Hopefully, Microsoft’s involvement doesn’t become too heavy handed, but in general, I say about time. We’ve been stuck too long with teaching methods and classes designed with 1906 in mind instead of 2006+. Interdisciplinary methods are what are needed for the world the kids are going into and for them to become and stay motivated to learn.
Philadelphia opens high-tech school of the future
Philadelphia on Thursday opened a public high school where students work on wireless laptops, teachers eschew traditional subjects for real-world topics and parents can track their child’s work on the Internet.
Called ‘The School of the Future’ and created with help from software giant Microsoft, it is believed to be the first in the world to combine innovative teaching methods with the latest technology, all housed in an environmentally friendly building.
Traditional education is obsolete and fails to teach students the skills of problem-solving, critical thinking and effective communication, which they need to succeed in the 21st century, principal Shirley Grover said in an interview.
‘It’s not about memorizing certain algebraic equations and then regurgitating them in a test,’ Grover said. ‘It’s about thinking how math might be used to solve a quality-of-water problem or how it might be used to determine whether or not we are safe in Philadelphia from the avian flu.’
Here’s Microsoft’s take on the school.
If My child wishes to learn programming, I DONT WANT,
MS to program THEM for MS….
I want someone that has INDEPTH knowledge, NOT something to foster the progress of MS….
I want them to know ALL the languages, ALL the programming…Machine, chip, and OS programming…..
I DONT WNAT A CLONE….
I’m a teacher in Ontario, and while I agree in principle with the comment about knee-jerk debates that ignore peer-reviewed research, there are two problems that remain even if you do look to the research first.
(1) perhaps I’m guilty of generalizing from insufficient data (not quite ‘n of one’ but…) I’m sorry, MEds and PHDs in education are largely bogus – sure, there are some good people doing good work, but there just isn’t a lot of intellectual rigor there, for the most part. Those of you in the academy know what I am talking about. When I went to teacher’s college (at the ‘best’ Canadian school) after grad school, I couldn’t believe that the profs there actually had BAs, let alone doctorates
(2) Administators and education ministry bureaucrats will ALWAYS take any relevant research and EFF it up. Their primary goal is their own career advancement, and if you think that ‘unionized teachers’ are a problem, just go and talk to any Board of Education administator. From principals on up nowadays, they are concerned with nothing but massaging public perception, and making sure that ‘objective outcomes based testing’ scores always go up, by making those tests easier and easier (just last year, principals in our board (who no longer have ANY personal lattitude but are merely yes-men conduits for top-down provincial government edicts) informed teachers that 90% of their students WILL pass all courses… OR ELSE – and that is but one example).
So, good luck to microsoft, I say, but don’t hold your breath awaiting a huge turnaround in education. The only thing that would help a little, as in most industries, is to encourage trust and initiative in front-line staff. Yup, try trusting teachers to care and respond to the needs of students in front of them for a change maybe (never gonna happen).
Educating our young, at least through high school, doesn’t require computers. It really boils down to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Any high school graduate that can read at a 12th grade level, has good writing skills (handwriting and grammar), and understands mathematics (algebra and trig) can adapt to any situation he or she will find in the work force or in college. Throw in history, geography, and a bit of music/art and that graduate is ready to take on the world.
Computers? Kids pick that up through osmosis. What is a high school going to teach a freshman about computers that won’t be obsolete by the time he reaches college? What value is there in teaching someone how to input data into a canned program? I’ve seen too many of my cohorts conduct ANOVA calculations using Statistica without any understanding of the null hypothesis, whether their data satisfies the underlying assumptions for the test, or even what they are trying to show. When I question them on it, the typical response is, “Well the cookbook tells me I have to do this for the report.”
To the poster from 9th grade.
Something about your school is working right if you can write such a well worded and coherant response!
It’s all about adopting the modern methods of learning to teach students with a bright and more techonological impartation of knowledge. I bet you, you can’t do this all usiung conventional methods of teaching.