Schools Plan To Use Twitter And Wii To Educate Inevitably Overweight Future Generations

Bebee_grrl: Omgz Skins last night was mad crazy, I couldn’t believe Naomi made out with JJ…
@Bebee_grrl: I know WTF, that tramp, Emily’s gonna flip. Next week is gonna be insaaaane. 

Er, so this is future classroom material? Exit Queen Victoria, enter the Real Shaq, as it will no longer be a requirement that students study the Victorian period or the Second World War. In the greatest education overhaul in 20 years, school curriculum in British junior schools could be instead taking lessons on the digital realm. The proposed plan involves things like improving keyboard skills, Wikipedia, Twittering, and learning how to use spell-check. Hopefully alongside learning how to actually spell.

The new curriculum proposal is for students aged five to eleven and was drafted by Sir Jim Rose, former director of inspections at Ofsted, in an attempt to revamp the British primary school curriculum. It is going to cut traditional subjects into six broad “areas of learning”.

A leaked copy of Sir Rose’s draft proposal stated children should be able to “organize and adjust” speaking and writing skills depending on the technology being used. It includes using “emails, messaging, wikis and twitters”, says the report. Shouldn’t that be “tweets”, granddad? Children should also be taught to speak, write and broadcast using “blogs, podcasts, websites, email [and] video”. I feel old already.

With the rate of technology advancing, it was inevitable that curriculum would undergo a massive overhaul, but how much is too much? We all know that the validity of Wikipedia is questionable at best and short, quick, tweets don’t inspire much creativity. As we’ve discussed before little tykes are even all up on the Blackberry trend and texting to their digital puppy pal Scout with the ‘Text & Learn’, a new smartphone-style gadget aimed at toddlers aged three and up. Imagine a primary student who has been brought up with their own “Blackberry” being asked to take out a pencil and paper as the teacher writes with chalk on a dull blackboard – I don’t think that’s going to fly.

School is becoming increasingly futuristic – the interactive whiteboard has been a futuristic staple of British schools for a while now, and school often provide laptops, hand-held learning devices, school radio stations, blogs, podcasts, and video conferencing. In Warrington, five primaries in the most deprived areas of the city clubbed together to provide every kid in their top classes with up-to-date laptops. Schools have no choice but to adapt to keep up with kids.

So what about those chubby little gamers who refuse to participate in gym class? Well many schools are beginning to use the Nintendo Wii in fitness class to get the pudgy tykes moving in a rousing virtual workout. Great idea, but a study found that playing sports on a Wii was not exactly high intensity – players used only 2 per more energy than players of regular computer games. Futuristic, but not so useful.

If virtual reality sports weren’t enough, now thanks to Nintendo kids can participate in some fake music too. In an interesting collaboration between Nintendo and the National Association for Music Education, hardware and software is being donated to schools in 51 cities across the America. With Wii Music, players swing the game’s controllers in time to the music and pretend play an instrument. So we’re going to have a generation of brilliant air guitarists.

With the flood of technology being thrown our way, when feeding it into the educational system it’s important to differentiate between what is important to the growth and education of kids (i.e. Web 2.0 literacy), and what is the government fumbling around for the future (i.e. Guitar Hero). Get the kid to run around and kick a ball – how did that become so difficult to do?

Posted by Trista Orchard in Creative Economy | March 26, 2009 4:02PM |