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In essence it appears as if Halpin is arguing that technology is both the problem and the solution.I would concur with this entirely. Technology has, as shown above, both facilitated andcontributed to a range of social revolutions or revolutionary and liberating phenomena.This thesis is the story of the impacts of such phenomena in career terms, something akin to the'evolutionary burst of activity' accounted for in complexity theory. I saw it happening withpupils I was teaching and see it now in the liberating processes going on round the world 42 . IfHalpin is right about the need for '... a fresh curricular response from schools,' (Halpin 2003 ibid)it may also be true in the context of professional learning.The work of Anspear Ltd., was referred to earlier and is a powerful example of how learning,technology and liberation have come together. Research and development projects for theliteracy, numeracy and British Citizenship 'test' support materials have been undertaken with thefollowing hitherto marginalised groups: Young offenders working on a summer school on theAnglo-Welsh border; Bangladeshi women accessed via a community hub in Tower Hamlets;Former Gurkhas in Ashford, Kent identified by the Ethnic Minority Achievement team from theCounty Council and a large community of Gypsy, Roma and Travellers temporarily resident inSwaleside, Kent. In each case, the tool was adapted to meet a defined 'need' in the community:Access to better quality health care; access to the English curriculum; access to knowledge;participation in learning in general and so on.42 There has been a fascinating series of debates about the uses or abuses of Blackberry Messenger by the so-called'rioters' during the outbreak of disturbances in English cities in the summer of 2011 (see e.g.http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/blackberry-messenger-shutdown-rumour-spreads-in-london-riots-50004663/). Thehash tag @riotscleanup became a locus for the alternative response to the trouble. Again, both sides in evidence ofthe technology coin.117Simon Hughes Ph.D. Thesis (October 2012)