The classroom as we know it has not changed dramatically over
the last century. It pivots around a single source of Knowledge standing or
sitting at a specific position in the room ‘dispensing’ information.
The Creative
The Peripatetic school founded by Aristotle in 335 B.C went
on to influence a wide range of subjects that are studied in today’s
institutions of learning. The centerfold of the school was learning by
inquisition and student collaboration. Due to the lack of a place to conduct
training, Aristotle was known to give lectures while walking around. There was
no set curriculum or any requirements for students. The students ran the
school.
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| The School of Athens by Raphael |
“The aim of education
should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve
our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory
with the thoughts of other men.” ~ John Dewey
The Rote
For a peasant to advance in Ancient China they had to pass
the imperial examination which would allow them to work for the Chinese
government; a prestigious and profitable profession. Rote learning was thus an
accepted and fundamental method of achieving this. Boys started school when
they were six years old. And attended school every day of the week from 6 am to
4 pm. They learned to read and write and then memorized page after page of
Confucian philosophy, they wrote essays, poetry and painted pictures.
I believe part of the reason China was humiliated in the
Opium Wars and a subsequent war with the Japanese is partly because of them
curtailing the innovative and creative spirit.
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| Image: Chinese School - An Ancient Chinese Public Examination, facsimile of original Chinese scroll |
“Do not train a child
to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their
minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar
bent of the genius of each.” ~ Plato
Industrial Revolution
In the 19th century great numbers of people were
required to join the industrial revolution as workers who had basic numeracy
ability. Subsequently, in America and Western Europe legislation was enacted to place more children
in school and free education became a necessity.
This is where a system similar to the conveyor-belt system
in industry was invented to churn out students in a standardized manner that
could meet the needs of the rapidly expanding economies of the Western world.
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Cartoon: The Duncan Conveyor Belt |
The main reason for education during this era and
subsequently around the world has not been primarily to inspire creativity but
rather to foster relevant skills required by an economy.
Motivate to Learn
Motivation is the catalyzing ingredient for every successful innovation; the same is true for learning. Motivation can either be intrinsic or extrinsic . It is extrinsic when one is learning to give
them access to something they want. And it is intrinsic when the learning
itself is stimulating and compels an individual to stay with the task because
it is fun and
enjoyable.
Multiple
intelligences
If we go back to the classroom setting the question to pose
is can the way people go through learning today inhibit their multiple intelligences?
And I would like to use Howard Gardner's definition of
intelligence:
1.
The
ability to create an effective product or offer a service that is valued in a
culture,
2.
A
set of skills that make it possible for a person to solve problems in life, and
3.
The
potential for finding or creating solutions for problems, which involves
gathering new knowledge
Based on his theory, we all have multiple intelligences,
some more dominant than other, which uniquely combine to inspire us to perform
tasks in a certain way.
In any given classroom there is an Albert Einstein, Vincent van
Gogh,
Michael Jordan or William Shakespeare
waiting to inspire and change the world, surprisingly what we instead have is a
standardized way of teaching these students. Focused on rote learning and student
test scores.
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| A class filled with children with multiple intelligences |
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| The multiple intelligences Chart. Source http://www.careernotes.ca/unit1/4-multiple-intelligences/ |
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A test to confirm your
multiple intelligences take the test here
|
Rote Learning Inc.
Every three years a set of standardized tests called Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA) are administered to students around the world, to show how
education systems around the world stack against each other.
What this
approach has unequivocally brought to fore on a global scale, is the
competitive streak that standardized testing brings out. Countries ‘go to war’
and do everything to outdo each other . Rote learning becomes the norm and China and countries
it has influenced over centuries take the medal with their deep-seated rote learning
culture.
Do test
scores show the multiple intelligences and talents that are present in
students? The resounding answer is NO, and I would chose to go with Yong Zhao’s assertions and also point you to a letter written to Dr. Andreas Schleicher, director of
PISA at OECD.
Changing
the education system
Having supported these assertions
clamoring for a departure from rote learning it is also imperative to note the reasons
why the public school systems in Africa fundamentally needs to change:
a)
Teachers are a finite resource, and with the baby bonanza that we are experiencing in Africa, the situation will become dire. How will the next generation of
African children be educated?
b)
Across Africa teachers are not treated
with the respect, honor and station that they deserve. Governments and the
relevant institutions don't ideally support, facilitate or inspire teachers to
put their best foot forward. What we have in the end are poorly motivated and
disillusioned teachers.
c)
What this has essentially created is
the disappearance of the model teacher who yearns to train and equip your child
in how best to be a productive member of society and instead you have teachers
giving cliché educational experiences.
d)
The lack of infrastructure in and
around rural communities, in a generation Y era, dictates that fewer teachers
will want to partake in the hardships of rural Africa and instead prefer settling
in the cities.
e)
A high school dropout rate in Africa. An estimated 42% of African children drop out before the end of primary education.
This is driven mainly by high repetition of classes and pregnancy among schoolgirls.
It is highest in rural poor homes, where the support structures are lacking to ‘drive’
children to finish school.
f)
Another demerit is the rise and fall of
a child’s future based on their performance in certain entry or exit exams. It
simply discredits a child who gets a low grade and relegates them to the
fringes of society.
These reasons are by no means exhaustive, but they do point to a need for us to create programs that are
student centric, ubiquitous, easy to use, cheaply accessible and whose
motivation is intrinsic.
The
state of technology in Africa
As Africa begins to have a more liberal
economically assertive and burgeoning middle-income population student-centric education
is an aspiration that seems realistic. To give children the
tools that can motivate them to intrinsically learn. Because if they learn
based on an understanding of their multiple intelligences, devoid of the
traditional approach we currently have in public schools, then we have an
opportunity to inspire a generation.
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| Motivation Hierarchy |
Sort of like what was originally experienced
years ago in Ancient Greece.
“We imagine a school in which students and teachers
excitedly and joyfully stretch themselves to their limits in pursuit of
projects built on their vision… not one that succeeds in making apathetic
students satisfying minimal standards.” ~ S. Papert
Smart Phones
Africa is truly not a mobile first continent but a mobile only continent. Cheaper , faster African-based smartphones are
hitting the market with improved features every other month.
Tecno chose to invest in building a factory in Ethiopia . Samsung has a “build for Africa” strategy. Huawei has pumped billions of dollars in core technology infrastructure
across Africa.
Faster
Connectivity for all
Cheaper connectivity to the Internet
and its ubiquity not just in urban areas but also in the rural areas makes
inclusion of communities a reality. Part of the stigma associated with rural
areas is their collective backwardness due to lack of information and
involvement in a nation’s agenda.
According to a paper written in 2000 by DFID, “Rural Africa has to confront uncertainty with capability. The future of
African rural dwellers lies increasingly in labor force participation outside
rural agriculture. They need literacy, numeracy, various occupational and
computer skills that will give them the means to command sufficient income for
themselves and their families.” The
reality is no different 14 years later.
The undersea cables that have gone live
over the last few years around Africa have hugely increased the international
data capacity available to the continent. What needs to happen over the next
few years is extend this capacity into the African hinterland by fiber cable
and wireless capability while making connectivity astronomically cheap for larger
numbers of Africans. I believe the consolidation and work being done by
companies like Liquid Telecom , IHS Towers and Eaton Towers will allow for this to happen sooner
rather than later.
The advent of ‘4G’ LTE networks across Africa , increases the speed and scope of
internet-based services that can be offered on a real time basis. This I
believe this will create a hotbed for innovations that can scale up quickly and cheaply.
Content
is king
With all these advances one thing that
needs to pick up pace is content development. Content that is locally relevant.
Kenya took the bold step of stating that all television and radio stations should show case 60% of local content by 2018. What
this forces a country to do is develop local content that is relevant to its
population in competition with international content. This position also forces
multinational content agencies to attune their content to local populations.
Revenue
sharing
The same is true with application developers , who are innovating across the
continent to bring to market solutions that will empower the African
population. For this process to work
better and for more people to be motivated to innovate there is need for better
revenue sharing between the owners of the infrastructure (telecommunication companies) and the application and content developers .
Current state of online education across Africa
So with all these developments how can
technology be used to advance education in Africa?
The answer is extensively.
There is wide scale digitization of
academic content happening in countries like Kenya, Senegal, Zimbabwe and
Zambia and this has essentially created an explosion of online enrollment to
higher education institutions and a sharp spike of e-learning in the corporate
segments in booming economies across Africa.
Technology giants like Microsoft, Google,
Intel and Samsung are doing a lot to develop the right technologies that can be
utilized in African rural settings. They are actively channeling funds to create content and
create environments where innovation around education is consistent.
Open source-learning platforms like Sakai , Moodle and Claroline give credence to an approach that is
collaborative, transparent, inquisitive and routed on individual needs of a
learner.
Student Centered teaching
Student centered teaching methods like active learning, in which students
solve problems, answer questions, formulate questions
of their own, discuss, explain, debate, or brainstorm during class; cooperative
learning, in which students work in teams on problems and projects under
conditions that assure both positive interdependence and individual
accountability; and inductive teaching and learning, in which students
are first presented with challenges (questions or problems) and learn the
course material in the context of addressing the challenges.Speaks volumes about inspiring students
to learn on their own accord.
In fact student centered teaching methods have
been shown to be superior to the traditional teacher-centered approach to
instruction, a conclusion that applies whether the assessed outcome is
short-term mastery, long-term retention, or depth of understanding of course
material, acquisition of critical thinking or creative problem-solving skills,
formation of positive attitudes toward the subject being taught, or level of
confidence in knowledge or skills.
Student centric technologies
There are a number of technologies that can enhance student
centric teaching methods if they are blended in a way that each component complements
the others without duplication.
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| Components of an integrated student centric solution |
As the race in the open source and closed source markets picks up pace in trying to integrate all these individual components into one collective and effective student centric solution, the reality is that its only a matter of time before it becomes a cheaper reality across the world and in Africa.
What I am currently excited about is how Google
is quietly bringing each of these individual components together in a deliberate
manner under the free Google for Education program.
In conclusion, I do believe the future is very bright for
Africa in the education sector mainly due to the level of collaboration that is
happening between different stakeholders.
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