The iClassroom of the future?
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Yesterday, Chancellor Klein visited the School of One, a two-month summer school program at Chinatown’s MS 131. Unlike typical summer school programs which target low-achieving kids who need to catch up, 80 middle school math students volunteered to spend their summer vacation in MS 131’s school library. They are piloting the use of a technology-based classroom that offers them individualized instruction, complete with their own laptop and daily “playlist.”
According to Gothamschools, which has a good rundown of the program, a student’s playlist, or schedule, might direct him to start the day by meeting with a tutor, then to complete a set of online assignments, and then to work on a project with classmates. The New York Times reports that, for some, online tasks may take the form video games in which math problems are obstacles: “[Students’] screens looked no different than typical arcade screens — except when their equations popped up.”
Each playlist is unique; it’s based on the results of the student’s daily end-of-lesson quiz. The New York Post explains that this closing assessment not only reflects whether or not a student mastered the work assigned, but also shows which lessons worked best for his learning style and how to improve mastery of a topic the next day.
Is the School of One a ploy to cut costs by cramming more than 40 kids into classrooms and replacing real-live teachers with its interactive technology? In the current 80-student program, there are four flesh-and-blood teachers who are supported by four New York University graduate students and two high school interns, which GothamSchools notes is a lower student-teacher ratio than most middle schools have.
Forbes.com reported that the bulk of the financial support for the $1 million pilot program came from private sponsors, led by tech companies Cisco and Microsoft, and educational publishers Pearson and McGraw Hill.
In a Department of Education press release, Klein is quoted as saying the innovations of the pilot program are ” some of the most exciting and promising work being done in education today.” There are plans to expand the program to additional schools in the 2009-1010 school year. Are you on board?
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No. At the middle school level it’s still very important to have as much student teacher interaction as possible.
It seems the ultimate goal is to have a teacherless classroom.
slc
Comment by slc — July 23, 2009 @ 10:12 am
I wonder what looking at a computer screen all day will do to student’s eye sight. Will our kids develop carpel tunnel from overuse of the computer? How will kids learn to analyze a book or have a discussion or exchange ideas. These things cannot be learned from a computer.
Comment by queensparent — July 23, 2009 @ 6:25 pm
I definitely have the same concerns/questions as slc and queensparent, but I also like the idea of the School of One. I think it may be a way to engage some students who have been bored to the point of disengagement from school. It may also motivate other students who need to feel they have more autonomy over their learning. I wonder if they would aim to keep the student-teacher ratio as low as it is in this pilot program. That’s probably an important factor, one which the DOE would need to sustain.
Comment by dr — July 27, 2009 @ 11:49 am