Are Your Kids Waiting For Superman?

Every January, in the snow covered hills of Park City, Utah, the infamous Sundance Film Festival takes over and artists from around the world flock to the city’s Main Street in order to take in the most creative and thought-provoking films of the year.

This year, a documentary film titled “Waiting For Superman” was featured and nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the documentary category at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

The movie, directed by award-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, is about how America’s education system is failing to educate our children. The film follows five families from different parts of the United States as they do their try their hardest to give their children the best education they possibly can. Sadly, Guggenheim believes that our education system is not doing justice to out children… and for this reason, he has pulled his own children out of public school and enlisted them in a private school where they can be adequately challenged.

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How Schools Can Use Social Media To Attract New Students And Make More Money

The last time I checked, the more students a school had, the more money they made. And money (correct me if I’m wrong) is a good thing. We all need it in order to keep doing our jobs… and we all need it in order to survive.

So, if you understand that more money can come as the result of having more students in your school, the question then becomes, “How do you attract more students?”

Based on my experiences, the best way to do this is through the creation of social proof.

Social proof is something one creates in order to prove to others that what he or she says or does is worth paying attention to. In short, it’s a way of building yourself up so that you can sway the actions of a large group of people.

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Today’s Students – A Vision Of The Future

Today’s students don’t learn, act, or live the way students of the past did. They watch more TV, read fewer books, interact with people around the world on a daily basis, and come out of college with an average of $20,000 in debt.

Many believe that our education system is antiquated, and that the rapid growth of the Internet and social media sites like Facebook are finally making some educators realize just how much our education system needs a massive overhaul. 

To get a better idea of what today’s students lives are like, watch the video below:

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UK Students Now Being Taught Social Media In Elementary School

The Guardian recently published an article announcing the fact that UK schools will now be teaching their students how to use social media.

Many are praising the news as extremely forward thinking on part of the UK school system, while others fear that the classes may become a case of the students teaching the teachers – as many of these students already use social media tools and may indeed use them more frequently than the teachers who are being paid to give the classes. 

Already, it seems, the Teachers Union is fighting back – doing what they can to maintain the status quo. They’re upset because they were not involved in early discussions about the change in curriculum and were only given three days to respond to the news. 

While the current plan is to teach students how to use blogs, Twitter, and Wikipedia, this increase in coursework will mean cutting out the large amount of time previously spent studying the Victorians, World War II and other traditional elementary school subjects. 

It seems as though some individuals get what this change is all about. Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “Children need to be enthused by learning, so they want to learn and gain the skills which will enable them to learn in later life. The debate is not about whether the Victorians are in there or not.”

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Dangers Associated With Children Using The Internet

The Internet contains an incredible number of high-quality, educational, and well-designed websites. With such a vast array of information available, most people recognize that surfing the Web is usually a source of great enjoyment and education. However, there is typically no supervision in the online world and it is sometimes difficult to know when positive online activity could become dangerous or harmful.

Therefore, it is important for one to understand what dangers currently exist… and then to educate oneself on how to both avoid and thwart such dangers in the future.

But before we start talking about solutions, we’ve got to point out the problems. So let’s start by taking a look at what it is exactly that has so many parents, teachers and school adminstrators are afraid of when it comes to children and the Internet.

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The Social Media School Teacher

The following is an article from Chris Brogan, highlighting some of the possibilities of the new education system as we move forward with the introduction of the Internet and social media technologies in the classroom. 

Dharmesh wakes up a little late. After a quick shower, he skips checking email, but goes right to his RSS reader to see updates of where the students worked within the social network. Luckily, Ning (and lots of services) send new activities out via RSS, so they’re easy to track.

It looks like Margarite has added more YouTube videos to the video section, and Franklin has written a blog post about the town’s historic water cooler. Jeremy has already commented that Franklin forgot to cite a source, saving Dharmesh the effort. He eats a breakfast bar, and hops in his car for the commute to work.

On his iPod, Dharmesh listens to last week’s book reports read out by the students. The quality of their work has improved a great deal since switching to the audio requirement. The second report, by Kelly, is a little loud and the audio clips a bit. Dharmesh makes a mental note to show Kelly how to level the audio in Audacity.

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