Sir, you twitter!
By Lee Davis • Mar 25th, 2009 • Category: Teaching and learning, YouTubeApologies for the rather UK-centric nature of this post and the fact that I’ve ripped it from TechCrunch, but it appears the British government is proposing that Twitter be taught in primary schools as part of a wider push to make online communication and social media a permanent part of the UK’s education system. It is to include blogging, podcasting and how to use Wikipedia as well, alongside the traditional Maths, English and Science curricula.
The draft plans were due to be published next month, but have been leaked to The Guardian. It’s worth a read as it hints at a much more comprehensive overhaul of the primary curriculum than just getting kids to tweet. I look forward to the official report.
It is probably more important to teach our current teachers how to use Web 2.0 - so they can survive in the classroom in a time during which it is difficult to catch up and keep up with changing technologies - than it is to teach these skills to students who don’t need to be taught them. They acquire these abilities through their personal social networks and thanks to their desire to keep up on something the importance of which in their lives need little explanation or justification. Perhaps the students should be doing the teaching to the teachers. Not until our now current students become teachers themselves will these technologies become truly integrated into the classroom, and by then there will be newer ones to confound the over 40’s. Change of this sort requires not just the inclusion of skills into the curriculum but a fundamental change in thinking about collaborative and cooperative teaching and learning techniques where those in the technological know - no matter the age - lead the way in some areas while those in the experiential/discipline know (for lack of a better term) lead the way in others.
i really love to use Twitter. i was addicted to Blogging before the birth of Twitter. Now i am addicted to Twitter.
This is very Good to see that the use of web 2.0 technology in May now have a direct impact on education in the world and experience their learning in school. I hope that this included a requirement in the establishment of schools and teachers’ assessment of the achievement.
This is hilarious. And after the 5 minutes it will take for the kids to show they can use twitter, blogger, flickr, feedster, facebook, clubpenguin, etc, etc, etc., what will they do with the remainder of the class time?
Fundamentally this is stupid at so many levels, but mostly it shows how out of touch the bureaucrats are with the speed, innovation and social change that is happening all around them already, it makes them look like foolish idiots for even proposing this.
What’s next? Knot tying class to be prepared to enter Nelson’s navy?
Frankly I think it’s a bit appalling. This will only encourage the use of social networking sites, and therefore more children will end up staring at a computer screen, rather than actually developing proper communication skills (skills learnt through face to face meetings). Granted its good to teach children about these forms of social ‘interaction’, but they are going to learn about them anyways, regardless of whether they are taught them or not. Secondly, by the time they are implemtented in the cirriculum, the internet will have moved on from Twitter to something else.
It is good to see that the use of web 2.0 technology may now have a direct impact on UK pupils and their learning experiences in schools. I do hope that this has not been put out into the public domain to begin a scare campaign by the press!