to be aghast you can get a GCSE in 'digital communications'

[fyrtlemertile]

Was speaking to a family member today whose choosing her options, apparently English Literature is an option, like History, French, Art or Music used to be while 'The English suite of qualifications are English Language, Media Studies and Digital Communications. Gifted student may have the opportunity to take English Literature as a twilight course and it will be offered as an option for band 1 students' (Band 1 = top half of the year, sets 1,2 and 3 I think).

AIBU or is digital communications probably a GCSE in facebook, texting and tweeting?

lol, the ability to cook properly isnt essential :)

many moons ago, my mil was aghast that i added garlic to the onions before the salt. something to do with how the salt helps soften the oninons. it wasnt the proper way to cook you see. But, i have since beeen bunging stuff into my onions in any old order, and ive had no complaints.
course i cant bake to save my life because of this. but i always make sure i eier have friends who can bakc, or know wehre the nearest waitrose of marks is for baking occasions :)

Just because something is new, doesn't mean it is bad. Can you imagine what 17th Century mums would have thought when they heard their children were going to learn "Science"? Digital Communications is now an important part of how the world works, and it makes sense to learn it.

I don't think English Lit. has ever been compulsory, though I agree that it should be.

As me and my siblings went through the school system (youngest finished two years ago) it didn't change at all - we had to pick between English Language and English Literature. My brother, not being a reader, picked Lang. and regretted it

Digital Communications is bizarre and pointless. Any teenager is going to know how to use most forms of digital communication, it's so widespread now that actually teaching it is redundant. Whereas not that many families will read much, so Lit. is a good chance to introduce teens to some of the greats.

Though I'd be loath to take my Lit. GCSE again unless they changed the booklist. Lord of the pigging Flies, blerrrrgh. Effing WWII poems. Only good thing I studied was Macbeth

Is it Eng Lit or Eng Lang which counts for EBac?

It depends what Digital Communications actually involves. I think it's jumping the gun to assume it's a course on texting and using Facebook. My guess its that it'll be focused on things like managing communications portals, using LANs and intranets to share data, creating data feeds, blogging, communications, brand promotion, social media strategy and search-engine optimisation. Which are increasingly important skills to have now that so much business is conducted virtually and via digital mediums.

If you look on the edexcel site, you will find out that the gcse covers digital imagery (still and moving image) and all kinds of digital text (e.g blogs, text with video, advertising, apps, games, etc)
Digital communication is everywhere - all around us. IMO t is a really useful GCSE, relevant to the world we live in.

We had to do English Lit and English Language.

eggsit - "t is a really useful GCSE, relevant to the world we live in."

Very possibly but I bet the good universities don't see it like that. And "all kinds of digital text" = blogging and facebook. I, for my sins, do quite a bit of work in that area, in marketing and I know for a fact there is very little actual knowledge about how businesses can use Facebook/Blogs/Social Media in a succesful manner and how people communicate and an AWFUL lot of wishy washy theories, best guesses and people charging a lot of money to be consultants, and it all changes every few months. I can't imagine it's any different for non-business uses. How they could manage to make a GCSE out of that is beyond me.

So possibly interesting, but it's not going to help you get a job.

But it's not about facebook and twitter - look at the spec. That's just the op's assumption. I'm sure you use digital imagery - text and moving image- all the time in advertising. That is what the gcse is about. Google it and look at the spec before you criticise it.
In the third unit, the pupils have to design a product using digital imagery.

"Or even how about insisting students actually learn how to friggin spell. God, what a revolutinary concept that is hmm"

Seems like the "literary" LeQueen could do with spell check herself...

We had to do Eng Lit and Eng Lang as 2 seperate GCSEs. By all means offer digital communications, but as an add on, fluffy subject, the core should still be Eng Lit, Eng Lang, Maths, 1 Science, 1 Humanity (Geography or history) , that is only 6, leaves 3 for frippery.

eng lit AND lang but only once science? you won't get far with that!

*one

Umm, I did!

I didnt do any science subjects, it has never stopped me getting anywhere in my choice of career. :)

We had to do English Lit, English Lang, Maths, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and French. Then we had to do History or Geography and we could pick two others.

I was very surprised TBH a few yers ago when I realised that you could do one all encompassing science GCSE .

And yes, we use text and images in advertising all the time. I'd still rather a copywriter studied literature and language than "digital text". In a broader sense, I don't think people should be specialising that much at GCSE level. Using the example of working in advertising, if I saw a CV where someone had studied marketing at GCSE level, I'd ignore it, as I would expect them to have a degree anyway, so frankly whatever they got at GCSE level is irrelevant. I would much rather they did some good core subjects at GCSE and A Level and then specialised at university in what they wanted to do.

Clytaemnestra, we had exactly the same choices as you.

How do you get into a science A level with only once science GCSE?

Winter, if you are serious about science you would do triple for GCSE, but even if you do double award you could still do separate sciences at a level if you choose to. DD1 did triple science and has gone on to do chemistry and physics at a level. DD2 has decided to do double science on the basis that she will not want to do science at a level - but she could still change her mind.
Never heard of digital communications GCSE thank goodness. At DDs school English lit and language are both compulsory.

I think Digital Communications is a very useful study. They will learn, presumably, the impact of new media technologies on all sorts of areas within society; how the communicaions revolution has impacted on daily life including how we receive news from around the world - recent demonstrations in Iran, Burma, Libya, etc have employed mobile phone technology to transport messages about political suppression by Governments (such technology is harder to censor and the balance of power re- the dispersion of world news is changing). They will I guess also learn about how politicians these days are employing twitter and such like to attempt to connect with potential electorates..how it is now used as a very significant PR tool. I think the 'out-of-dateness' is a bit of a red herring..kids are far more receptive to picking up changes in technology than their parents - as long as they've learned about issues like global politics and power, they've widened their horizons.

so what job have you got with your 'English Literature Degree including Masters (not)' LeQ ? Let's see ... receptionist in a factory part-time and scribbling rubbish for an advertising rag ?

Time for you to learn about its and it's (and spelling generally in your posts) !

Kids would p*ss all over you if there was a new job to learn now, qualifications haven't meant a thing for a long time sweetie :)

Ds2 had a space due to doing early Gcse and since he had no intrest in art /drama or foreign languages .he picked cooking not because he ever wants to be a cook.
But when went through options. He decicded that cooking be a good option .Then he be able to cook for himself when goes to uni.They also learn to cook on a tight budget .Don't think he is planning to live on pot noodles and beer

I think the issue is that too many assume everybody is the same as them. English lit and Lang as double qualifications were usually done by students who were considered capable and the less academic did just English Lang. You may not be aware of this as your friends will have done the same as you. In this nothing has changed, schools ate just more upfront about it. The digital communications looks interesting, analysing the structure and content if blogs and short films etc. Too many of you are too quick to judge. I imagine a similar reaction 30 years ago to a GCSE in computing.

The digital communications GCSE looks like a very soft subject. It is certainly one I would largely ignore were I an employer. If th schools were turning out people with good literacy and numeracy skills, with an ability to study then it wouldn't matter so much. Since they are not then a concentration on subjects likely to improve their literacy and numeracy would be good.

mnistooaddictive - no, my school didn't offer the options, you HAD to do the 8 GCSEs they specified (well, including history or geograhpy)

And I don't think a GCSE in computing is paticularly useful either TBH. And I did Computer Science with Busines Studies so I have some experience in the area. If you want to do computer programming, do maths. Lots of maths. Sciences are probably pretty generally helpful too. A GCSE is not going to teach you anything you don't shouldn't already be doing at home in your own time if you really want to work in computers. I did Maths, Further Maths, Physics, English Lit and General Studies (not that that counts as its an easy one) at A level and that was much more useful that computing, as the course started from scratch anyway.