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?

LittleRedDragon It is not true that if you can write a letter you can write an email. The rules are ENTIRELY different. Ok, not basic grammer, that's the same. But the ettiquette is different and you write very differently in order to get different messages across. There are weak emails and strong ones. It is HIGHLY important in business to know how to email effectively.

Excuse me...I spend many, many hours every year trying to teach pupils of all abilities English skills, actually. In fact, many English teachers do.

Wonders if people think that we just sit at the front painting our nails whilst the pupils riot around us....Grrrrrr.

berry, that's rubbish and you surely know it!

An email should be written according to the same rules as a formal letter. If you don't know how to do that, learn. Your emails will be better. If you write sloppy 'email speak', all you will do is make yourself look ill-educated an unprofessional.

this is interesting

It's rationale is thus:

"What will the GCSE in Digital Communication offer?
This new pilot GCSE introduces students to English through the study and production of digital texts, such as film, other moving image texts, websites and podcasts. It allows them to acquire knowledge of how these texts are composed to convey different meanings. This qualification also equips students with the skills they need to communicate within the modern world. As well as reading digital texts, students will also be given the opportunity to design, create and evaluate their own digital communication."

Seems pretty damn pointless to me.

OMG! EXCUSE ME?! Ididn't say you need to use 'email speak' what ever that is...?!

There are heaps of rules about effective emailing, it is NOTHING like writing a letter.

I know very well how to write a formal letter. Do you ever CC someone in to a letter? Do you put links in a letter? inset spreadsheets effectivly? format? attach meeting invites? include surveys? when responding to a letter do you need to decide how to address it according to whom received the original email?

I cringe when i recieve an email that is writen like a letter and everyone in my firm can't beleive that anyone still does it.

Doh!! 'its' not 'it's'

The single award GCSE in English still has poetry, modern prose, Shakespeare etc. If they don't do the Lit, they will lose out on modern Drama and literary heritage poetry and prose, which is a shame.

Erm ... yes, I CC people in letters, of course. It means 'carbon copy'. Why?

I'm also perfectly capable of typing out link, attaching documents to letters, and writing spreadsheets.

I don't understand why you think these are peculiar to email, or something you need to learn in a separate GCSE that would replace English Lit? Because that's what we're talking about: should students be encouraged to replace English with something else that is more focussed on digital media.

It is a shame, surely the digital communications could be made way for as part of general English lang.. It doesnt need a whole GCSE but it is massively important that they learn it and in my opinion it is where a lot of the unemployed school/college leavers fall down.

And as for tech skills etc (which I agree are necessary in this modern world) there is a subject widely taught in schools called 'ICT'.

No - nobody is suggesting that traditional 'English' be replaced with Digital Media. It is simply an additional 'English linked' qualification - they could do it AND traditional English AND Literature.

Edexcel are stupidly obsessed with podcasts though imho. None of my pupils will be 'writing podcasts' though! How the flip do you 'write a podcast' anyway? It's paying lipservice to the idea of being 'down with the kids' imho.

Wow, how incredibly patronising.

Whilst you do those things with a letter you don't do them in the same way as you do with an email. And many young people don' know how to email effectively. i.e. no subject, poor addressing, 'Yours Sincerley' and then name below as a sign off... They do need ot be taught it.

My DH is part time professional tweeter (yes!) he runs twitter and facebook for some small companies whose owners are to old to understand it/bother but they know it is important in modern times. He worked out that if he did this full time he would earn much more than he does in his normal job.

Social networking and the internet are everywhere, but DH has not one single IT qualification, just a passion. Mind you he only started doing it after a drunken offer to do it.

I wish I could find a bright young person to employ who knew how to create a podcast, email my clients without sounding like a solicitor, set up a facebook page for me... I'd snap em up!

berrie, as I have already said, you are mentioning things are not specific to email, and it would be both short-sighted and confusing to teach students that these things are specific to email.

I don't mean to be patronizing, but I don't think you're being clear. It was natural for me to assume you meant you thought emails required a different kind of communication. Now you're saying they don't: fine, so let's teach good communication skills generally, and not particularise where it's not appropriate.

No, no, no. The basics of grammar and spelling are clearly the same in a letter or an email. Hopefully kids are being taught spelling and grammar regardless.. The 'ettiquette' of digital communications is completely different to that of writing a formal letter.
Teenagers need to be taught the specific skills of communicating effectively digitally.

You wouldn't put 'Your Sincerley' at the end of an email would you? Or put your address in the top right and theirs on the left?

LRD we all had special IT training in year one, as we have a dual hard / online submission system (latter for plagiarism) and we have a high proportion of mature students, some of whom aren't so aware; we also had to cover SPSS (if that's right- stats program, always get it wrong!) which is quite fiddly.

But that's my field, RE (UG) and Autism MA; DH otoh studies with the Advanced Technology dept so I guess needs to be far more techie- lots of CAD etc. But then why would you apply for that if you weren't that way inclined anyway- Dh was writing programs for his Spectrum and having them printed back in the year dot.

WRT to email etc wouldn't it be better for students to take the ECDL thing that many companies ask for in their office staff? At least a work related skill then.

Am having to redo English next year; apparently a C in 1992, and an Access top level pass has ceased to be acceptable (even though the Access was A Level equivalent and got people on to English at Bristol). Having seen the work of many students with a current B / C in english, including DH who did his 2 years ago, my C is a whole new other level.... (crap school that woudln't enter us for extended, thank God we moved, like Hell would I allow my boys to go there!).

(Home made for first person to point ut that my typing indicates poor english; yes indeedy I did get kicked out of RSA classes. They were boring, and apparenlty typing rude poems about ex boyfriends does not count as study ).

I honestly do not think you are right. Imo, whoever you're writing to and however you're writing to them, should deserve the same standard of etiquette. If you can write clear, correctly-spelt, grammatical English, you should be able to write an acceptable email, formal letter, letter to your mum, letter to the Guardian, or whatever. If you can't, you can make all the excuses you like, but teaching 'how to email' is just dumbing down.

berrie - why on earth wouldn't I write 'yours sincerely' in an email?!

errrrm because it would be incredibly stuffy and would rarely be the correct email ettiquette...

This is the exact point.

I get quite a lot of formal emails. They always end with 'yours sincerely', and begin with 'Dear LRD'. If you send a formal email, what do you end with? 'from berrie xxx'?

If I'm sending a non-formal letter, by email or by post, I might sign off with 'best wishes' or 'lots of love', but I'm not likely to do that on formal communication!

The ones I get (academic) generally say "kind regards". Seems to be near ubiquitous in my circle, not sure how correct it is.