A Tablet for Every Student
Published February 10, 2012
February 2, 2012
The need for education reform grows more obvious daily. We claim to have learned that if we keep doing what we’re doing, we are going to keep getting what we are getting, but our talk about providing a world-class education to all students is unsubstantiated boasting. We once led the world in education but we now rank 16th in science, 22nd in math and 18th in high school graduation rates. How can we compete in a twenty-first century world when we continue an eighteenth century education system? We tweak instead of changing a system that isn’t working effectively.
In 1800, it was widely accepted that the body of knowledge doubled every fifty years. By 1950, we were told it doubled every ten years; in 1970, it was projected to double every five years. Today it doubles every two to three years. Innovations and technology have revolutionized manufacturing and production in almost every field but somehow we either turn our heads or refuse to see how these lessons apply to education.
New technologies and innovations are here now and, curiously enough, are being developed in our backyard. Lenovo, with American headquarters in Research Triangle Park has joined with Intel Corporation to produce an affordable, child friendly laptop computer and software package for students in grades K-8. The Intel Learning Series software offers instruction, interaction and resources that could immediately reform and improve educational opportunities, especially in rural areas and among students who have traditionally struggled. More innovations will emerge as we adopt these new technologies.
Think about the possibilities if we could guarantee every child a master teacher in every subject. With lessons on a tablet or computer each student could proceed at his or her own pace. Tests or other evaluation tools at the end of each unit would determine if the child had mastered material sufficiently to move to the next level and homework and tests could be submitted online, helping to relieve teachers of grading papers and recording grades. We might even be able to save money on education as textbooks and other materials would be loaded into the device, reducing much of the costs of buying and storing textbooks while eliminating the need for children to drag around those heavy volumes.
Education reform must begin in our universities. New curricula are necessary to redefine the role of those in education. Instead of the traditional classroom model of standing in front of a class lecturing, teachers would become coaches and mentors for students, monitoring to ensure students were doing their work, while providing encouragement and enrichment experiences and materials. The role of that classroom teacher will be even more important in encouraging socialization, classroom dynamics and values training.
Can it work? In North Carolina, the Mooresville Graded School District supplies MacBook Pro computers to every child in grades 3-8 and has become a national digital learning model for the U.S. Department of Education. Other school districts are likely doing the same. The point is that we have the technology and capability, we just need to learn from and duplicate these best practices Our young people deserve the best chance to compete in the new world. It won’t happen until we give them the best tools and learning methods available in the twenty-first century.
October 8, 2012 at 9:59 am
bgibson135 says:
Parents must take an active interest in their child's education, starting long before any formal education begins. Parents should "plant the seeds" that instill the "love of learning" in their children, both in the home and out. Parents need to keep tab on what their child should be learning, and then check to make sure they are learning, both during the process, and periodically at the end of learning cycles. If parents don't take on these parental responsibilities, then our society should expect to produce an inferior citizen, who had diminishing capabilities of surviving, let alone succeeding in this changing world. Sad to say, that is what America has done for many of the last decades, and especially what North Carolina and its leadership have done. We talk a good game, and say we have good intentions toward the education of our children, but when it comes to putting money where our mouth is... to the back of the class we go. Tough economic times shouldn't be when we cut back of educational spending. We should educate our way to prosperity.
Putting a tablet in each child's hands won't make them successful, or even literate. Education is labor intensive. Don't let anyone tell you that a single teacher can teach 50 children better than they can teach 10 children! Don't be fooled that by "digitizing" their education, putting tests "online", or that by using etextbooks, etc., children will get a better education. Any instructor that has taught online knows that contrary to the notion that it takes less time (for both the instructor and the student) to teach/learn..., in reality it takes more time. e.g. In class a student can ask a professor "face to face" a question and the instructor can respond. Any student that is in the vicinity, and paying attention, can benefit from that faculty's response to the one student. Online, a student must type the question, or record a verbal or video question... to which the faculty must type or record their response (and more time "wasted" if clarification is necessary). All this takes more time for the instructor and student than if they were "face to face".
