According to the Becta website, Doug Brown will "work closely with Becta's strategy and policy team, particularly in the areas of: futures, innovation and foresight; leading Becta's international work, with a particular focus on organising a World Summit in 2009; contributing to strategy and policy development".
Becta needs support with strategy, as was shown by its "outsourcing" of the next phase of its Harnessing Technology campaign - launched 18 months ago to increase the percentage of e-confident schools from 10 to around 80 within three years. Its recent "re-branding" appears to have transformed Harnessing Technology into a "Next Generation Learning" campaign. Its new NGL website, which visitors to Becta's own website are redirected to, now appears to be aiming the transformation campaign to four target groups: "parents", "learners", "businesses" and "practitioners" (teachers).
A problem for Becta is that the organisation is only relatively well known by one of the groups, "businesses". And it is likely to be known by the others for the "wrong" reasons, like The Three Little Cowboy Builders decision. In this particular case, Becta has done nothing to lift the slur of racism and stereotyping from the small, creative company that produced it, Shoo-fly.
The possibility of Becta achieving its stated goal of 80 per cent of schools becoming e-confident within three years is starting to look elusive. However, the organisation, which has an annual budget of £42 million, now refers to 20 per cent of schools being e-confident rather than the 10-15 per cent of 18 months ago. Insiders point to the move to Coventry of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority as an indication of a merger yet to come, whereby the curriculum itself would become the driving force for change.
