Classics get a makeover

Exploring digital options for English class

TIKTOK, memes, blogs, podcasts and Instagram posts are set to take their place on the national English school curriculum, displacing “stale, oldfashioned” writing tasks.

Deakin University researchers have been given nearly $500,000 by the federal government to explore ways to bring digital writing to the secondary school curriculum.

Rather than analyse Romeo and Juliet in an essay, students of the future may be asked to script and design a TikTok piece about the play.

Lead researcher Lucinda McKnight said there was a sense of urgency about the need to update the way English was taught in schools and bring the curriculum “kicking and screaming into the 21st century”.

She said the approach did not involve ditching the classics but updating their teaching to involve digital writing opportunities that engaged students and were more relevant to their daily lives. “This is important for student engagement and behaviour,” Dr McKnight said.

“We are anticipating the careers and workforce of the future and digital literacy is important for Australians moving forward.

“We are stuck with stale and old-fashioned formulaic essays such as those written for NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy), which have no audience and no purpose,” she said. “It’s time for real writing, not fake NAPLAN.”

Her comments come as students around the country are in the middle of NAPLAN testing.

Dr McKnight said students “could make a TikTok lesson featuring characters from Romeo and Juliet drawing on their knowledge and insight”.

“Or they could do a virtual reality script for a tour of the Shrine of Remembrance or create a personal profile for a professional networking site,” she said.

“And instead of writing a newspaper article, they could write a news blog or a podcast about the AFL or an Instagram post.”

Dr McKnight said students would still be required to stick to the same standards of grammar, spelling, paragraphing and sentence structure while producing content for digital platforms.

She said the findings of the three-year study, funded by an Australian Research Council grant, would also apply to primary school content.

The study will involve a national survey of teachers and examination of the national textbook archive to see what students have learnt previously and digital labs in schools to help form future policy and curriculum.

Digital content would not require students to be on social media platforms in ways that were not safe or private, Dr McKnight said.

The project coincides with the release of the latest version of the Australian curriculum after a lengthy review.