How Much Tech Education Is Too Much?

I had to laugh when I recently saw this story in The Age about British teenagers possibly studying the "tweets" of Ashton Kutcher ...

British schoolchildren may soon be studying the tweets of Ashton Kutcher along with the sonnets of Shakespeare.

A leaked Government report due to be released shortly, recommends that British primary school teachers be given much more flexibility in deciding what lessons to teach.

And while it emphasises the continued necessity of teaching traditional subjects such as spelling, history and arithmetic, it also recommends that students be taught about online media and instructed about web-based skills including how to use a spell checker.

As a father of 3 (and involved in tech), it got me thinking - can schools keep pace with technology change enough to educate kids - or will kids end up teaching the teachers?

My kids have been exposed to technology from day 1 and are digital natives - they take technology for completely for granted (I know this is not true for everyone, but increasingly so). Given appropriate access to equipment, most kids will educate themselves pretty fast. Can parents and teachers keep pace?

Did I mention I am married to a teacher?