It also included examples of current practice and library design shared by fellow practitioners. The buzz around the conference on the day, and feedback since, was electric as delegates discussed the challenges presented by speakers who provided differing approaches to the changes that are evident in every school library.

The title of Dr Ross Todd’s presentation ‘Gen Next: Charting the future of libraries and learning in the wired village’ set the scene for the whole conference and in the plenary session he summed it up by providing direction for our vision stating that we need to:

‘Rethink the school library as the school’s physical and virtual information-to-knowledge commons where literacy, inquiry, thinking, imagination, discovery, and creativity are central to students’ learning in all curriculum areas.

Provide intellectual and social tools across these multiple environments to foster creativity, knowledge creation and production, both individual and collaborative, and to foster the intellectual, social and cultural growth of our young people.

24/7 environment vs the “place” paradigm – commons vs hub vs learning centre vs laboratory.’

The papers from this conference are worthy of time and reflection.

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

Some interesting views on education.