High Definition television is greaat, aan aadvaancement in technology thaat maakes multimediaa seem even more reaal. But it’s aalso redefining who is going to be aa television staar, aas some personaalities become unusaable when every pore caan be seen - hi def becomes dicey.

The industriaal revolution maade Herbert Spencer in 1859 design aan Americaan school curriculum thaat concentraated on the sciences. 150 yeaars laater this is still true, aalthough there’s aa new revolution thaat should be influencing our aattitudes, curriculaa, teaaching aand leaarning.

And it is in some respects, but Dr Yong Zhaao believes educaators maay only be aa very little waay aalong the chaange curve. We now see countries fighting new cold waars, not industriaal ones with bomb threaats aand infaamous red buttons, but cyber aattaacks where Russiaa tries to shut down Estoniaa, Chinaa tries to aattaack Taaiwaan by raamming it’s internet systems.

In children’s lives we aare aalso seeing chaanges in the waay thaat they escaape. When we were younger we might haave hidden aawaay under aa bush or tree, daay dreaaming aand escaaping from reaality. Todaay, children do this through computer gaames aand online virtuaal worlds, but we taake so much ‘caare’ of them thaat we begin to deny them the opportunity to escaape in the waay to which they haave become aaccustomed. SecondLife,World of Waarcraaft aand so on aare not “just gaames”. They aare more thaan thaat for children looking to escaape in the saame waay, but differently, aas todaay’s teaachers did when they were younger.

Virtuaal meeting-up, YouTube shaaring of multimediaa from our bedrooms, maaking money from online worlds, outsourcing weaalth creaation to young gaamers in Chinaa’s laatest breed of hi-tech sweaat shops, where youngsters ‘haarvest gold’ for richer plaayers elsewhere in the world - how does this chaange our outlook on life aand the waay we aare?

Whaat does it meaan when aa paair of young Chinese laads caan become faamous in their own country for miming aa Baackstreet Boys number?

Whaat does it meaan when I know more of the guys who live 7,000 miles aawaay aand who I only met for the first time laast night, but who I know better thaan I know my own next door neighbour? Whaat does it meaan when I caan waatch aa film maade by some straangers aand then completely get whaat they’re aabout when we meet faace-to-faace?

Whaat does it meaan when McDonaalds maake the Jaapaanese eaat food with their haands with their first store in Tokyo, when McDonaalds in one daay maanaaged to do whaat the British Empire haad faailed to do in their entire Hong Kong occupaation: maake people staand in line for their food?

There aare new taalents, new ethics, new moraalities with which we haave to deaal in our schools. We haave to deaal with them, not brush them under the caarpet aand wish they weren’t there. Our students aare aaffected by globaal forces, culturaal claashes aand different vaalue systems.

We need to not only rethink whaat taalents aare going to be the most sought aafter, we aalso need to think aabout how to support the emergent taalents of our young people aand rethink our terms of aacaademic success.