There is a silent revolution brewing in
the educational sphere. The typical classroom setup hasn’t changed much from the beginning of time. It’s still primarily a case of the teacher passing instructions
to eager (or bored) learners, and then giving them homework and exercises to complete
afterwards. The poor pupils are graded on the basis of
how well they perform in such tests. Not much room for fun there I’m
afraid. The average pupil gets bored with these tedious tasks. The situation is
even worse in poor countries where classes tend to be overcrowded and there’s very little
direct communication or interaction between teachers and pupils. Certainly it
was like that in the schools I attended. No wonder there are very few geniuses from
Manyeleti!
Making education fun
Education doesn’t have have to be this tedious. You see, the world has moved on with new technologies and fun ways to
do things. Most of these are open to the relatively better-off of course. Kids own iPads and tablet computers these
days. That makes the whole learning process fun and interactive. There’s a rich
repertoire of tools that kids with access to the internet can use to make learning
fun and relevant. Struggling with libraries? You can read free
stuff on the internet. Virtually everything is available for free. Look up
anything you are not sure of and get a world of information on your fingertips.
I vividly remember those days when I would wander around a library only to find
that the book I was looking for had been checked out. It meant waiting for the
book to be returned. Very
frustrating process if ever there was one. But kids of these days are not (and should not be) faced with such a challenge.
Short of libraries? You can just
download free videos on YouTube of the exact thing you are interested in. The
only limitation currently is the exorbitant charges that the internet providers
in SA levy for access to broadband. But that is bound to change soon. That’s pretty much
where our politicians should be channelling their energies unapologetically. The
future is gonna be a very bright place. In no time cities will have free wireless
access all around. I‘m not sure who’s going to be first out the door with this in SA
(Stellenbosch, Cape Town, Joburg, Tshwane – any takers?), but that day of free broadband
internet access is just around the corner.
Massive Open Online
Courses (MOOCs) – a pot full of gold!
SA is struggling with severe
skills shortages and poor education standards. As opposed to closing ourselves
off in a corner hoping we will improve things by ourselves, I think the internet
provides a brilliant opportunity for us to catch up with the rest of the world.
World-class institutions such as MIT (ocw.mit.edu/)
have for years been running free open online courses that anyone in the world can
access. If that is not the free education that our dim-witted politicians consistently
make noise about, I don’t know what is.
There is an opportunity for poorly-equipped
schools and universities to align their curriculums and educational content
with the free stuff offered by the likes of MIT. Gosh,
they even offer course material, lecture notes, videos, assignments, and all
the rest. Just what more could one wish for? It takes sheer laziness for teachers not to be
aware of or take advantage of these open platforms.
Next time you hear someone complaining
bitterly about the poor education standards in SA, point them to these high
quality open education platforms. If I were anywhere in the department of education (or in government for that matter) I would insist that every educational institution in the country has access to free
wireless internet or broadband so they could tap into the wealth of material available
in cyberspace. The internet provides a glorious opportunity for poor people to
catch up with the rest of the world on the knowledge front. If we let this
opportunity slip, “the fault will not be with the stars but with ourselves that
we will remain underlings”.
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