Derek's space

And that doesn't happen in classrooms and homes? The inane and lack of substance? It may not be happening in every interaction but I've seen lots of learning happening on social networking from texting to find out what homework is to sending people to different online resources to help them acheive a task. And then there are the discussions and events that prove a wider social issue. One of my nephew's used Facebook to protest a student representation issue at his school. If you didn't know the back story it looked kind of bizzare and very inane. Knowing his father meant I pretty much figured it out before he told me the whole story when he was in NZ on holiday. We need to be careful about how we judge our young people. The biggest difference is that online media creates a record of what has always happened as young people form identity.

I'm not quite sure the implications of this have been thought through...are we ready for kids NOT to be in classrooms. If they are not in classrooms (or not as much as they are now) where will they be? We cant overlook that a key reason for the development of our education system was to keep kids safe while their parents worked in the factories (that was once we decided it was inhumane for the children to be working in the factories)

Moving to a blended system implies far more change than just educational change.

And while blended suggests that there will always be face to face involvement - we shouldn't underestimate the positive aspects of encouragement and celebration that teachers provide within a classroom context.