Nominet Trust & Future Labs discussed over a cuppa coffee

Posted 21 Dec 2011

Last week I meet up for a coffee and catch up with Kieron Kirkland who works at Nominet Trust http://www.nominettrust.org.uk which “supports initiatives that contribute to a safe and accessible Internet, used to improve lives and communities.” Firslty a ‘BIG thumbs up’ on the new website. Kieron works as a Educational Evaluator, reviewing and analyzing the impact, learning and difference where funds have been allocated and how the learning can be shared with other organisations and educational establishments. Below is an extract from his blog on the Nominet Trust website – Blog

Title: Evaluation should be about testing models, not organisations

We have a mission at Nominet Trust to understand how the internet can be used as a force to disrupt social challenges and create positive change (when I write this, it does vaguely sound like it should also be the motto of a lesser known slightly geeky comic book hero, whose secret power is wifi.) A lot of our work is about looking at new models for change. However, by their definition, not every new model is going to impact on a social challenge as deeply as another, and even if a model has worked in one place there’s no guarantee that it’s going to work in another. Scaling and replication is not a simple business. So, to even have a chance of understanding how these different models of change work in different arenas we need ensure that we capture the learning from projects that haven’t gone as planned, as much as those that have.

I am really excited by the work being undertaken by The Nominet Trust team and recommend you visit their website often to keep up to date with their blogs and upcoming funding opportunities. I would like to thank Keiron for meeting with me and ‘blowing my mind’ with all the new projects he has on the horizon. In addition him mentioning how he used travelled to the Arctic pole – you what!?!?

CHECK OUT:
Latest research and reports from the Nominet Trust
Resources and interesting stuff

I originally meet Keiron in Bristol, at that time he worked at Bristol Future Labs http://www.futurelab.org.uk. Futurelab is an independent not-for-profit organisation committed to developing creative and innovative approaches to education, teaching and learning. They achieve this through a mixture of research, events, school development and resources across the UK and internationally. Their work to date covers a range of both topical and forward-thinking areas including curriculum innovation; digital literacy and participation; learning spaces; play and computer games and assessment.

Futurelab was set-up in 2001 as part of NESTA, with start-up funding from the Department for Education and Skills. Their initial remit was to capitalise on the UK’s strength in digital media and content to enhance the learning experience for school children. Early landmark projects included Savannah, MediaStage and Space Signpost. In April 2006 Futurelab spun out of NESTA to become an independent charity. The remit of the organisation evolved to focus more on learning and teaching innovation, maintaining its specialist knowledge of digital technologies but expanding into new areas such as social justice, and digital literacy and participation. The Futrelab website has some good infromation and research, so grab yourself a cuppa and check out their research – click here

Online Youth Outreach team will not be blogging until the New Year due to the festive season and drinking mulled wine. We hope you have a fabulous time with friends and family over the next 2 weeks. Thank you for reading our blogs and please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions, would like to promote an event or have something interesting to share.

Sharing this track as it’s awesome and very calming – modern interpretation of Thomas Hardy’s classic: Lark Ascending.