Did You Know 4.0

Recently, Darren and Jared Bachynski published a Fall 2009 update (Did You Know 4.0) to a now famous Did You Know video that has circulated on YouTube for some time. The information, if accurate, is startling. We are only just beginning to understand the Digital Age's impact on education and learning.

From iPhones to Twitter, our communities are rapidly changing the way we communicate. Surely, this will have an impact on our schools. Isn't it interesting to consider how these technologies impact language development? An argument could be made that English is still the language of international communication, but what happens when "lol, OMG, ru" and other common "tweets" begin to replace the formal language we now use? Should we be teaching "tweetglish" in our classes? Also, what happens to the human brain now that we are communicating differently? Will it structure itself differently?

Though many of us tend to suggest that the Digital Age has changed "kids these days," I argue it has had as big an impact on adults. I think it's time we embrace this stuff, work with it, and begin to figure out how we can capitalize on the good and remediate for the not so good. What do you think?