Future School: Making use of technology and and 'futuristic' instruments to teach students.
Since it's implementation, there has been several pros and cons of the 'Future School' programme. The Future School programme mainly includes the use of computers and laptops during lesson time, for the purpose of promoting independent learning among the students, as well as making use of the World Wide Web. The internet has certainly been of help to increase productivity (Microsoft Word, etc) and the broader horizon of research and information available (Google, etc).
Then what are the pros and cons of Future School? I think the main factor and the most important factor would be the responsibility and discipline of the students. Some students are distracted all the time by games, such as 'DoTA' and 'Mousehunt'.
These games could affect the students during or out of lesson time. Some who are not disciplined will sidetrack during lesson time to surf other internet sites such as Facebook and might even game online. Such actions are intolerable as it would cost them to lose their attention in the subject, as well as decrease their productivity rate. This makes Future School redundant.What about outside of lesson time? Many students (evident in my class) come to school early and start gaming. They know its not allowed, but they do so anyway. Some arrive in school as early as 6.30 a.m., and when they realize they still have unfinished homework, they tell themselves, "its time for DoTA. Homework... I think I'll finish during recess." He was not supposed to have unfinished work, but still decides to procrastinate further. Such are the effects of addictive gaming. More often than not, these people cannot control themselves and continue to game, even though they realize its negative consequences. Down the road, their grades will drop.
In my own opinion, the Future School programme should be tweaked in a way such that students would not sidetrack for gaming. Such could be done, for example, by only allowing the students who are responsible and disciplined to bring and use their laptops during lesson time.
Otherwise, the Future School would do more harm than it does good. The things that we do on the laptop could also be done at home, and therefore it is not necessary to use them in school.
I have addressed the main problem (Gaming), and proposed two vague ideas of containing these problems. What do you think we should do...?
Hi!
ReplyDeleteYup. I think you have identified the main flaw of Future School very accurately - which is gaming. Gaming does in fact cause lots of distractions to students which ultimately may cause a lot of problems to their studies. Somehow, students are able to allocate timings for gaming extremely well but can't do it for work. (How weird.) So yes, I do agree with your suggestions to a certain extent; allowing responsible people to be able to enjoy the privilege of using laptops in class while the others are not allowed to since they are unable to be responsible.
However, I do have a few questions about what you have said. Firstly, what are the pros in the Future School Programme, why should it exist in the first place?
Secondly, how are you going to be able to allow half the students to use laptops and the other half not to? Will that mean that while the teacher is teaching, half the class are allowed to research materials and the other half have to just watch and see, or what? Also, what will be your deciding criteria for who is allowed to use and who is not. (i.e. How are you defining responsible? By grades? Teacher-recommendation? Student-recommendation?)