A PETERSFIELD headteacher has called for major changes in the way children are taught to keep pace with advancing technology. Speaking to parents at The Petersfield School's annual awards evening, Nigel Poole said teachers were still delivering a 19th century eduction to a 21st century clientele. He said there had been massive advances in technology since he began teaching in l980, which were not just taken for granted. "Who would have thought, in 1980, that we'd have mobile phones, MSN, personal computers, theme parks, Dr Who and Come Dancing, cash machines, crustless loaves, digital TV – in fact digital everything," he told parents. "This leads me to a question that is going to have the biggest impact on the way we learn, study and teach in the next 10 years." And he asked his audience if they were "digital natives" or "digital immigrants", or whether they actually knew what he meant. He said the pupils were all digital natives. "You grew up with technology," he said. "If you're anything like my kids, you work as a family help desk, sorting out the computer for your parents – heck, you probably even know your own mobile phone numbers. "Digital natives," added Mr Poole, "can do their coursework, listen to music, keep one eye on the TV, be on MSN, text and surf the net all at the same time." On the other hand, digital immigrants, said Mr Poole, are people like him who did not even know their own mobile phone number. And he warned: "We live in a world made for digital natives and schools are going to have to respond to that." He said if pupils were capable of undertaking several different digital tasks at once, "it's probably a bit ridiculous to expect them to sit quietly at an empty table hour after hour, focusing on a teacher imparting knowledge that they can pick up off the internet at the click of a mouse". "If it's all online, why bother with libraries? If they can access data, knowledge and communicate from home, why make them come to school to do the same things at the same time for 39 weeks a year?" And as part of a hard-hitting speech, he added: "If it's all done by keyboard and mouse, how vital is handwriting any more? "If you spend all your time using ICT and you're better at it than your elders, why have specific ICT lessons? "Patently, it's time to look again at every aspect of education because we are still delivering a 19th century model, where schooling was devised to fit factories and our holidays are still arranged to match the harvest, to a 21st century clientele." And Mr Poole stressed the need for change, saying: "I am under pressure every day to provide more and more ICT hardware. In a few years, all exams will be completed online. I now have 250 kids in each year group – imagine trying to test them all together at the same time online." Confessing that he liked change, he told the crowded hall at Cranford Road: "I'm an old- fashioned English teacher. I like books, I used to like writing individual reports in long hand. But I am a convert, and to best serve the digital natives, we digital immigrants are going to have to do some pretty fast thinking if we are to keep up with the learning needs of successive generations."