Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses are most welcome. It is wonderful that a conversation is commencing in Parliament on the learning revolution that is taking place globally, primarily through the use of technology. It is wonderful to have with us powerful exponents of the learning revolution in the third level sector.

Deputy O'Brien spoke a few moments ago about being able to access research that was available on junior certificate reform, learning for assessment and other issues. The problem, however, is that this research cannot be accessed in this room because the Wi-Fi service in this building is shamefully inadequate. It is disappointing and challenging for Members of the Oireachtas that while we have a world of knowledge on the Internet supposedly at our fingertips, we cannot access it right now. It would be helpful to have such access during this conversation. The problem, which is not confined to this room but extends across the entire building, is indicative of the extreme reticence on the part of somebody in the Oireachtas organisation - I do not know who it is - about allowing Members of the national Parliament access to information in a seamless fashion. My Wi-Fi access drops repeatedly and more often than not, I end up tethering my iPad to my phone. I should not have to do that. It is not rocket science and the gentlemen before us provide such access to the thousands of students who cross their portals every day. Why can it not be done in the Oireachtas?

One of the speakers used the phrase that the future lies somewhere between hope and hype. I agree wholeheartedly with that view. Much of the exciting work taking place in all of the institutions represented here can be attributed to our guests' firm belief in the power of technology to develop a whole new opportunity for learners to have a much deeper and more engaging learning experience and reach out to a whole new cohort of learners who may not otherwise have been able to engage with their institutions.

They are the two exceptionally powerful opportunities for the future, that is to deepen and have a far more engaging, rewarding and life-long learning experience for people and to allow people who would never have had the opportunity to gain access to have that access.
Currently in Ireland, we are seeing some exciting developments in that field. We have had Learnovate, springing out of Trinity College Dublin co-operating with Carlow Institute of Technology and An Cosán in Tallaght, doing exceptionally valuable work in creating a virtual, online, community college. Although it is delivering at this point in time a limited educational opportunity, because it is expensive to develop what they are developing, they have through their work, commitment and passion created a learning platform that is reaching out into seriously disadvantaged communities, not alone in this city but in Limerick, Cork and other locations. For the first time, this is offering communities that have had no tradition whatsoever of engaging with third-level education an opportunity to learn and acquire a third-level qualification. There is a serious cultural shift happening in those communities because of that initial engagement and we are only beginning to tap into the power of what is possible in that regard in the future. I am very interested to hear the witnesses' comments on how we do that.
Professor Mac Craith, Professor Brown and perhaps others are very familiar with the massive open online course provider, MOOC, based in Ireland, alison.com. Last January, Forbes magazine had an interview with its founder, Mike Feerick, and described ALISON as the world's first MOOC. It was, technically, the world's first MOOC. We have had conversations in other fora about how we move forward and what we can learn from the ALISON success story, because it is a success story. It is based in Ireland. It has 4,000,000 students and 600 courses online. It is the largest online educator on the African continent. There are questions that have been asked not alone of ALISON but of the MOOC substructure on how one can trust the quality of what is being delivered, whether there is an assessment and, if there is, how effective it is and if it can be trusted. However, we have a significant amount to learn from entities such as ALISON, Coursera and others who are doing this in a slightly different way, which is not the traditional academic model with which we are so familiar.
It is great to have this conversation beginning in our national Parliament, the Houses of the Oireachtas. Professor Brown alluded to this earlier on. However, it needs to extend not alone to third level but to post-primary and all the way down to primary level. There is a learning revolution going on right now in Irish schools. It is happening and not because of something we are doing in here; it is happening despite what we are doing in here. It is happening because we have exceptionally talented and passionate trailblazing teachers who have of their own volition sought out the research and materials and, in many instances, created their own learning content and materials. They are doing this on a daily basis. We have to find a way of reaching out to those teachers, embracing them and learning from their experience. There is so much that can be done. However, we need to acknowledge that we are not doing enough and we need to develop a road map on how we make this happen, and make it happen quite quickly. David Puttnam, last May, at an EXCITED learning festival, said we had at most three to four years to get this right or Irish children will be left behind for good.