Students 2.0

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.

1. Photo by Southbank Steve on Flickr