Revolutionizing Education

I started doing some videos to suggest the possibility that the (Australian) government should be doing more to encourage "thinking" as part of the curriculum.

But the more I thought about it, and explored the issue, and looked at what people were doing already, the more futile it seemed.

Maybe it could be done, I know that EdB often cites the example of Venezuela, but it seems unrealistic to expect politicians in Western democracies to foist something unfamiliar onto a self-righteous public.

The problem with education is its "customers".

There are at least three specific problems:
1. The customers who make the decision (ie the parents) are not the same people who use the service (the students). Who has ever heard of parents calling for the sacking of a teacher just because he is excruciatingly boring?
2. There is little agreement among customers (parents) as to what service should be provided (ie. what should be taught). The only clear point of agreement is that the kids should be protected from harm - so school ends up being a kind of babysitting service.
3. It is a long time (years) before results are known - as opposed to most defective products or services where the problems usually surface quickly (then complained about and fixed - or some other provider sought).

It seems to me that education delivered online can easily overcome all three problems.

Some have already made a start (usually teaching maths online), often successfully. I haven't found any, however, that completely transform education in the way that I imagine is possible.

I am working hard to make this happen.

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Comment by Phil Bachmann on February 14, 2012 at 8:02

Hi Kim,

Well I asked a woman in the beta test group and she said "Oh no the kids can't see what I'm viewing because sometimes it's necessary for me to view adult-only material and they can't be allowed to see what I'm up to."

I think I have to be practical here and say that most parents of 5 year olds think that they should have some control over their kids' viewing and yet be free to watch adult material at night without informing their kids of the details.

Remember too that you can't see what they're typing or view their screens - it just gives a summary of what they've been up to 10 minutes on The Wiggles - 15 minutes on cartoons. See attached:

But I take your point. I think I will change the software so that that by default everyone can purve on everyone, and older kids and adults will have access to a mind-your-own-business mode which will stop the monitoring when activated.

Comment by Asa Jomard on February 14, 2012 at 7:22

You could add a function that the parents need to tell their child what they are doing when they send a coded message to their child. Not exactly the same thing but still it is a step in the right direction.
Code 1. Eating the ice-cream that I bought when you where not with me.
Code 2. Playing loud music in the car.
Code 3. Sorting out the world's problem by have a Green Hat conversation with my boss.

Comment by Phil Bachmann on February 13, 2012 at 7:33

In case anyone is still interested in this topic - my latest move in this area is to develop software which allows grown ups to monitor children's computer use: Not in a detailed "what have they been typing and who have they been talking to" way, more like "What have they been doing during the last hour on the computer? How much time playing games? How much time watching shows? What shows?"

Yes it's boring but it's a platform that interesting things can be built on. eg. Parents can send codes to the kids in another room via this software - and kids can send codes back.

What sort of codes would be useful? eg.

From parents:
Code 1: "I'm losing my patience"
Code 2: "I hope you're learning something"
Code 3: "Do your chores first."
Code 4: "I hope you're enjoying yourself. (no sarcasm intended)"

From the kids:
Code 1: "I hear you and will attend to your request anon."
Code 2: "This is doing me good no matter what you think."
Code 3: "OK"

???

Comment by LoL on April 26, 2011 at 21:39
In the U.K., until 1988, schools were free to decide what they taught their pupils, with Religious Education being the only compulsory subject - All that was required of schools, including State run schools, was that each child be educated to achieve their best potential.

What better formula could there be?

And, yes, it was a formula - Albeit a seemingly loosely defined one.
Comment by Bhuvaneshwar Joshi on November 27, 2010 at 6:22
I endorse your approach to education revolution.In fact it,embraces what others call Cyber democracy. You may browse a Google vedio on Cyber governance. As for the use of creative thinking via internet,it is okay for mature students who have developed capability of self-learning and for those who are very motivated to learn it.
Comment by Raymund Kwok on November 25, 2010 at 15:52
Graeme,
Thanks for the page. Now I can access the documents from China.

I read the first two documents. I agree most of the points except (1) try to claim this is disrupting, and (2) try to claim this is a low cost approach.

For internet based teaching, it helps student learning. But it cannot completely replace the traditional classroom teaching. The main reason is socializing, particularly learning from other students and teachers. Internet based teaching can provide some benefits that the classroom teaching cannot do. For example, both of my children participate in the internet reading program in Hong Kong. This program promote students to read outside the school. They need to read one essay everyday and answer a few questions. The program gives a mark based on the answers and shows a ranking within the students in the same class and with all other students from all schools. If they do not try to do this for one day, their ranking drops. Thus, it gives a push for them to read it everyday.

For an education approach, I believe it is better to show the benefits. People will pay if the benefits can be demonstrated. It is bad to tell an education policy maker that one education approach is cheaper. I believe at the time of bad economic situation, government is willing to have a higher rate of increase in education funding than during good economic situation.

I would suggest the approach should mainly show the benefits based on their real experiences to the students, especially showing the combined effect of classroom teaching and web based teaching. Then request government support for training teachers to combine both methods and for the content generators.

In history, I do not see disruptive change in education, only incremental changes occurred.
Comment by Raymund Kwok on November 23, 2010 at 15:29
Graeme, thank you for the information. I believe we always need to learn the new types of education methods. I will go to read them later (The site is blocked in China and I probably can read it when I return to Hong Kong.)

With my previous experience in education (as a university professor for 11 years), I like the concept of "student oriented teaching". It is a vague term but it emphases to understand the needs of the students who are just staying in front of the teacher. We can learn many teaching theories, but we still need to understand the students in front of us before we know which to apply.
Comment by Raymund Kwok on November 22, 2010 at 15:22
While Hong Kong was still governed by UK, the government did very little to influence schools. Various organizations could build schools targeting for their own visions on education. Government only provided fundings for schools that achieved some basic requirements. Parents had more choices. There were less objections to government policies on education, because there were no education policy.

Now, when the government wanted to do more and control more, more problems surfaced. I do not believe there is a formula for education, and I also do not believe the people in the government and its consultation bodies could find one. Once a policy is suggested, there would be students to be put in disadvantages relative to other students. Cases showing opposite effects can always be found.

So, I believe a less uniform approach on education will probably a better way to go.
Comment by Phil Bachmann on November 22, 2010 at 10:47
Hi Cal,

Interesting the idea that students should be paid for good results. It may work because some students grow up in families that do not care about school scores - so they don't try until money is offered.
Comment by Phil Bachmann on November 22, 2010 at 10:43
Hello Bhuvaneshwar,

I couldn't find the web address you referred to.

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