The Future of Education
There will come a time when we can no longer afford to bus our children to a warehouse every morning and bus them all back in the afternoon, with all the accompanying expenses. This change may be for the better--packing them all together with peers with a minimal amount of guidance is not good socialization, and the mass production method of teaching is not good education.
At the state level there is enough money to create a computer-based system where a student may play a video game (non-violent) or watch an enrichment video (like the life cycle of a frog or the architecture in Rome) and pay for his or her time on this entertainment by doing some math problems or word problems. The numbers on the keyboard could call up a short video of an expert teacher explaining the concept behind the problem that the student is currently working on. With ten digits on the keyboard, the student would have access to ten different expert teachers. He or she would soon find the one that explains the material best for him or herself, or the student can shop around to any or all of the available teachers. In our system as it exists today, how many students are reluctant to ask for an explanation? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the student will remain silent rather than ask a question.
The computer program will detect which concepts an individual student is having problems with, and can accordingly feed that student exercises which gradually build to the desired level of ability. How many of us feel that there were blind spots in our education because we were absent a day or were simply day-dreaming and missed out on something the rest of the class heard? Between the student and this program, there will be no stones left unturned. Every new level will be met on a good solid footing.
For every major policy change, one of the most important considerations is ease of transition. Can we try it out in such a way that we can back out if it doesn’t work? Will the various groups who are involved or dependent on the old system suffer from the change? This new system can be implemented right now in the classrooms that we already have. I envision a circle of desks, at every one is a student sitting at a computer. The teacher goes around the circle with her own laptop, sitting with each student. She will ask them if they need any help, and help them compose a piece of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry. She can keep the written pieces on her computer, and send a copy to the student’s computer. For younger students, the teacher may also help the student with penmanship. At the time when students are no longer bussed to a school building, the teacher will perform the same function, visiting the student at home.
The school building can evolve into a community building, where science labs will still be there for the education of any community member who wishes to learn that material. In fact, the entire computer-based program should be available to any one of any age who wishes to use it. The remainder of the school rooms could be turned into workshops for use by members of the community.
In our uncertain times, the internet may not be dependable. The entire program for each grade could be loaded into the individual’s computer at the beginning of the year, so that education would not be interrupted when the internet is down. Even in these days of student bussing, computer-based education would be very helpful during snow days or sick days, when the students are homebound.
