Dutch Officials Set to Open 11 iPad-Only 'Steve Jobs Schools' for Children

[FirstNTenderbit]

Because we don't need to. You don't never learned to send a telegram did you? Same thing. Pointless.

In a discussion about education, THIS is what you post? Do you realize MR offers you an opportunity to preview your post before submission?

We are all castigating the poster who used hear instead of here, but your post... did you dictate that through Siri?

Was it sarcasm? Trolling? I am seriously curious.
If English is not your first language I apologize.

 

[inlinevolvo]

Is this a school, or just early marketing!

 

[testcard]

I was going to post some snarky comment, but then I saw the kid on the right.

Er...that's the teacher.

 

[Earendil]

Kids these days are growing up to be spoiled, self-centered, egotistical, and entitled.

And exactly how is this technologies fault?

I had to work to hard to free up enough money to buy an iPad now little kindergarten children are going to be using them to learn on?

Tell me about it! Books used to be copied by hand, and now this spoiled civilization that we live in can pick them up mere miles away for pennies! And cars! They used to be the center piece of a family and now teenagers can pick up one for a thousand dollars, and it even has airbags and fuel injection! Spoiled brats!

This doesn't seem like a good idea to me, and at a minimum of $500 a pop, how are schools going to afford them and replace them many times after they're inevitably damaged or destroyed?

It's been a while since you bought an educational text book, isn't it? I used to easily spend that much in a semester for books. Many of the science books were over $200. I'd have been happy to buy a single iPad and have all my books digital. My back would have been happier too.

Children need human contact, not another dose of screen time. School is about learning to live in a society as much as it is about acquiring knowledge.

It sounds like instead of being talked at (which is not human contact), they will have iPads and even more teacher availability. If this promotes more conversations with teachers and less shut-up-and-listen time, it'll be just the sort of human contact children need. Unless of course the skill we want them to acquire is to keep their mouth shut for an hour and listen to someone drone on and on, which admittedly is a helpful skill in corporate America these days...

This conversation would be more entertaining and enlightening if everyone who posted had to share their level of education, age, and current field of employment. I wonder if any trends would appear.

 

[donutbagel]

This sounds like a MONTESSORI school on steroids. Wonder what Maria herself, the widely travelled, respected educator, and noted humanitarian would have to say about this. She was a great proponent of letting children advance at their own pace, whatever that was, rather than stifling them with the rigidity of structured education. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori

We killed Montessori School in soccer matches and pretty much everything, and our sports teams had no cuts and fixed/equal rotation. There are other "freedom" schools like Crossroads with a lot of kids who just can't do anything very well.

I think the best way to go is a lot of advanced classes. I know what being stuck in a class of idiots is like, and it's bad.

----------

we have a generation that can't write a letter (but they text like crazy), and now this...

Writing letters is pointless. Sure I CAN write them, but I don't except for holidays and birthdays. There are people who can write letters but will press the caps lock key on the keyboard and not ever know how to change it back. What's worse, being bad at writing letters or typing in all caps your entire life?

 

[whooleytoo]

Also very interested in how this works.

On the plus side, times have changed and education has to change to keep pace, whether it's the teaching material, the teaching methods, or the teaching media. Steve would have LOVED this - the more an idea spurned conventional logic, they more it appealed to him.

On the negative side, and I know I'm going to sound like an old fogey here - but I think we all have to learn some kind of self-disciple and focus at some point in our lives. "I have to do my homework before going out to play". "I have to do some work, before browsing Facebook for a while". And I think the earlier we learn it, the easier it is. If a child gets used to an adult (parent/teacher etc.) sitting down with them and working them through a problem/task rather than giving up and drawing pictures, I think that effort stands to the child in the long run. That's why I'd be a little worried about this very "hands-off" teaching, at such an early age.

Maybe that's just prejudice on my part. Let's see how it goes.

 

[Earendil]

On the negative side, and I know I'm going to sound like an old fogey here - but I think we all have to learn some kind of self-disciple and focus at some point in our lives. "I have to do my homework before going out to play". "I have to do some work, before browsing Facebook for a while". And I think the earlier we learn it, the easier it is. If a child gets used to an adult (parent/teacher etc.) sitting down with them and working them through a problem/task rather than giving up and drawing pictures, I think that effort stands to the child in the long run.

You don't sound like an old fogey at all! That's a sensible concern, but I'm of the thought that removing some of the structure that public schools have will actually serve to teach kids how to create their own structure and self discipline. I believe you can't structure kids into doing exactly what you want, and then free them with no structure and expect them to figure it out. It's a transition, and it needs to happen a lot sooner than the age of 18.

That's why I'd be a little worried about this very "hands-off" teaching, at such an early age.

There is obviously an extreme, and it may not work for all kids. Personally, I was home schooled and while my parents were available 24/7 for questions, I spent the majority of my education teaching myself. This was especially true through high school. As I've stated earlier, this lack of strict structure prepared me very well for college and later on my career in computer science. I'm handed month long projects and told to do it however I see fit. That lacks a lot of structure and hand holding, and requires a lot of self education. The sooner kids can learn to teach themselves and structure their own lives the better. Best still if while they are learning that they still have a structure to fall back on. It's far worse when they fail to do that at the college level or in their first job.

 

[oliversl]

Well, having no schedule is a little extreme. Also, Steve Jobs only give us the iPad, not rules this schools are applying.
I find this a good experiment for a few months.

 

[jaymzuk]

Just think if they use Apple maps to teach them geography!

 

[charlituna]

From my experience "go at your own pace" schools just make people slack off and fall below average.

Guess you missed the part about the meetings every six weeks. And the parental involvement.

----------

And they will never be able to write legibly on paper

Is that really a vital skill anymore?

 

[klover]

Well, why even bother? Just go all out and let the kids grade themselves. This WOULD NOT work over hear BTW. Just saying.

You're right. Just imagine how bad our spelling would be.

 

[gatorson]

teach them how to code!!

 

[mrhick01]

Well, why even bother? Just go all out and let the kids grade themselves. This WOULD NOT work over hear BTW. Just saying.

It does not sound dissimilar to the Montessori method, which works wonderfully for many, many students (my daughter being one of them).

 

[charlituna]

I remember that math class was set up this way when I was in fifth grade. You had the students that excelled, advancing several levels ahead of the others, the average students, and then the bottom of the rung who struggling to keep up. Work at your own pace is great in theory, but it's a real confidence killer to the kids who need to be pushed to get to the next level. On the flip side, it's fantastic for the students that do excel.

That is one of the issues that isn't being dealt with. Setting up classes by age is great for not hurting little Timmy's feelings but not so great for teaching him. Classes should be by level of understanding and skill even if it means you have a mix of 3-4 grades.

----------

Hmm, let's see...a school where kids sit and play on their iPads all day, learning whatever interests them at their own pace. Kind of like an electronic free-for-all with "facilitators" or, perhaps, "proctors" instead of teachers.

Again, completely overlooking the whole six week meetings with teachers and parents. If a kid is slacking off they will be called out for it, possibly even kicked out of this school and sent to a normal one.

 

[gkarris]

Is this a failure of IT? No.
It is a failure of schools not willing to change decades of education practices, and unwilling to to a full blown studies.

And 30 years ago "IT", computer training was a JOKE!
I was a high school student actually teaching others computers after computer class.

We owe the future to at least try this, see what works and does not, becuase in the future knowing how to use technology might become matter of life and death.

It comes from the "letting the kids do whatever they want" syndrome.

Plus, it's hard enough to talk to people without getting disturbed by some sort of message/call on a mobile device.

I was at a seminar over the weekend and, I swear, every 10 minutes someone's phone was ringing and they left the room to take it, or had an alert and people pulled their phone out to get the message (text, FB, Twitter, whatever). Even on vibrate a person getting up to leave to take the call or check the message was a bit distracting.

Now they want a classroom full of kids and the main interaction is with a mobile device?

Really?

 

[charlituna]

All for the innovation but chance of the lack of social skills scares me.

Not sure where you get that" after all they are required to be at school from 10:30 to 3:00.

I doubt they are being put in separate isolated rooms during that time

 

[jaysedai]

This self directed style of learning is called Unschooling. And I highly recommend it.

We are raising our children this way which is much better than the 'modern' method of schooling:
Get up too early after you've had far too little sleep for a young developing brain.
Go to school and learn this random subject for 45 minutes, bzzzz...
Now learn this different random subject for 45 minutes, bzzzz...
Now learn this different random subject for 45 minutes, bzzzz...
Now take a 10 minute recess, bzzzz...
Now learn this different random subject for 45 minutes, bzzzz...
Now eat some horrible food produced by the lowest bidder, bzzzz...
Now learn this different random subject for 45 minutes, bzzzz...
Now learn this different random subject for 45 minutes, bzzzz...
Now go home and do a bunch of homework with the hopes that this will cement the fragmented 'schooling' you've been doing all day, then go to sleep and start all over tomorrow.

Humans learn organically, by following our passions and interests. Traditional school suppresses this in an effort to create more cogs for our consumption based economy.

I suggest reading, Dumbing us Down by John Taylor Gatto, Unschooling Rules: 55 Ways to Unlearn What We Know About Schools and Rediscover Education by Clark Aldrich, and if you want to take it to the parenting level read Radical Unschooling by Dayna Martin.

 

[r3m1]

My bet - Maurice de Hond is heavily invested in Apple stock

 

[mackcat]

This will work very well for some students, and absolutely horribly for others. It really matters on the person. Same with High Tech High in San Diego, read about it. It depends on the student to motivate themselves, and if they don't, then they receive guidance from the teachers and their peers.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

[*]Okay, now keep them raised if, of all the things you learned and education you acquired, you learned more from a computer screen or a text book.

Neither. I learned from good teachers.

It's pure folly to think children can teach themselves the basics without guidance; someone to ask them questions, and you, know, help them learn how to think critically. It's why teachers and schools have existed since ancient times.

Gadgets can be great tools of eduction... the abacus or a TRS-80 or an iPad. But none of those can replace a human teacher.

 

[A Hebrew]

Guess you missed the part about the meetings every six weeks. And the parental involvement.

Because a meeting every 6 months and parental involvement will make them want to learn.

 

[TouchMint.com]

Not sure where you get that" after all they are required to be at school from 10:30 to 3:00.

I doubt they are being put in separate isolated rooms during that time

True I doubt it will be much different than "regular" school.

 

[Timur]

First: Can you see how this kid turns his neck down all the time? I let my kid play on the iPad several times a week. And every time I see how he has to bend down his neck or rear in order to play with the thing. Sometimes I can make him sit at a table and put something underneath the iPad to make the screen sit higher.

Now imagine kids not using the iPad for half an hour max, but for hours and hours every day?! No chalkboard to look up to? Maybe no teacher to look up to (pun intended)?!

As such, the school day never really ends. Pupils are welcome to keep working on their iPads at home, on weekends or on vacation.

Do I have to comment why this is not something to strive for?

The iPad keeps teachers and parents constantly informed about what children are doing, what they have learned and how they are progressing.

Erm, yeah, we love full me(n)tal control over our children. It's likely the one thing that the world was missing all the millennia that will bring world peace.

 

[snipper]

launch so-called "Steve Jobs schools" for children, offering a peek at of Jobs' vision of how the iPad could help remake the educational experience.

If I remember correctly, I read in Jobs' biography that he was, initially, a poor student because he was not challenged by the lessons in school. How does this fit in the 'go your own pace' style?

(and indeed, Maurice De Hond is coming up with one failing project after another so I hope this will be an exception to this series.)

 

[gkarris]

If I remember correctly, I read in Jobs' biography that he was, initially, a poor student because he was not challenged by the lessons in school. How does this fit in the 'go your own pace' style?

(and indeed, Maurice De Hond is coming up with one failing project after another so I hope this will be an exception to this series.)

Like the eBay auctions for Collectible Apple Items, adding "Steve Jobs" to the title make it worth so, so much more...