Are we really like the Walking Dead?

I had a dream the other night....an old school sheriff in a sleepy town woke up from a coma into a post apocalyptic world and found a world overrun by zombies.....at least I think they were zombies.....well.....when I say zombies what I really saw was that everyone wandered around, heads down with faces in a plethora of smartphones, tablets and kindles. This group of biters were oblivious to anything and everyone....well unless you you managed to bump into one and they devoured you.....wait, that wasn't right.....eh....ooh...I know !! I know !! now I remember, they devoured your bandwidth and fed off free wi-fi. In amongst this story our sheriff journeys along collecting a band of survivors who face a series of dilemmas as they battle this dangerous epidemic of the modern world, yes......the zombie overlords of the ministry of education !!!

So lets go back to earlier that day ....as with most ideas and thoughts that bubble up on my head, I am on the train. and like any other day I am reading my newspaper.........(just like the terribly social people of yesteryear in the picture) and an article that makes me think is all about the shadow education minister saying children need to be taught attentiveness skills to help combat the influence of social media. Children "need to learn the ability to concentrate for sustained periods, especially in today's world" was the exact quote that caught my eye........especially the part about today's world. What exactly is he meaning by today's world? If you look at that picture again, this was the world of today back then. A time without mobile's, emails, laptops, tablets and so on and so forth. To them, yesterdays world presented challenges with the age of automation, refrigeration and conversation. Simpler times.....perhaps...but do our children face anything different?

Now I might add at this point that while reading my newspaper, I checked Facebook, Twitter and oh yeah......quickly jotted some notes down on Blogger.....a multi- tasking skill of the digital age that I have taught myself over the years.

Now, back to the original quote about today's children. "Concentrate for sustained periods", especially in today's world. I don't deny or oppose the idea that there is a need to shift some educational goals but once again the soft and easy target is Mobile and Social Media. The point that seems to be missed although blatantly obvious to everyone else is that today's world has evolved.....and us with it. So what is it that the ministers and shadow ministers don't see?

A comment I heard the other week made things very clear to me, there is a need to teach kids analogue just like we had to learn digital. It is therefore critical in my opinion is that we have to approach it in a manner that is appealing to youngsters. Education has to be in touch with how they like to learn. To target social media and mobile technology as the problem is hardly going to stop them from putting the tech down and picking up a book but you could use it?

How cool would it be if we built elements of the curriculum online? How much more engaging could you make homework if you introduced gamification? and how about awarding badges as a reward for homework? These are things that are already out there, so cost implications aside why hasn't it happened? Let's be honest, like the zombies....the kids would bite.

One of the finest examples of how out of touch they may be is the talk of increasing the number of hours on the curriculum for Greek and Latin !! I agree, it is important to teach the classics and I still rate them amongst my favourite classes at secondary school but it must be relative and the opportunity to use technology would open the subject up to greater potential as well as engaging the yoof of today?

The classroom has changed, not the kids and are we really wanting to stop them using technology? Be it tablets of yesterday or tablets of today we need to provide the tools of engagement but out of touch politicians are not the only ones to get in on the act. I was reading another article which spoke of the link between ADHD and mobile/social use. It seems a 66% spike between 2000 & 2010 could but isn't attributed to a more people being diagnosed, could but isn't attributed to a greater number of kids being tested at parents request but like the other easy option they cite that the reason is probably linked to a generation being addicted to dopamine fuelled online activities such as emails, testing and social media! I always see this as a cheap and easy target  but what makes me smile in all of this is that the writer would probably not have the career they have today without the very thing they attack, given their huge Twitter following, frequent TED talks and other avenues of self promotion. There is one final thing before getting back on track, the recent neknomination furore. How simple was it for people to blame social media rather than the lack of alcohol awareness education?

Kids aren't zombies, although they do have an insatiable appetite to learn and in a way that they want and it's our job to feed them. If we always blame what they embrace then there will only ever be one outcome.

The task for the education ministry, is to concentrate on one thing.......how difficult can that be?

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude