Posterous

Jazzper™

Do we actually need schools anymore concidering the technology and Internet?

On the train home this afternoon I read a very interesting interview with a famous Swedish blogger and entrepreneur who said that he believed that schools, as they are today, aren't needed. They are a relic from the 19th century and have outplayed themselves when not showing a lot of interest in development and "go with the flow" spirit. I have to agree in a way.

Schools today are basically buildings where we house kids during the days. The reason for having them there has gone from being an educational one to being a day-care institution. While the parents are thinking about their careers and working hard to reach that goal of material happiness, the kids are being watched over by professional teachers. I am close to calling this a total waste of resources and money. There must be better ways to teach and educate the future. In Australia families who live in the middle of nowhere, far from civilization, have had their kids taught by teachers using radio communication. This has been going on longer than the Internet has existed and if we would ask these kids, they will probably say that they had an education as good as any. Perhaps better than the more common school education. 

There are schools still practising this but using the Internet. The old radio has been removed and instead they are using VoIP, webcams and chats. There are also many services out there that would make a full Internet based school work as good as, or even better, than the traditional school education. However, I can see many problems and issues and perhaps the most important one is the aspect of social activities. In our curriculum it says loud and clear that we are to teach our students the importance of democracy, moral and ethics and I do think this will be hard to do without social real life meetings. We are also to teach our kids how to be role models by being role models ourselves and I cannot see this working good enough if we only were to see each other via webcam. The social aspect and the eye-to-eye contact teachers and students have, bring more to education and socialization than we might think and are important in our educational system. 

However, it is not said that we should leave the idea behind. The Internet is a beautiful instrument and tool for educators all over the world and we should really use it more than we do today. Conservatism has no place in a modern school in a world where our young ones are growing up with technology in a new and different way. School should be about a continuous development and should do what ever it can in order to keep up with the rest of the world. We need to be out there, play on the same court as our students, not forcing them into a 19th century school where teachers still don't know how to turn on a computer. 

To put it simple, we need to get our head out of our arses and get the frak on with it!  

((tags: E-learning, Education, Teaching, School))
Filed under: E-learning Educaiton School Teaching
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