No more status-quo.

Education. Kids. The future. Change is a scary thing, but the fact is, it happens. In order to keep up with modern life, things need to change & fast. The government, councils and schools themselves have all rejected sensible propositions put forward by students, and if we don’t act soon, the future of education as we know it could plummet into a state of dis-repair. FrustratedStudents outlines this, and gives their own top reasons of WHY education needs to change, HOW we can change it, and MAKING a difference that will impact the generations to come.

1. Focus on tests and grades. Learning happens differently to everyone and the system must be more flexible and stop focusing a whole child’s life on “making the grade”.

2. Bureaucracy. It’s what stops thousands of dollars from actually educating a child, what keeps bad teachers securly in their jobs, and precisely why stopgap solutions such as more funding or bigger schools haven’t worked. Reduce the bureaucratic footprint, and you’ll accomplish much more with even current resources.

3. Living in 2007. Technology has completely changed the lives of people on this world. Unfortunately, schools are the last venue for adoption of these fantastic tools. Students shouldn’t have to fight the system, with only the pencil at school and only the computer at home.

Here’s a great example from what’s going on at my school. The board of govenors/head-teacher has decided that it will be great to push forward with a new method of classroom organization, known as ‘Vertical Tutorial Groups’. So what is VTG? Rather than having a class of 30 pupils, all of the same age (give or take a few months), 5 pupils from each year will be put into a single form, hence creating a ‘Vertical Group’.

Year 7 - 5 pupils
Year 8 - 5 pupils
Year 9 - 5 pupils
Year 10 - 5 pupils
Year 11 - 5 pupils

I’ve already written a double-sided A4 essay during our ‘PSHE’ lessons on my feelings about VTG, and have highlighted 101 reasons exactly WHY the scheme won’t work. The teachers have given several asemblies, in each, claiming that VTG is for the good of the school, and that together we can move forward. Oh yeah? Bullying will increase, as will peer-pressure from older students on younger ones. Foul language and aggressive behaviour and bad influences will be passed on from an earlier age. An increase of form-tutors/teachers will also be needed, as in every class, there will be 25 pupils, as opposed to 30. Change happens… But shouldn’t democracy have a say?

What would I like to see in Education 2.0? Democracy to the pupils. And not some half-hearted attempt to make us feel like we’re having a say, as is the case in our school. Whatever I say, it won’t matter. The descision has already been made, though the school point-blank denies it. The arguments against giving pupils a collective voice? We’re not responsible. Uh-huh? You wanna say that to my face?

Anyhow, if only children/teenagers/kids were treated with the respect they deserve, given appropriate responsibilites, given a voice, then perhaps we wouldn’t be in the educational pickle that we are in at the moment? Who knows.

The fact is, CHANGE HAPPENS. Education needs to change, and fast…

I’m tagging Chris Pirillo, Darren Rowse, John Chow, Ilker Yoldas and Nate Whitehill to carry on the conversation. Who says only kids have to get involved? If some adults voice their opinions on the matter too, then maybe we will get somewhere.

If humans are causing global warming, and global warming is causing the demise of the Internet, and humans are fueling the Internet with knowledge, yet at the same time destroying it through our wreckless actions, then what do we do? What does this mean? How can we stop it? How can we save the Internet? I don’t know about you guys, but I’m confused. ‘In a mega-pickle’ I suppose…

So what can we do? Be green? Listen to our piggy nosed scientists? Buy the fancy new H2O emitting car? Who knows… We’re in trouble though. I care about the Internet, so perhaps I’ll take note.

One US dude goes a little over the top… I like the way he decided to use the metaphor, but it sounds like he spent a little too much time thinking up this one.

Two versions of this video were available on YouTube. Both had pathetic self-advertising promotions at the end. This one was shorter. Enjoy!

I’m really not sure if today would be the best day to look at this issue, but I think that Internet Censorship is a serious issue at the moment. Should the Internet be entirely free, or should certain controversial matters be edited to suit a wider audience?

Well, here is a prime example of what I’m talking about. bLaugh’s artist’s unedited sketch on the left. On the right, you see the final version that went to press. Of course, with a multi-cultured community like bLaugh’s, I can understand why they’d want to censor a cartoon that made it out that all Terrorist’s looked like the stereotype on the left. But I’d like to leave you to brew over this over the coming weeks and decide for yourself, whether or not net content should be controlled. Leave your comments, have your say. I won’t be online tomorrow though, but playing with fancy new gadgets, and most likely having a great time on my Xbox 360. Have a very merry Christmas!

I just ran across a very, very interesting video on Metacafe. Check it out! If Flash doesn’t work for you, open up Notepad, type ‘Bush hid the facts’ and save the file. Has Microsoft got something going on with the US government? Open up the file and see for yourself. Slightly… How should I put it? Corrupted? Yes, that will do.

Now if that’s not political filtering, I don’t know what is. The ‘glitch’ only happens in Windows XP reportedly. If you can, check the video below. Redmond has some serious questions to answer for.

Plain and simple really. For the sole reason that I have absolutely nothing better to do on this fine Saturday afternoon other than update my blog and do homework, here are a couple of videos of Bunk Buster Bombs in action.

Yep, it’s real! Just slowed down. But if you thought that was big, check this!

That is clearly, like the guy said, a ‘big-ass hole’.