Blogging, EFL and young learners

A few months ago I set up a blog for my seven year old daughter. I did so for a number of reasons; first to teach her something fun about the internet and to allow her to feel comfortable using this technology (there is no way she's going to learn such skills at school, even when she gets older as they seem mired in the nineteenth century). Also I wanted to see if younger learners could handle this. Up till then most of my experience had been with teenager students and adults.

So check out Lydia's latest blog here.

I'm happy to report it is easier to teach the fundamentals of blogging and vlogging to seven year olds than it is seventeen year olds. I guess she hasn't learnt to be afraid of trying something new or making mistakes yet.

The problem with the education system here is that it does not tolerate error. Students are expected to master their subjects and make as few mistakes as possible. That sounds great in theory, however, the upshot of this approach is that creativity, experimentation and the like are penalised. Better the student recite five pages of his/her history book perfectly, than go off and produce some interesting project about the subject. Who cares if a week later they can't remember anything; the important thing is they got a good grade from the teacher.