I've been away for the last week in the States looking at schools in California and visiting technology companies in San Francisco and Seattle.

The school visits were really interesting. In many ways it showed me how advanced we are in England with school reform. The US system indulges failure and complacency too much. But there were also exceptions. I was able to see excellent teaching in grim conditions in LA. People motivated by progressive politics to develop schools in LA for some of the poorest kids in the city because they are being failed by public schools. And some really creative work in San Diego that probably would never work anywhere else.

The tech companies were also interesting. Sun Microsystems offered ideas about how to deliver affordable universal access. Google are just beginning to think how to work with education at a very exciting campus. Apple as ever matched some interesting ideas with beautiful design. Microsoft were intense but were very serious, and showed us what some of the future might look like as far as the technology is concerned.