The editors of the Word Bank’s latest publication Visions of Education: Tom Conlon’s Radical Voice for Change had a close association with the man whose work it celebrates. Jean Casey, a Modern Languages teacher, was married to Tom Conlon for 38 years having met him in the 1970s. Paul Brna, previous Editor of the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence, first worked with Tom as part of the Computing and Social Responsibility group, Edinburgh around 1983.
In conversation with Sean Bradley, they reflect on their aspirations for the book which will be published next month, July 2021.
Putting this book together has been described as a labour of love. What prompted you to embark on it?
When Tom Conlon passed away in 2008, we lost a friend, colleague and teacher whose life and work were an inspiration. His death left and still leaves a huge gap in Scottish Education. Tom’s critiques always displayed his keen intellectual acuity, his thorough scholarship and his equally keen ethical commitment to education. Visions of Education: Tom Conlon’s Radical Voice for Change will hopefully be a reminder of, and even for many, an introduction to Tom’s unique contribution to teaching and learning.
How did you approach the task given the breadth of Tom’s published work?
Tom liked to compare IT to a box of tools: Visions of Education is very much a box of tools, a naming of parts. Tom was amongst many things a craftsman, a problem solver, a builder, a creator of tools – we wanted to reflect this in our selection of papers. We also wanted to select a group of papers that were representative of thediversity of his work.
The key to the breadth of his writing and to our approach to the selection of papers is in the title. We asked ourselves, what is Tom’s vision? What are his visions of education? How do we hear the voice of change and how is it radical?
Part of our thinking was that we need to name the parts, to name the ideas and concepts that are an integral part of the vision, the radical voice for change. Tom believed strongly that people and ideas, not technology are the engines of change. This belief is reflected in and underpins the breadth of writing in our selection of papers.
We also wanted the papers/tools in the toolbox to reflect the diversity and variety of his voice. It’s a voice of sceptical, constructive enquiry, a voice with diverse nuances and registers, always clear and concise. His voice isradical in that he offers us a way of reasserting the need for vigorous and fundamental change and many of the papers offer a way forward. It’s also a voice of optimism and hope.
Changeis implicit in much of his critique and he offers practical solutions. Not only could he talk the talk, he could walk the walk. Part of our approach was also pragmatic. We made a decision early in the process to choose papers with Tom as a single author (though he wrote extensively with others).
We also thought it was important to reflect the variety in Tom’s writing.
The vignette Education 2003 is slightly satirical. The voice in Priority no. 1 is slightly whimsical.
Tom was above all aclear communicator, and this is seen so well throughout the selection in the book. Many have said that Critical Thinking Required or Seven Deadly Sins of Information Technology could easily be core reading for all involved in IT in Education.
What impact would you wish for Visions of Education?
One of our strongest hopes is that policy makers will read Tom’s work and realise that the discourse around policy making benefits significantly from being more inclusive and considerate of the possible consequences. We feel policy is often made by a small group of people – often out of touch with the range of children that are in schools and the huge practical problems teachers face these days. We also hope teachers are inspired to take the initiative in providing top quality experiences for their students.
This is a celebration of Tom’s life work. How would you like him to be remembered?
Not only was Tom a leading educator at Edinburgh University, he was also a well-respected programmer and developer of original software in the field of AIED (Artificial Intelligence in Education). Above all we wanted the papers in the book to reflect this breadth, diversity and variety. He made a lasting contribution in so many diverse areas. We hope that his critical perspective will make a lasting difference to the continuing development of educational computing in Scotland; that would be a fitting legacy. Our book gives us the chance to reach as wide an audience as possible and to introduce his work to the next generation and beyond.
