The Queen’s speech, formally known as The Christmas Broadcast, is something of a Christmas tradition here in the UK. It gives the Monarch a chance to send her message to the nation on Christmas day at 3pm GMT, giving us her views on what is happening in the world today, and more.
The Christmas Broadcast was started in 1932 with King George V and was first televised by Her Majesty the Queen in 1957. Now, 50 years on, this broadcast has been uploaded to YouTube for the first time... but why? I suppose the answer is simple really, the PR people at Buckingham Palace knew fine well the sort of reach YouTube has and saw it as a new medium for getting the Queen’s message out to the nation... and to the world.
To me, this begs the question: if someone of such a high stature can adapt with the times, and incorporate the technologies found around us in to something that has done its job
over the past 50 years then why do these technologies not have a place in our classrooms right now? Why are the schools the only places left that don’t seem to want to adapt? We all know that schools do their job:
they work... they train students to pass exams. What they don’t do is do what the Queen’s PR people did so simply. Say right, ok... it works, but we could make this better just by doing something new, just by incorporating a bit of technology here and there.
This sort of approach is really valuable for students, for the main reason that technology is taking over: the YouTube broadcast proves that. The thing is, if students are not exposed to technology then when it becomes so important it can’t be ignored they will be left behind, it’s that simple.
We are being taught how to pass exams... not how to stay on top of the technological advances in the world, not how to communicate effectively in the modern world and at the end of the day, why can’t schools do both? After all, the Queen managed...
The Bass Player.
- Photo by Southbank Steve on Flickr
Radical school changes have to come about from the top down, whether that be from the federal/national government, a superintendent, principal, department chair, whomever.
If students - and teachers - are discouraged from implementing new ideas, adopting new tools, change will be long in coming. Innovation should be rewarded, not ridiculed or punished.
The changes are beginning to happen, but they are piecemeal and random. We need a plan with some power behind it. Sadly, it appears that the single strongest motivating force for change might well be economic rather than educational...but we’ll take whatever we can get, however we can get it!
You bring to light some great thoughts. The problem lies within the decision makers inability to control people. Our (the U.S.) public school system is based on control and structure. If there is an aspect of education that they cannot control, they regulate it and make it almost impossible to use (YouTube being blocked in almost every school district). Districts spend millions of dollars blocking these types of powerful educational sites because a few people abuse the power. God forbid a student was to see a video that was not appropriate.
The answer lies within the education of digital literacy. Students should be taught how to edit information that they see as not valid or educational.
I hate to say it, but I don’t see this changing in the near future. The thought of the hard work that may lie ahead scares the “suits” that make decisions. Change is always a more difficult road to turn down.
Many teachers and students like myself and you need to keep putting the word out globally and keep the conversation open until somebody hears us. Thanks for the post
Yes, many schools block YouTube, but not because they are simply afraid that a student may see things that are inappropriate.
Many school networks can’t handle streaming video. There is just not enough bandwidth to support streaming video plus all the other uses.
And as far as inappropriate videos go, CIPA (federal law in the States) require that schools block content that is “1) obscene, 2) are pornographic, 3) are harmful to computers and equipment (content filtering) and are 4) harmful to minors.” And yes, some of the content on YouTube may fall into these categories.
Additionally, NCIPA (Neighborhood Children Internet Protection Act-again, federal law) stipulates that the use of such resources (like YouTube) require “adult supervision and monitoring.” So, unless that is done, schools are in violation. I can’t tell you how many times I observe teachers grading papers, reading a newspaper, when in a computer lab, completely oblivious to what students are doing online.
While I agree with you, a. woody that there can be control issues in schools, with improper decisions being made, sometimes there is more behind the scenes that teachers are not aware of.
You made my point. Instead of finding a cure, school systems treat the symptoms with a temporary bandage in the form of regulations. The focus should be on the teachers making the wrong decisions (grading papers and reading newspapers) when they should be engaging their students. Why penalize a whole district for the actions of those that shouldn’t be teaching anyway? These teachers need to be relieved of their duties!!
Also as many of the previous comments have indicated most school networks have to operate under the auspices of a local authority who take random decisions on ‘net filtering. Sometimes these folk are not as up to date as you would expect.
As an aside, Sean, I would welcome your views on this post and the accompanying comment. How, in your experience as a student, do teenagers in Scotland stack up next to their US counterparts with regards to web usage? http://thegordonschools.typepad.co.uk/asu/2007/12/online-teens.html
Diane: I’m not sure I agree, the Queen may not directly have an administrator, but what she does have is a whole nation watching, the media, the public... all on stand-by for any time that her and her people mess up. Which I would say is worse... because the stakes are higher, one wrong move and you’re making news headlines.
What I do agree with is that changes come from the top down, the main reason for writing this post was that I was excited that this move was made, because if there was anyone in the UK you would want publicly using tools like YouTube, it would be her. If not only to help soften the bad aura surrounding some of them.
I’d also like to say that I think that there is a plan in place... or at least the first phase of one. It may not have been intentionally set out, but the sort of things we are doing here; exposing the world to the benefits, the inside knowledge and of course the ideas is in my opinion the foundations of a good strategy. What is needed to carry this forward though is a next stage, that is the difficult part.
a. woody delauder: I’m not sure I’d be so skeptical... change may be the difficult option, but challenges are fun, right? I mean why would we be here if we didn’t think we were going to change a single thing? At the end of the day, if I can encourage a handful of people to use some technology within their teaching throughout my time blogging I will have done a good thing, it’s not all about big changes... you need to remember that.
YouTube is globally blocked in schools... understandably. The reason for that being that the “suits” haven’t got an alternative, and as of yet we haven’t given them one... we’ve just given them the benefits. Don’t get me wrong though, an alternative is not an easy thing to come by.
David: Very good point, bandwidth must be a problem... but it’s definitely not the most pressing, if it was administrators might allow teachers to at least access it, this in itself would be a massive step forward, because it would allow YouTube videos to be broadcast in the classroom, which I’m sure would see great benefits. You are completely right with your legal issues, thankfully a lot of them don’t apply in the UK to my knowledge, but they are still a problem... this ties in with what Diane was saying about changes having to be made from the top down, this time from the very top down.
Sharon: thank you... you are 100% with it, us students do need to learn about these things. Internet safety and content filtering/editing is an essential skill and although it can be picked up along the way, you have to have very good common sense to figure out some of the more grey areas. I will even admit that I learned a lot about internet safety etc from Mr W. with the odd tip and trick here and there, it benefited me lots.
Adam: You raise a good point, there have been a couple of times I have raised the point of fear on my own blog, but as I say within these posts it is mostly down to uncertainty... because I’m sure you can’t argue that the main cause of fear is in fact uncertainty. Fears can be overcome. If you give a student an exam containing content they haven’t learned yet they will panic, but once they have learned the material and been exposed to the types of questions they can handle it fine (if they’ve worked that is...).
To answer your aside, it is difficult without the experience of the US system, but what I will say is that the usual web usage of a student in my school is basically the occasional search on google or wikipedia... and for the times that they get understandably bored looking through the combination of red “blocked by content keeper” screens and the sites that have been allowed but still have most images blocked from them, they resort to playing games on the wide variety of games sites that remain unblocked...
gotta love a good bit of injustice.
Sean “The Bass Player”
Education is about to be pulled through the proverbial 21st Century “digital knot-hole!” As with ALL change it will be a somewhat painful experience for some. As Student 2.0 catalysts for change Young People such as yourself are about to become that self-fulfilling prophecy. As an advocate for young people’s digital learning success for more then a decade I can’t express to you here how marvelous this is to witness.
Stay pure to your purpose!
Best,
Jim
http://thegordonschools.typepad.co.uk/asu/2007/12/sean-the-bass-p.html
I also like the OP’s observation about how the Queen is able to change with the times. Here in the states we have been using the same basic curriclum since the 1800’s. Until we change the curriculum and get off this backwards focus on treating our students like numbers (high stakes tests which result in more funding for schools) we are going to continue to offer education for the 19th century.
You wrote: “To me, this begs the question: if someone of such a high stature can adapt with the times, and incorporate the technologies found around us in to something that has done its job over the past 50 years then why do these technologies not have a place in our classrooms right now? Why are the schools the only places left that don’t seem to want to adapt?”
Your question really hit home with me the day I ran across videos of funeral directors learning how to use web 2.0 tools because their customers want to use them. I thought–okay, these are tools everyone is using—so what is going on in schools? And why are we so slow to adapt?
There are of course technical reasons sometimes as is mentioned above, as well as legal reasons (like filtering laws).
However, I think we got off track in the responses, because not all web 2.0 tools involve YouTube, for example. The filtering laws are over zealously applied–and the law makes some specifications but most districts filter far behind that.
But beyond all those issues, I think is the issue of schools being able to look outside of themselves and to adapt more nimbly and quickly to change. Change should be the “name of the game” for 21st century schools. That involves changing understandings of what school is, changing ideas about learning, changing teachers, changing administrators, changing systems....
We have to transform schools so that we are open and dynamic entities. Thanks for the challenging post!
Jeff: You’re right, there always will be some sort of way, but I wouldn’t quite call filtering ludicrous... it is needed, we just the right type of filter in place - a very relaxed one. Not treating students like numbers is very important... but when should it stop? When does it become too personal?
Carolyn: You’re right, the comments have gotten a little sidetracked, YouTube is not the be all and end all of web 2.0.
Change is the name of the game, and as long as we develop schools to be able to cope with change and be able to keep up, I guess the rest isn’t too tricky. Sometimes though, I find it hard to keep up with the changes myself, especially financially, so do you think a whole establishment will really be able to always keep at the top of the game? and if not will people like you and me ever really be totally happy?
Mary: Students do see writing as an exercise, but at the end of the day that’s all they are given it as... they are given tasks, and it’s never really on subjects they are interested in. This is something I would like to see addressed in education... students challenged rather than given tasks. Asked “here, what do you think about this”, rather than “Write a discursive essay over 800 words long on such and such”, it’s something that is sometimes done in classrooms, but not often.
I am of the beleif that “brick and mortar” classrooms will always be necissary... students need a place to focus, they need a social interaction and they need a teacher standing there to provide the occassional support, so I hope that there wont be a day when there’s only a small percentage of students turning up to school every day.
I would hope that not just academia would change, but society would change... it already is changing, and has changed lots. In the Victorian era and further back you needed to have money to be important, now you need a qualification to get a highly payed job. I don’t think this is right in a lot of cases, I mean I didn’t do too well with my highers last year, but I ain’t exactly dumb and now people will judge me by what they see on that bit of paper... for the most part qualifications are accurate, but they don’t paint the full picture... I hope society starts to accept this more in the near future.
Dear Sean, I dunno how things work back in the UK, but u should see Finnish schools and the Finnish society overall. In our school we have computers in the hallway and they are used by students all the time. It sounds like our school is “hi-tech” compared to urs but I guess it really isn’t. U said that: “if students are not exposed to technology they will be left behind”. Is it really like that? I’d say that every student confronts technology every single day of their life! When it comes to studying IT it’s all up to u. Mikko
To Sean the Bass Player, I have no experience about how things are in the schools of Britain, but I do know quite a lot about the Finnish education system. I believe that our school here has incorporated the technologies around us quite well. After all, we watched the Queen’s Christmas speech on YouTube in our English lesson. What I would like to hear from you is some practical examples of how the British education system should implement modern technologies to the average day of a British student.
Kim
I agree with you. They don’t teach how to stay on top of the technological advances in the world and how to communicate effectively in the modern world. But I also disagree, because why would they have to? You can teach yourself how to stay on top in your own spare time. So I think that is enough and teachers don’t have to teach it in school. Markus
I agree with you in some point. Technology is extremely important and students shoudl be exposed to it at least a little. It sounds like we are more exposed to technology here in Finland than you. We have some IT courses at school but they aren’t compulsory. We can also use computers when we’re doing school work. But I think it’s not the school’s responsibility to teach technology. You can do it yourself as well. Päivi
Hi, I agree with your thoughts in some cases, but in my opinion we are all getting some kind of influence of technology from around us. Think about it. You go shopping to the maal and you get unconsciously messages or stimuli from every shop, every advertisement, and everything you’ve bought. And the great thing is it happens all the time. I would say the only constant thing is that the world changes. And at the same time you and me and the whole world is changing. So why should schools educate us about technology while we are doing it by ourselves unconsciously?
Niko
And to finish with - on a lighter note another message:
Dear Sean “The Bass Player”, I don’t have anything to say about this text. But because your nick is “The Bass Player” you might have a band? Do you know Bassboom? The greatest Bass Player in the world who plays in our band? Aleksi
Thank you very much for using my text... I am also quite surprised at some of the responses I must say! But they are very interesting
Mikko: It must be great to have computers in the hallway! You’re right in a way, students are exposed to technology everyday, but everyone is exposed to different
types and it may not always be the useful types. For example, here in Scotland most students use of technology lies within using their phones, iPods, tvs etc, and we only actually get to study anything about IT if we study it at college/university. As for web technology most Scottish students only use social networking sites like bebo or myspace and are exposed to very little. It is because of this narrow view I think that students do need to be exposed and taught about it in school... along with online security, which is another big issue.
The world is becoming technology dependent, and there’s only so much you can learn yourself.
Kim: That’s the sort of question I like answering! thank you! if you read the first couple of articles on my own blog (the link’s in the sidebar) then you will get a couple of posts relating to it.
The sort of things I would like to see is a Scottish student being able to access the internet without constantly being told that a website is blocked because it is considered hazardous to them, this opens up a lot of possibilities. I would like to see podcasts, and videos being made during class... it makes the process of learning something fun, and because of this a typical student will actually learn more from it. I suppose the big one is blogging... if you could submit an essay to the whole world through the internet and get comments on your work from around the world and from your own teacher/class, both critical and complimentary then you will get a lot out of it, and a lot more than you would have if it was just submitted to that 1 teacher for their comments.
My last way I would like to see it implemented is more of something I would like to see taught... internet safety, this is something that is seriously important on the internet and students should learn.
Markus: As I’ve said, many students don’t know where to start with a lot of technology... although we all know and can use the every day stuff, that stuff wont always be the everyday stuff... look at your grandparents for example, or even your parents, compare their technological knowledge to yours. They were never taught it and could handle the technology of their day, now they are struggling to use our technology... I definitely don’t want to fall behind like that personally, that’s why I would like to see it taught.
Päivi: You again are right, it can be taught yourself, after all that’s why I’m here... but many students can’t teach it themselves, I think it requires a lot of common sense in general to put yourself about the web and use the technology there for starters, and common sense is something which I thankfully have. I think that because of this we should not take chances and prepare students for their technology filled future however we can.
Niko: “I would say the only constant thing is that the world changes” - good insight, but this is exactly why we must teach it. Schools do not move and change... they tech the same courses they taught decades ago, and this doesn’t quite prepare students for a life in todays world... and that’s ultimately what schools are meant to do.
Aleksi: Yes, I have 2 bands actually... and am part of a couple of orchestras. Unfortunately I’ve not heard of him! although I do love a couple of Finnish bands.
One more thing Sinikka, I am currently starting a blog in my Scottish school for members of the school who want to express their opinions and start worldwide conversations, it’s not launched yet, but will be in the next while and seeing as a few of your students touched upon not knowing what it is like here in Scotland would you be interested in pointing them towards the blog after launch? I’m sure we could see some good conversations springing up because of it.
Sean “The Bass Player”
Cheers!
Sinikka “The EFL Teacher”
I will see if the group will be ok for me posting an aside on it and maybe adding a link to the sidebar!