|
|
 |
|
Synopsis |
Information Related to the Text |
Warm-up Activity |
Text |
|
Education? Computer, Naturally
Nowadays computers have found their ways into all walks of life.What changes will computers bring to our education system ? Will they finally replace teachers altogether? This article presents us with some interesting ideas .
From computer lessons in kindergarten to graduate degrees for the elderly, education over the next 50 years will become a lifelong pursuit.
While institutions called schools will remain places for children to learn basic skills , electronic communications will
bring knowledge to people at every age wherever they are --- at home, on the job, by a hospital bed, in the car, as well
as in a traditional classroom.Ą° People will be able to say, ' IĄŻll learn where and when I want' ," says Ernest Boyer, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Key to the expansion of education in the next 50 years will be the computer. In every kind of setting ,
the emphasis will be on individualized instruction. Teaching in elementary grades will be streamlined not only according to ability and IQ but also on the basis of tests revealing how an individual brain works best and in what environment.
Students,for example who learn through hearing information , would receive much of their instruction aurally, either from a teacher or a computerized recording machine.Visual learners would spend more time reading and writing on computer screens.
In a single classroom, desk-top computers will enable students to work at their own speeds and on different
subjects at the same time. New research indicates young brains grow in spurts---not at a steady, continuous pace,
as previously thought. As a result, school curricula will be tailored to match stages of brain development.
Skills such as mathematical reasoning will be emphasized in the age groups 2 - 4 ,6 - 8, 1O - 12 and 14 -16, when the brain is expanding rapidly, rather than at plateau phases when the brain cannot handle these tasks as well.
Observes Conrad Toepfer, associate professor in the department of learning and instruction at the
State University of New York at Buffalo: "School programs will be much more responsive to what the child is capable of thinking , which will minimize over-challenge and under-challenge.
|
|
|
 |
