[Localization] [Educators] Empowering teachers

[Clytie Siddall]

On 20/06/2008, at 3:03 AM, Yama Ploskonka wrote (very much in part):

> Also, teachers learn that there is a different way of doing things  
> in a
> One Laptop Per Person environment:  not everyone needs to be doing the
> same exact thing, friends can band together in a circumstantial group,
> even collaborate using the machine, among themselves, and with others
> connected to the network, in the same school or thousands of miles  
> away.

Everything Yama was saying in that post was very much to the point,  
but I wanted to emphasize one aspect. I was involved in the earliest  
practical tests of teaching via computer in different locations  
(before the Net: establishing a dial-up conference call between  
computers, plus an audio line), and one thing became very obvious to me.

Governments and institutions in particular see computer-based  
education as a cheap alternative. It's a way to reduce staff numbers,  
teach more students with fewer teachers etc.

Now, computer-based education _can_ reduce some costs and some staff- 
placements, e.g. by teaching 15 students simultaneously in three  
locations, instead of 5 at each location, as I was doing some classes  
of this pilot program. However, setting up such a program needs _more_  
resources initially.

To do it properly, you need extra time to learn about the process, to  
experiment, to create your own lessons based on the new tools, and to  
support students new to the experience. You need extra time to follow- 
up on the process, to get more training, and to build on what you have  
learnt. (To achieve lasting change, you have to put enough energy into  
the system.)

This increase in resource-allocation at the beginning of the program  
is more than compensated once the program is established effectively.

Funders need to understand this: that you need time, support and  
follow-up evaluation in order to learn with new tools. Compare it to  
learning to drive a car, for example, and ask them how well they think  
they might have done in their licence test if they had just had been  
shown a presentation on how to drive a car, or been given a manual,  
and been told, "OK, so drive it!"

Training drivers means we have better drivers. Training teachers, and  
thus students, to use computers means we have people who really know  
how to drive their machine, not just how to wax it and take photos.

from Clytie

Vietnamese Free Software Translation Team
http://vnoss.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=projects:l10n



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