tarrant, opening presentation for TDA breakout session at Handheld Learning 2008

1. Developing Teachers for the 21 st Century Thomas Hardye School Wolverhampton University BBC School report

2. Watching Tim Tarrant from the Training and Development Agency for Schools in the UK. They’ve been equipping their teachers with laptops for a decade, and, in the last few years, with PDAs. They’ve also assisted with supporting and developing teachers in the use of these tools. They now have 60% of teachers with a laptop; and 1000 trainee teachers using PDAs.

3. This is a brilliant strategy for ensuring teachers have every opportunity to develop their ICT and mobile computing skills; and to equip them to explore e- and m-learning strategies for their classes. Australia could learn much from how vigorously the UK are investing in education, supporting educators, and thus ensuring they are ever more capable of developing valuable learning opportunities for learners.