Tweeting Our Children's Way to a Better Education
Eyebrows have been raised recently with the news that Schools are looking to replace ‘traditional’ subjects such as history with those teaching children how to use the online web applications and networking sites such as Twitter.
These alarmist reactions are in no small part due to the predictably sensationalised press in the media giving a distorted view of these new educational proposals.These measures are part of a much wider scope project that is needed to keep our children abreast of technological developments and are entirely necessary in the face of a digital industry that is gathering pace and leaving the average user behind.
The plans drawn up by Ofsted chief, Sir Jim Rose will be officially unveiled next month and will apparently see 13 core subjects reduced to 6. Some have seen this streamlining of subjects as a sign of the apparent dumbing down of the education system, however it could also be perceived in the wider sense as a push to embrace IT in schools and educate children the technology that is currently used by today’s captains of industry.
Just as those who work in web and digital today were no doubt educated with computers such as the BBC Micro or one of Acorn's many computers, it was in those simpler times where it the done thing to be educated in the ways of simple word processing, graphics and desktop publishing. But now the internet has opened various new channels of communication with their own interfaces.
It is right that this technology should be tought to children - why shouldn't it have a positive impact on their education? After all, if a child can master something like Twitter or Facebook at a very young age (applications that many adults seem struggle to grasp) then this will educate them in the skills and principles that will help them to grasp tomorrow’s dizzy heights of computing and IT solutions.
Tags: Education, facebook, IT, IT in schools, social media, twitter