Kevin Blissett: Out of the Cave » twitter http://www.kevinblissett.com/blog Curriculum, Classroom Technology, Social Media, Leadership, China Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:06:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 UK Teachers: “Phew!” http://www.kevinblissett.com/blog/2009/04/20/uk-teachers-phew/ http://www.kevinblissett.com/blog/2009/04/20/uk-teachers-phew/#comments Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:10:59 +0000 Kevin Blissett http://kevinblissett.wordpress.com/?p=184 So the UK’s Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, assures a teachers’ group the the recent revamping of the national curriculum will not forgo inspiring the nation’s children with a strong dose of history so that it can include skills related to Twitter and other social media. Well, isn’t that special!

First of all, any school curriculum that does not adequately include teaching learners about the past is no curriculum, in my mind. Moreover, as I’ve been pushing since day one on this blog here and here, it shouldn’t be an either/or proposition. History and the other core subjects are essential; and so is teaching students the skills they need in today’s world. There is time enough for a skilled teacher to fit them both in.

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]]> http://www.kevinblissett.com/blog/2009/04/20/uk-teachers-phew/feed/ 0 Another Either/Or Choice? http://www.kevinblissett.com/blog/2009/03/28/another-eitheror-choice/ http://www.kevinblissett.com/blog/2009/03/28/another-eitheror-choice/#comments Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:00:00 +0000 Kevin Blissett http://kevinblissett.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/another-eitheror-choice/
Digital Education reports that UK schools will be forgoing some content in the National Curriculum in favor of learning classroom 2.0 skills like Tweeting, blogging, podcasting, social media networking, etc. This is another one of those choices that I don’t believe is “either/or.” Learners will need some instruction in learning these skills, but I doubt that a considerable amount of content needs to be excluded in order to accomplish the task. Quoting from The Guardian:


“The proposals would require…children to leave primary school familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication.”

And from Digital Ed:


Even before the new documents are released they are fueling debate over content in UK schools. I can just imagine the response it will bring from subject-area specialists: Without the content, will students have anything meaningful to blog about?


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