Professor Preston interviews Bob Geldof
Exploring Education Futures
Professor Preston posing questions from the MirandaNet Fellowship membersDr
Christina Preston, Professor of Educational Innovation at the University
of Bedfordshire, interviewed Sir Bob Geldof in a session named after his
song, ‘The World is Calling’. This interview was at the opening
the four-day international MirandaNet Fellowship event, Exploring Education
Futures, in London’s Docklands at the end of January. An amusing and
eloquent speaker, Bob regretted that he had gained very little from school.
Poetry excited him in English lessons and he can still recite passages he
learnt now. But otherwise he found that he had little interest in other
subjects and failed to pass any examinations. He admitted he was not easy
to manage in school, but also felt that teachers should try to accommodate
pupils with his special gifts rather more sympathetically than they treated
him.
In terms of technologies, his own children and his wife are more up to date than he is. However, he sees digital innovation as a major force for good as long as new technologies do not wipe out traditional modes of learning. Because of his commitment to alleviating world poverty he invests in GroupCall, a system that gives schools the ability to send text messages (SMS), emails and automated voice calls to the mobile phones and landlines of parents, staff and key contacts as well as text and email messages in any one of 64 languages. In his view, this method of providing information through mobile devices is particularly important as this is the only way that people in some countries can have access to the modern communications which are so important to learning and autonomy.
Highlights from BETT13
