The UK has education today in the spotlight.  Government has announced a 'new' approach to exams it wants to introduce and the headlines talk of a future where exams at the end of a course are the only way to judge a students learning rather than modular examinations and coursework.

I failed A'level Geography many years ago.  I knew my stuff, and when my favourite topics came up in the paper in front of me, volcanoes and solifluction, I was extremely confident in answering the single exam that summed up the 500 days I had been studying for this subject.  I flopped and I do not know why to this day.  It might have been a lost paper or an accounting error or more likely I failed to read the question properly but I had been predicted a 'B'.  Does one death or glory moment adequately summarise a persons abilities?

I also failed the '11 plus' and was not picked for the local technical school.  Something deeply ironic there I think!

My favourite author, William Gibson, said (And I am massively simplifying here) that a young person in a poor area of south america could become a reasonable expert on classic mechanical watches within a year by studying in his own time using the Internet despite never handling or building a watch like it.  I think his implication is that the knowledge we defined in the past as demonstrating a high level of ability is now easily disseminated through the Internet and thus I suggest that learning requires different approaches.

Memory was a key element in proving intelligence in the past as well, but one which tended to favour the more 'academically gifted.  I know people in occupations where a prodigious memory is an absolute necessity and it is no coincidence that these are also subjects seen as among the highest callings by universities, those the government claims are amongst many crying out for these fundamental examination changes.

I advise on Technology, an area where a good memory is also essential but I value how that learned information is used more.  By the time a teacher tells a child what pewter is made of, the child can look up the fact and get an idea of what it can be used for and view 100 images of pewter objects.  It is how we use information, the fine detail, the experimentation, that is where future learning should be. Maybe we need to drop the requirement to find out basic stuff like what pewter is made of, and switch the whole of education to what we do with such information.  I will watch the present education debate with some interest... if I remember!