Place
a highly effective teacher in front of the classroom to make a difference. What if we go further and provide each
student with a highly effective teacher of his or her own? Each lesson
would be tailored perfectly for every single child. Differentiation,
evaluation, and content based on preference would be available immediately.
Computer programs like Read 180 and
those created by Dr. Schank eliminate
the need for teachers and place students in front of a computer screen for
individualized learning sessions. The difficultly may exist in letting go
of the traditional classroom setting, but the benefits for
student achievement might make it worth our while. Students are
able to move at their own pace and move on once content is mastered. In a
traditional setting students are frequently moved with the whole group to new
content even though they failed an assessment.
The
teacher’s role would change dramatically if a computer program completed all
planning, instruction, and evaluation.
Would a teacher be necessary in a school where programs like this are
used? Are schools even necessary
if programs like this are used? A
criticism of these programs would be that human interaction is irreplaceable. An interactive computer program is not
the same as interacting with another human being.
Baltimore
City has waged war on students’ use of personal electronics in school without
addressing their talent in using social media, playing video games. If our students are failing with
current methods and aching to click, scroll and tweet, perhaps these programs
offer a realistic compromise that could truly reform a district.
2 comments:
This is a very interesting article, and one that I certainly think is worth the time spent debating about it. While I agree that human interaction is irreplaceable, I think that there are some online instruction tools that can be used as a compliment to traditional instruction, not as a complete supplement. This year, city schools high school math curriculum is changing drastically to an online program called Agile Mind. It is a very similar idea- lesson plans and activities are already planned for the teacher, but the teacher must figure out HOW to deliver the instruction. There is still an element of teacher-to-student instruction that is not replaceable. This program, though, using online interfaces and giving kids a real-world application to explore for each and every topic, has proven in other similar districts to increase engagement in classrooms, increase achievement, and also provides a much more in depth curriculum and coverage of topics than what Baltimore city's scope and sequence provides.
While it is interesting to think about how computer programs and new technology can be used in educating our students, I think replacing teachers all together is a bit extreme.
In my home state of Arizona, there has been a rise of online schools and a lot of state legislators are getting behind online schools as a way of cutting costs and individualizing education, which certainly is a benefit of these programs. However, school is much more than a master of the concept being taught - we learn much more from teachers than how to rhyme or complete an addition problem. A computer program may be able to teach a student how to identify letters and sounds but it would likely fail to teach the vital social and emotional skills we learn in school. In Arizona, many express concerns over the loss of the non-academic aspects of school - enrichment programs, extracurriculars and the critical value of associating with peers. I also think it would be hard to tailor a program to meet the needs of all children. Some may indeed learn well this way but others may be left behind if they have difficulty learning this way.
It would be interesting to explore how using these programs could be integrated into the classroom, and I definitely think the use of technology is critical to enhance teaching and learning. However, I think the idea of replacing teachers all together undermines the importance of the nonacademic aspects students gain from teachers.
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