Better Schools
Britain has an opportunity to reinvent how it teaches information technology
A recent editorial in the Guardian newspaper wrote that Britain is in danger of producing a generation that doesn’t know how Google works. As such, the editorial states that this is a prime opportunity to overhaul the education system and bring information technology education into the 21st century.
Is North America any better? Maybe a little. Our kids know to how to download an app or a song and we’ve raised them to think of Google as a verb as much as a company, but are we providing them with the right tools to invent the next Google? In the current and old system, kids learn how to use specific programs, but what does that do when the essential programs completely change every few years? Schools should instead be teaching information systems. Read more...
the social family
Knowing the power of social media to shape one’s image
A large majority of 11-year-olds, 86 percent of them actually, are using social media to build their personal brands, say the Ambition AXA Awards.
According to Simply Zesty,
“The concept of a personal brand is something that adults are just beginning to get their heads around, but for the younger generation it is clearly something that shapes their use of social media from the very start, as they become aware of the power of image-creation and how you can control social technologies to affect the way in which you are perceived.”
No kidding! So not only are kids using Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to stay in touch with friends and family, they’re acutely aware of how they’re presenting themselves online. Read more...
News and Culture Five
What we’re reading today:
1. Good job, Scandinavians, Norway is the #1 best country for moms. Moms live long, don’t die in childbirth, and get a great maternity leave. Afghanistan is the worst place for moms, according to this annual survey from Save the Children. Canada ranked 20th while the U.S. is 31st.
2. Babble’s found 10 Angry Birds-inspired dishes. TheBabybel one is pretty great.
3. Reuters has compiled some “eerie links” between Harry Potter and Osama bin Laden. BoingBoing suggests these so-called links are pretty ridiculous. Good for the book-burning set we guess? A sample: “Just as Voldemort was shaped by his mother’s death and his father’s abandonment, Osama was shaped by his personal struggle between Western pleasures and Islamic discipline.”
4. Sarah Newton, aka the Youth Expert, wonders if today’s mean girls are meaner than mean girls a decade or two ago. Read more...
