"What am I doing right now?" Many times a day I ask myself this question while in class, and too often the answer is "nothing." Sometimes the teacher is busy getting his/her act together, and sometimes he isn't there. Sometimes he has been diligently lecturing for the past 30 minutes but nobody can pay attention anymore. One might be surprised how easy it is to spend an hour in a classroom and not learn a thing. There is much inefficiency in today's teaching techniques.
What if there were no distractions? What if every student could learn at his own pace? If every student was guided though school as if by a personal tutor who walked the student through problems step-by-step, would learning not be greatly facilitated?
Replace 10 math teachers with 1 supervisor to watch 300 schoolchildren in a computer lab. Let the teachers of the United States come together to devise and agree upon the "best" way to explain a procedure in algebra and address all possible resulting questions. An interactive computer program can then teach the procedure step by step in a series of video clips to students in a lab. The clips would be so straight forward that almost all questions would be eliminated, but answers to the other frequently asked questions would be available in the program. After each clip it would then test the student for mastery of the information before moving to the next topic. Students would learn information quickly and effectively.
Here is an overview of the advantages:
1. Computers replace teachers - this is less costly for school districts and thus taxpayers.
2. No distractions - students are isolated and learn independently from each other.
3. No waiting - the computer does not have wait for the supervisor to take role or answer phone calls during class. The computer waits for you.
4. Instead of many teachers around the world explaining a concept in their own ways, only the explanations that proved to be the most effective would be shown in the program.
5. The program can learn how the students learn best and show versions of the video clips that are most compatible with the students' respective learning styles.
6. If a student has a question, the program will likely be able to answer it using its searchable database of questions and answers from students and teachers in previous years. The student will not hold up the entire class for his question.
7. Students are tested on concepts before they move on. The computer does not waste time explaining something that student is not expected to understand.
8. The required frequent interaction prevents absentmindedness and saves time. It does not allow for students to stop paying attention as doing so would result in a tangible halt of progress.
9. Students would not be allowed to leave the lab until their day's worth of work is done. This encourages students to stay on task.
10. Students can spend more time in subjects where they need the most help. Perhaps 1.5 hours of math and 0.5 hours of science would be more helpful than 1 hour of each for some students.
11. Learning on the computer eliminates worksheets and use of paper, saving money and the environment.
This revolutionary teaching technique would be most effective in classes where the agenda is primarily lecture, such as in math and social science classes. In classes where open discussion or use of equipment is necessary, such as English or science, mortal teachers would still remain for at least part of the school year.
[the following questions were for Price's students]
How do you feel about computers teaching students? Why do you think this idea would or would not be successful? What flaws do you note - and what possible solutions do you have to these flaws?
