Aah the Olympics. What a great spectacle it has been. Touted as the first truly digital games – twitter has been set a-dancing, apps have been downloaded and the Games have been enjoyed on a myriad of different devices. And now it’s all over (or at least paused until the start of the Paralympics) – what’s left?
“Inspire a generation” – has been the theme of this year’s Olympics. But what does this mean and why should we care? The Inspire Programme has now been running for 4 years, and has touched almost 10 million people in the UK so far. Its aim is to use the London 2012 games as a springboard to leaving a legacy behind for the generations to come. …..This is going to affect school children and young people everywhere in social, cultural, physical and technological ways.
Technology has played a massive part in these games. Not just within each sport eg, ‘magic’ cycling wheels, laser pistols for the pentathlon, canoe design etc but in the infrastructure of the games itself – the venues, the computer systems behind scoring, communications and scheduling and also the technology that went into broadcasting each and every one of the 303 events to a global audience via TV and over the net via PCs, mobile and tablets. This was the first games where spectators were truly able to interact with the events and make a choice as to when, where and how they followed them.
This infographic inspires an interesting notion about the status of the education system and where it will be in a decade and further into the future. How will technologies affect our education, social and sporting achievements? Our favourite statistic is that 65% of children in primary school will one day do jobs that have yet to be invented.
Let’s hope that the team are already working on a more functional and equitable ticketing system for Rio!
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/files/2012/08/envisioning-the-future-of-education.png
