You don't need teachers to teach kids anything to do with electronics. Rather, it works the other way around.

In my limited experience the two main problems are that most teachers and quite a few students don't cope with the inversion of power, and there are still quite a few teachers who are afraid that the kids will press the wrong button and something horrible will happen - a screen full of porn or the thing might explode. They limit experimentation to the point where kids just get frustrated.

Buddies and mentors work really well though, where senior students work with the littlies. It's also an effective way of dealing with bullying.

Don't forget the porn filters, don't forget the porn filters, and those nasty social networking sites and the predators, why those predators can reach down a broadband pipe, put their hand around your kids neck and and pull them into digital hell.

Mutter mutter mumble mumble, left wing, grumble, gay, mumble; have I mad myself clear.

Lyn,
if the teachers don't upskill they will get left behind. Well, they are way behind. The stuff changes so fast and the learning curve is step. I struggle to keep up.

From what I can gather the kids hang out at someone's place with a computer and broadband and off they go--downloading music files for their ipods.They must be creating stuff as well.

Charles,
yep we live in a porn culture. A few filters that block access to bad websites are not going to roll it back. The fashion industry has embraced it big time.

Gary, you'd be amazed.

If a kid is hanging around someone else's house for access it's rarely because they don't have access at home. Fearful parents are a kid's worst nightmare.

They have long and complex arguments over which piece of music should go with which video they're producing in an effort to get sponsorship for whatever it is they're doing. Which bit of free sound mixing software they should use to get the most precise control over the snare they want to amplify at the precise second the light hits the shiny surface of a scooter in the process of front flipping.

They have these arguments on MSN or dozens of similar options, which also have to be negotiated.

I think the worst misconception is that kids live online. It's very much an enhancement to their offline lives, but unlike adults they don't have trouble keeping up. On the contrary, they expect the technology to do more than it does.

They don't have time for porn, terrorists or anything else.

And you'd be surprised at how many arguments they have over correct spelling.

All teachers need to learn or improve a range of IT and related skills, especially those related to digital learning.
* To organise their curriculum and learning activities for students
* To optimise the use of so-called Web 2.0 technologies
* To manage classrooms where all have access to high speed broadband and the latest software and hardware
* To assess the learning which takes place, and to evaluate the effectiveness of their program.
* To find ways to circumvent the censors who lurk in governments and school systems.
The suggestion that teachers do not have a major role in the e-classroom is naive. Policymakers will need to direct substantial funding to professional development if we don't want to waste the investment in technological infrastructure.

Kevin
good points. The Teachers have been absent from the educational debates around a national curriculum, national testing, performance pay and league tables ranking school performance. How come?