Controversey Over UK’s Social Media Education Plan
The recent news that schools in the UK are planning to not only use, but teach social networking, in the classroom is causing quite a stir.
The issue isn’t soley the fact that UK primary schools plan to teach social media techniques in the classroom, but that they plan to reduce or eliminate the amount of time spent studying key areas of history – such as the Victorians and World War II.
That said, some are now realizing what an intelligent move this might be, as World War II (for example) is covered in depth during middle school, and repeating the information to students in primary schools seems like a waste of time.
As quoted from the original release sent out by the UK education system announced, the changes in curriculm are being made in order to cut an overly broad curriculum down to six core areas: “understanding English, communication and languages, mathematical understanding, scientific and technological understanding, human, social and environmental understanding, understanding physical health and wellbeing, and understanding arts and design.”
As time goes on I think the use of social media (and technology in general) in the classroom is going to become more and more the norm. But in the meantime, the news of schools in the UK using social media in the classrooms is causing quite a stir – both in the newspapers and in the online world.
What do you think about UK introducing social media techniques into their primary school curriculm? Do you think it’s a good idea? What kind of problems do you foresee with them teaching these kinds of subjects in the classroom?
