On Fri, Oct 22, 2004 at 12:44:47PM -0500, Geoff Strickler wrote: > It's the software, stupid. > > I've been a proponent of using computers in the classroom for years and I > still am, but I'm also jaded by the realities of how they've been > (mis-)used. I've recently experienced what I believe is the next great step > in education. SuperTeaching (http://www.superteaching.org). > It's a multi-media classroom that brings together a lot of different > elements that have been individually shown to improve attention > span, retention, learning speed, etc.
I went through about half of the materials on the website before giving up. Perhaps they are bad at retaining audiences who aren't held captive. ;-) On a serious note: I've seen a lot of technology in the classroom in my days as a student, and guess what? Usually the stuff goes unused. This includes gizmos like video disc players, which were only ever used in one unit of one course; computers which sat in the back of classrooms unused, because teachers had no way to use them except as incentives for students to get their work done. I even remember science labs with Apple II computers and gizmos to register the speed and temperature of things, which were used once or twice a year, even though an old fashioned thermometer and stop watch would be just as effective and much cheaper. The problem with technology in the classroom is the novelty factor: they will work for a small number of students who are interested in something because it is new. As soon as the system is widely deployed and used all of the time, it looses it's effectiveness. That is the problem with entertaining students rather than teaching them. Is "SuperTeaching" going to be any different? I highly doubt it. As far as I could see, the intent of the system is to throw as much multimedia content at kids to prevent their minds from wandering. If it works now, and the site didn't point to any independent studies as far as I could see, it is because it is a novelty. Just like televisions were once novelties. And just like producing material for television is hard, producing material for this system is going to be hard. I'm willing to bet that systems which are in use, five years down the road, will be as glorified projectors for PowerPoint presentations. Furthermore, the system is expensive to setup. They are talking about $150,000 for one classroom. Assuming largish classes of 30 students at five classes per day, you would be able to handle 150 students at a time. Assuming that the system lasts for 10 years without maintainance, that is $100 per student per year. If you wanted to use the system for all of the student's courses, that would be about $500 per student per year. That amounts to about 5% to 10% of a school's budget for a student. It doesn't increase the student-teacher interaction either. It is also a safe bet that maintainance costs will be sky high too. Those projectors are not cheap, and complex combinations of technology are susceptible to failure. Let's go back to that study thingy: you need to do research in order to prove something works. This company doesn't present a study on their website, meerly a proposal for a study. This is inspite of claims that it improves results for a certain class of students, and it has been approved for federal funding because of that. Schools are required to turn over test data (uh, shouldn't this be a privacy issue) in order for the company to try to prove that it works down the road. Is it just me, or does this send mixed messages? On top of that, they expect to use the classroom as a showroom during classes. The fact that the company claims to be a non-profit doesn't inspire confidence when they are tied to a number of organisations which may or may not be. On top of that, the cited costs do cover full installation. But why should I complain? I was one of those students using otherwise untouched Apple II's all those years ago. Byron. -- Apple2list is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... / Buy books, CDs, videos, and more from Amazon.com \ / <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/lowendmac> \ Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Apple2list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/apple2.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/apple2list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
