As part of the Scottish Diaspora I usually look back at the country of my birth with my head in my hands. There’s a certain amount of “small country syndrome” that makes me cringe now and again. Being a Scottish rugby supporter has taught me a lot about humility and managing expectations.  And the less said about Fred Goodwin the better.

However, I’m looking at certain aspects of educational life in Scotland with a sense of professional jealousy.

A lot of the blogs I subscribe to that revel in innovation are from Scottish authors and looking at LTS’s Glow project and their early adoption of iTunesU makes me wish that England, or just Yorkshire, would get its act together.

There’s been a reluctance, in Sheffield at least, to do things centrally so we have a situation where schools have been buying individual learning platforms rather than collaborating across the city in a way that would encourage the spread of ideas, learning, resources, and good practice.

We’ve tried to address this at our CLC  by setting up a learning platform consortium across (and beyond) or partnership but we’re only wee and we don’t have unlimited resources.

Maybe the rollout of Civica’s managed service learning platform willbe an answer but I haven’t seen enough of it to say that with any confidence. My 2 bosses are finding out more at a presentation today.

So, do I have a overly-rosey view of what the state of education technology is in Scotland?

Can my Scottish readers confirm or deny?

Image – Ian Kershaw on Flickr