Re: Education law....school detention

On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 10:41:31 -0000, "Peter McLelland"
<peter.mclelland@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The biggest problem I have with computers is that they operate to the most
precise of rules, that is not a crticism, just a fact, it is the way they
work.

But on the flip side, huge resources can be poured into the writing of
the teaching programs to give a far higher standard of both
instruction and audio-visual aids than a teacher could possibly
achieve. Expert analysis of results can be undertaken to improve the
product year after year so that every child will benefit from decades
of combined teaching experience and knowlege.

Human interaction can be far more 'soft' in it's approach and as such
can sponsor far greater creativity, and I feel that as the battle for low
cost products continues as it will creativy is perhaps the way to stay in
the game.

The human touch must not be dispensed with. The computer is a good
way of handling the mundane teaching tasks of instruction, practice,
evaluation and reinforcement, but it cannot provide the same level of
encouragement and emotional support as a human teacher. The mundane
tasks presently takes up the bulk of teaching, and is also the most
boring aspect of teaching. Teaching fractions for the 100th time is
not particularly enthralling, and nor is watching kids doing sums (or
marking them). The real pleasure and skill of teaching IMO is in
anlysing and overcoming problems that individual children are having.
The pleasure of seeing a child who has been struggling with a topic
suddenly "click" after it is explained in a slightly different way is
a fantastic reward for a teacher. But what are the rest of the class
supposed to do whilst the teacher is busy helping a single child
understand the concept of lowest common denominator after the rest of
the class have all sussed it?

The computer can give the instruction (probably better than a
teacher), it can set the practice exercises and analyse whether the
child is demonstrating a proper understanding of the topic in
question. It can give additional instruction to children who do not
get it the first time without holding up those that understood
straight away. If the child progresses normally in learning a
particular skill, fine. If not, the computer flags the situation and
a teacher takes over to carry out further assessment and provide 1:1
human interaction to sort out the block. With the teacher freed of
the need to spend most of the time doing "talk & chalk" and assessing
every child's progress by marking work etc., there will be heaps of
time to provide individual help for children as and when they need it
- and also spend much more time on the social and emotional side of
things and practical activities on a 1:1 basis. Learning must involve
personal activity on the part of the student, it is not a passive
"soaking up information" exercise. You can be instructed until the
cows come home, but unless you actually carry out some relevant tasks
for yourself, you will not learn the subject adequately.

The saying is very true:

I hear, I forget.
I see, I remember.
I do, I understand.

--
Cynic

.

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