 Education vs Technology Rant 2 Yeah, I know that I've posted something like this before, talking about all the nonsense and trouble that technology has introduced to our technology system. [Hence labelled as part 2] But I feel compelled to blog about it again since I'm experiencing 2nd hand [cos I'm just a support staff, not actually taking or teaching the lessons] all the funnies that strangely become associated with today's education system. My main concern here is that it is affecting the natural ability of the students to be motivated to self-study... through reading the textbooks and notes. All they want to do the entire day is just stare at the computer. Take for example a typical day in school. Why does the same teacher need a laptop and projector for EVERY lesson they teach? I understand if they use it once or twice a week to add some extra value into their teachings, but everyday for almost the whole month? Did you know that by focusing their attention onto the projector screen everyday, you are effectively telling them that "You don't need a textbook to understand what I'm teaching." Yes I agree that there are some things that technology can teach while the textbook can't but don't the student ought to be taught that the textbook is still manditory to understand the subject further? How many kids do you know these days doze off almost immediately after being faced with a textbook, or even a storybook novel. Wonder how we did it in the past? By reading up and taking notes geniuses. And look at the vuanurability of the current education system. Everything from the lessons to the coordination of the school runs on technology. If there were to be some major power outage, I can assure you that 90% of the school can no longer function with reasonable efficiency. If ever a virus were to wipe out the infrastructure of the system, even the simplest of things like collecting the students results would cause a headache. And another thing is the way every single thing is dependant on IT stuff. For example, just this week, the school bought a smoker-detection device just to catch and prove that those students who were caught smoking were REALLY smoking. Must you go to that extent? But everybody knows that it takes 2 hands to clap. So all the blame cannot be put onto the school's shoulders alone. In fact, I personally believe that the school only guides the students, but the moulding of the kid into an adult all boils down to the parents. Remember the good old days where if you ever got scolding or even a beating from your teacher, and you go back home to tell your parents about it, you would get additional scolding / beatings from your parents in addition to your them agreeing with every word the teacher said. Now let's fast forward to today. If a kid just complains to his parent that the teacher is too fierce, the principal would probably recieve an email, letter or phone call from the parent asking the principal to take that teacher in hand without even trying to find out what the kid did to provoke such a situation. Listen up parents, kids are not made of gold. If you don't want any form of outside influence on your kid then you better home school him all the way to university. A kid has to experience to learn. If you take away all the oppurtunities to experience the real world, he's better off wearing diapers until he's 80. Trust me, I've been through some heavy pampering during my childhood so I should know. There are so many things that you will never learn if you don't go through stuff without someone always there to back you up. But perhaps I shouldn't be grumbling about all these because without the advancements in technology, I wouldn't be doing the job I'm doing right now. What ever the case, I always believed that the education system in Singapore is just too darn fake. They only focus on the cream of the crop and leave the rest to die. Anyhow written on Apr 19, 2007 at 1:50 PM
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