Home is where you start from: Twitter as a school subject?

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Twitter as a school subject?

I happened upon this very interesting article:

Brit kids learn to Twitter in School over at Strollerderby.
Here's a short quote from the article...

But it's not all about technology. The proposal also calls for less usage of calculators and more of a focus on life skills, including learning to handle peer pressure and develop relationships.

So, what do you think? If your local school district made a move in this direction, would you be up-in-arms?

My thoughts- (cuz it's my blog, and this is where I get to go on and on with my thoughts, ha!..)

Well, in our state, the school districts are doing a dismal job educating the kids...In many areas, less than half of the students typically test lower than proficient in the basic subject areas- the high schools have been struggling for years to get more than half the seniors to pass exit exams that are not even 12th grade exams...

Sooo, I would be up in arms over this. I would rather the schools work on the basics first.

Something interesting I've noticed about new technology and kids; they seem to pick it up amazingly quick. It's like magic. Can't use your new iphone?...hand it over to your kindergartner and he'll figure it out in 10 minutes.

I'm thinking the kids will learn to text, twitter and Facebook just fine, outside of school.

What do you think? Should I count my kid's time on Club Penguin as school? Maybe hand out some High School credit to Meg for getting a Facebook page? hmmm, I'll have to tweet on that...

posted at 6:05 PM
4 comments

4 Comments:

At 10:18 PM, Starlene said...: Hmmm... I can't decide how I feel about this. I think there could be some positives to what the proposal says (looking at the article/commentary you linked). I think British schools are way different from CA (or even US) schools. Yes, I think the kids pick up on technology quite easily but I also think that it may be a way to work in the core academics in a more meaningful way, if approached creatively.
At 7:28 AM, Luke Holzmann said...: I see no reason why schools should "teach" these things. ...mostly because no one can "teach" you. These are tools--which are relatively easy to get started with--and after that it's up to you to use it how it will help you.

Imperfect analogy: Should schools try to "teach" your children how to use a hammer?

No, but use of a hammer may come up if the kids were in a wood shop class.

And, yes, the kids who are already using these tools know how to better than the teachers, and those that aren't, aren't missing anything.

"...I'll have to tweet on that..."

[laughing]

~Luke
At 5:07 PM, Blessed Mommy said...: I just read on article about this, how interesting. Makes you say, huh? Many blessings.
At 8:31 PM, OC Mom said...: When you develop that Facebook course description, let me know; Shannon will want credit.

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