Technology in Education

[dudutz18]

Technology has been growing rapidly and the changes are inevitable even to students and teachers. The point of this thread is to see everyone's pov.

Oh, i hate introduction!

 

I will group this into 3 parts where you can just tell which part you prefer and WHY (I'd like to hear), if possible, tell which of these learning environment you had when you were at school

 

1. Schools that replaced whiteboard with monitor and books are replaced with laptops

Schools that are quite expensive are having these changes. THe teacher can write on his/her laptop or directly onto the monitor and speak, or let the computer does the SPEAKING. This may sound weird but this kind of stuff does exist . . . Then, the students can download whatever is displayed into their laptops within just a single click. Click peep peep, press OK to continue.

 

2. Schools that keep the old method alive

Basically, the teacher will have to get a marker and write all his/her notes on the board. In some cases chalk, but thats not my point. The students will have to write down what the teacher had written on the board, with pen and on paper.

 

3. Schools that combine both methods (I made this one myself, I dont think this one exists)

Teachers can type on his/her laptop and the monitor will display the note. However, students still have to write down the notes, with pen and on paper =D

 

My choice

I prefer the 3rd one. No, not because I'm the one who made it up! It's coz students get to memorise whatever they write easily. Result shows that school with learning environment #1 have a lower average of admission rank (it's a ranking across all schools in the state). Why not #2? Because #2 wont allow teacher to put pictures easily, while the env #3 will. This provides a strong foundation for visual learners. Plus, not all teachers have good handwriting (no offense intended on this one xD). I often find it confusing figuring out what the 'broken' letter is. However, it is still costly . . . One monitor like that can cost around 8k bucks and students might start thinking of something unfair is going on: How come the teacher's allowed to type while we have to write?

 

 

I'm not so good at english I hope you see my point tho

[helol]

1. Schools that replaced whiteboard with monitor and books are replaced with laptops,

 

That is the one that stands out for me, most schools these days are doing that exact thing, and it has been increasing test scores since, the more information about a subject and opinions on that subject then the more one learns.

[ub3rman123]

Personally, I dislike the method of forcing students to write down notes by hand. It's mostly because I have difficulty with handwriting and end up spending so much effort trying to make the words legible that I don't pay any attention to what the notes are.

[marharth]

Personally, I dislike the method of forcing students to write down notes by hand. It's mostly because I have difficulty with handwriting and end up spending so much effort trying to make the words legible that I don't pay any attention to what the notes are.

This

 

Our education system is way too authoritarian imo, but I guess that's for another topic.

 

I myself would prefer all technology to learn, since I have never learned anything in school. I knew most of the stuff the school was teaching 2 years in advance.

 

I think it would be cheaper to supply low end laptops to everyone then 6 different big textbooks. Giving 6 textbooks to someone will cost around 600 dollars, and you could supply laptops to them for less then 300 dollars.

 

Textbooks are also much harder to deal with, you have to flip through pages and scan to find stuff, with technology you just have to skip to the page and do ctrl+f.

 

I think its not a black and white issue though, some people need a mix, some people need only text, some people need only technology.

 

Schools shouldn't be based off what the majority needs, but what every individual needs.

[BlackBaron2]

Well, with my university switching to online submission of coursework, this topic is relevant. I think one should be given the choice of traditional or digital methods, really. For some people, either of the two is a right pain :P

[antonkr]

Basically the way our school is number 3 option for most classes at least.

Almost every classroom now has what they call a smart board, however we have to write in notes by hand. I believe thats how it should be but sometimes it goes so fast my notes are useless because I was in a hurry to write them down and can't even read what I said.

[bben46]

My own background in teaching is in adult education. Different people learn in different ways. Some you can explain how to do something verbally. Others must be shown , and still others (most) have to do it themselves with supervision to really learn how to do something well.

 

I find that for most people, writing something down reinforces the learning - whether they ever read it again or not. (this is for you Uberman)

 

Each student needs to discover on their own what works best for them - then try to practice that way no matter how the school tries to force everyone to learn one way.

 

@Marhath: The reason the schools you are familiar with are authoritarian is because there are a certain percentage of students who do not want to be there, have no interest in learning and actively disrupt the learning for the rest. In my adult classes. I never took roll, and don't remember anyone ever being absent. I didn't have any discipline problems at all. My students wanted to be there and wanted to learn what I taught. Otherwise they wouldn't have paid the US $800 a week tuition, (fifteen years ago) plus a hotel room for the week, transportation - sometimes from halfway around the world - and other costs associated with being in a small town in South Carolina with no social life beyond a red neck night club called 'Possum Holler' (honest!) for a week or two.

[marharth]

My own background in teaching is in adult education. Different people learn in different ways. Some you can explain how to do something verbally. Others must be shown , and still others (most) have to do it themselves with supervision to really learn how to do something well.

 

I find that for most people, writing something down reinforces the learning - whether they ever read it again or not. (this is for you Uberman)

 

Each student needs to discover on their own what works best for them - then try to practice that way no matter how the school tries to force everyone to learn one way.

 

@Marhath: The reason the schools you are familiar with are authoritarian is because there are a certain percentage of students who do not want to be there, have no interest in learning and actively disrupt the learning for the rest. In my adult classes. I never took roll, and don't remember anyone ever being absent. I didn't have any discipline problems at all. My students wanted to be there and wanted to learn what I taught. Otherwise they wouldn't have paid the US $800 a week tuition, (fifteen years ago) plus a hotel room for the week, transportation - sometimes from halfway around the world - and other costs associated with being in a small town in South Carolina with no social life beyond a red neck night club called 'Possum Holler' (honest!) for a week or two.

For adult education and college I don't see any reason for them to have a authoritarian structure, as you said they wouldn't be paying money and going out of their way to be there for no reason. The thing is some people think they don't want to learn since the way its being taught is boring and difficult. If schools focused more on individual needs; such as if someone learns better with technology, then most people wouldn't despise the school they are in and might want to learn. There are always some people who don't give a damn no matter what but its not helping anything to force them into one way of learning.

 

I think there are many ways to learn, some people prefer to learn with books and paper, some prefer to learn with technology. There is a group of people who don't want to be in a structured education system and would prefer to teach themselves everything without help from another source. And there are also people who don't care about education and would prefer to live life and learn everything on the way.

 

I think it goes beyond the black and white of technology and paper...

[dudutz18]

All the things make sense

 

Schools should focus in individual needs I agree

 

But wouldnt that be costly? Teachers who can focus in individual needs are paid real high and who pays them, parents of course. I personally think this is the best solution .. only a few schools pay attention to individual needs and they cost around 20k bucks a year in average. As the result, those few schools are among on top of the state, wow. It's very costly but parents get what they paid for

 

I now agree laptops can be used for advance learning at school, but not for children bcs:

In some cases, parents get real mad at the smartboard and laptop learning method. Why?

Parents are already complaining about the expensive laptops (most schools that use this learning method usually recommend laptop that costs around 700bucks) schools recommend for their kids (<15yr old). They bought their kids that expensive laptops to use at school still. Then, a year later, it turned out the kids cant take care of their own laptop. It went down, virus and crashes etc. At the end parents got to buy them a new one ..

 

Even worse, laptops are being misused by many kids. They use their laptops to play games and watch xxx etc instead of studying. There's a software to monitor this kind of stuffs but again its not cheap . . .

 

What im trying to say is:

I personally think primary school students should be taught with the paper method and start trying a new method (like laptop) when they are old enough (probably when they enter year7) to take care of themselves and their property

[marharth]

All the things make sense

 

Schools should focus in individual needs I agree

 

But wouldnt that be costly? Teachers who can focus in individual needs are paid real high and who pays them, parents of course. I personally think this is the best solution .. only a few schools pay attention to individual needs and they cost around 20k bucks a year in average. As the result, those few schools are among on top of the state, wow. It's very costly but parents get what they paid for

 

I now agree laptops can be used for advance learning at school, but not for children bcs:

In some cases, parents get real mad at the smartboard and laptop learning method. Why?

Parents are already complaining about the expensive laptops (most schools that use this learning method usually recommend laptop that costs around 700bucks) schools recommend for their kids (<15yr old). They bought their kids that expensive laptops to use at school still. Then, a year later, it turned out the kids cant take care of their own laptop. It went down, virus and crashes etc. At the end parents got to buy them a new one ..

 

Even worse, laptops are being misused by many kids. They use their laptops to play games and watch xxx etc instead of studying. There's a software to monitor this kind of stuffs but again its not cheap . . .

 

What im trying to say is:

I personally think primary school students should be taught with the paper method and start trying a new method (like laptop) when they are old enough (probably when they enter year7) to take care of themselves and their property

Its easy to mess up a book also...

 

I am not suggesting for parents to buy the laptop, all of the funds are paid by tax dollars.

 

You can get a gaming PC for 700 dollars, no idea why a school would need that. I could put together a laptop for 150 dollars that would do video, text, ext...

 

You have to realize how much it costs schools to pay for paper, books, sometimes pen and pencil.

 

I could easily say that laptops would be much cheaper then books, paper, and writing stuff.

 

Laptops are not new anymore, people are no longer using paper and pencil in work nearly as much as they use computers. I would say that schools should start with a mix of technology and paper, then move on to mainly technology.

 

There is a certain age that most people have made up their mind about their education and life, some people have that point earlier then others. Its not helpful to them if they are stuck in a system that they are sure isn't helping them at all.

 

No one benefits from a boring school system that just brain washes you into the "get up, go to work, eat, go to sleep" kind of modern life. Education needs to be more interesting, and technology helps that.

 

I wish this was a topic on the education system as a whole but its not -.-