I was the plan B for the Online Educa Berlin debate

Just returned from the stimulating and stunning Online Educa Berlin conference http://www.online-educa.com. Cant put my finger on why it was so good. the location ( cold but beautiful) , The programme (amazing varied and trans sectoral and trans national) or the participants ( the back channel and networking outside session was huge) but it was great . I planned to present a lovely session on Ethics around use of new emerging digital technologies with good friends John Traxler,Karl Bell ,Geoff Stead, Frances Bell,Mark Childs and Steve Wheeler . But of course things turned out differently.
A big thing at Educa is the debate and this years was to be no exception This year’s motion being

This House believes that the public sector has failed to use ICTs effectively in education and training.
more detail at
 http://www.online-educa.com/online-educa-debate

Donald Clark board member of UFI was planning to be one of the protagonists supporting the motion along side    

• Suzanne Aurilio, San Diego State University, USA (for)
  
•  Richard Straub, European Learning Industry Group (ELIG), France (for)
  
• Alan Bruce, ULS – Universal Learning Systems, Ireland (against) 

Donald famous for amongst many things his robust debating style and his blog ironically called "there is no plan B"
Got  badly stuck with the snow in the UK and Gatwick being closed and via a twist of fate me being asked to fill his slot.

Hard act to follow/replace but at 4 hours notice !Now if I believe in the motion or not its irrelevant the thing was to have a good debate . My co debaters were brilliant fun.

Amazingly we managed to carry the motion taking a robust stance looking across all sectors of education and training.
 The photo shows  sight of seeing one a appearing normal size on the stage and 30 foot high image in projected HD behind you is somewhat Orwellian.