Frank Ogden, the Canadian Futurist, said that if Rip Van Winkle had fallen asleep in the year 500 AD and perhaps not woken up before today, he’d have noticed that all had changed with the exception of 2 things. . .the schools and church. Personally, I’d put in the impulse for procreation and the quest for power but let us put those aside. The church is the church. People generally have to feel that there is a higher force on the market which can help the church in its many forms provides the stage for it.
The church isn’t a really progressive สมัครเรียน ราชภัฏ. That is a given. Neither, I am fearful are schools. Faculties continue teaching basically the same things that they taught in the year 500. I agree with Frank on that. But look around you. Look at the rate at which technology is changing the society. Are schools staying in touch? Barely. Most learning continues to be done throughout textbooks. I give you they frequently have audio visual support today but consider those text books. A university text could certainly cost more than $100. I’ve taught classes at which the text was $150! The unfortunate issue is a text book takes three to five years to become printed and developed; support materials inserted after which for schools to fit it into their curricula. By that moment, imagine what? It is often obsolete! A lot of things have happened in the past five years and even before the book hits the stands it requires revision.
Education should take off its rose-coloured glasses and look at what exactly is going on in the world! Many of these in academia have never functioned; not been at the workplace and have little actual comprehension of what exactly is occurring. Universities and professors within their characteristically outmoded bow ties continue to wander around hallowed corridors and sculpted campuses unaware of the requirements of the actual life. I understand! I am aware! It isn’t the fault – it’s the machine. Bull droppings! Change begins with the average person and works its way up to where something else can be accomplished.
In Thailand, the government was on education reform since I came some 2-4 decades ago. Have you any idea what’s happened? Nothing significant that I can easily see. Lip service mostly. Continual changes within the government haven’t helped the problem any. In the past few weeks, the Ministry of Education chose that schools don’t need to show a lot English (that the international language of industry and so the near future companies of most Thai students) so they’ve told all schools to return to three lessons per week. Is this a progressive measure? You tell me!
I remember when a then government here from the Kingdom chose that most schools ought to be automatic and therefore it put computers into every faculty. Laudable. . .except who 200 of those schools didn’t even have power, not to mention any knowledge of computers or personnel capable of hooking up them. Ah well. . .the thought was not there. Foresight, believing and planning move together.
Consider also that many children nowadays pay upto 80% of their time before a TV or a laptop monitor. In actuality, lots of kids are far more aware of what’s really going on in the world compared to their parents ‘ let alone their teachers or professors. Are we using how children learn and wish to learn those days? Are we listening and watching? Maybe not nearly enough.
Our faculty in Chonburi Province in Thailand climbed in 1 building, 1 2 teachers and about 100 students in 1967 to eight buildings, 200 teachers and 4000 students. Classrooms are for the most part non judgmental. Some do not have somewhere to plug in a CD player. Oh, also there are 40-46 students in every class. However it has a sound laboratory and also two brand new computer labs. Progress!
Classrooms are stateoftheart. Each classroom has a teacher get a handle on computer, mic and LCD projector All classrooms have air-con and five Internet-ready computers at the back of the space for students. Students are utilised to being stimulated by TV and practically all them have computers at the home therefore visual lessons have more impact. Learning happens faster and will be retained longer. Books have their place however interactive, hands on courses are more inspiring and intriguing compared to the printed page. A science lab and library can also be in the works. This is just a school that is focusing to reality from a technological standpoint. It appears to be in the minority.
All that is nice and dandy but the actual question would be: Are schools teaching students the skills for the jobs they will soon be likely to at 5 -15 years or are they still teaching from the year 500? Why do we teach complex math? Studies reveal that many girls by the age of 15 hate it and avoid it like the plague. Most boys might as well when they could.
Cheating happens to be a no no in schools. In Thailand, at a class of 45, perhaps 3 students is going to perform their assignments and the others will copy those off. It is easy to identify precisely the exact errors occurring in various notebooks. However, I sometimes take a contrarian view and wonder if we must not be thinking of it because collaborative instruction. Do we must find out all of the answers or is it enough to know where to get the solutions we want? Isn’t that why companies hire specialists and teamwork is flaunted since the thing to do? Surely advanced t is something which computers can do better and a lot faster than the typical student brain? 95% of students will never use complex mathematics in their own careers yet we still drill everyone senseless in algebra, trigonometry and calculus. Well, that’s exactly what they taught in the calendar year 500 no one has told me about a big change in the curriculum. Uh huh! Wouldn’t it be much better to teach students how to approach a issue and just how to instruct your computer to work up the solution? I know. . .who is going to confirm the computer’s job? Another person working on exactly the same problem through a different computer.
