MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
“One child-one laptop” program in Uruguay has failed to improve results in maths and reading
The Uruguayan pioneering program “one child-one laptop” did not improve their performance in basic subjects such as maths and reading, according to a report from the country’s Institute of Economy and financed by the same education authorities. The report also points out to the lack of content in the laptops and the poor training of teachers. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesLaptop or not,
Sep 19th, 2013 - 09:09 am - Link - Report abuse 0Their government has a great sense of humor..lol
.
“one child-one laptop” did not improve their performance in basic subjects such as maths and reading”
Sep 19th, 2013 - 09:20 am - Link - Report abuse 0But they are really good at Angry Birds....
@2 LOL I was thinking the same thing.
Sep 19th, 2013 - 10:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0Well-educated and well-trained teachers are more important than any gadget. Being computer literate is something quite different.
The laptops certainly cannot help the kids who are not in school and there seems to be no initiate other than a free lunch to keep them there. To the best of my knowledge there are no truant officers in Uruguay. Many kids drop out before reaching high school and that fact doesn't seem to bother many of the the adults I have talked to. From conversations I have had with high school and university students and graduates I am led to believe that public education in Uruguay is by no means adequate. I also surmise from these conversations that some of the information students are being taught is incorrect or untrue.
Sep 19th, 2013 - 11:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0I suppose their thinking was that if you give a monkey a banana, it would instinctively know what to do with it.
Sep 19th, 2013 - 12:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Laptop programs don't do much in college besides hemorrhage money for upkeep and drain cyberinfrastructure resources for low-end computing, they aren't going to do much more for lower-ed either and will have the same effects on a system that is even more strapped for cash...
Sep 19th, 2013 - 12:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0This simplistic approach, lacking as it does any cohesive plan to ensure the effectiveness of computer training turning into a tool for maths and reading, was destined to fail if you know anything about computers in learning.
Sep 19th, 2013 - 07:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0They are simply a big calculator but ONLY if they have the programmes within then to make them a calculator. Likewise with reading.
There is a role for both maths and reading by using computers but how Uruguay approached it is typical of the governments lack of knowledge of computer science and worst still the applications that can reduce costs within the government.
Lack of education of the mother IS a real problem and the “sit by mother” approach is not really a feature of home life in Uruguay as it used to be in the UK (that is falling badly).
Two of my best friends are teachers and it is harrowing how Pepe continually denigrates the teachers without offering any options to deal with the “problems” he perceives. He really is a uneducated person who is wholly out of his depth in this situation as in many others.
Uruguay in many respects is going downhill with education as Britain is. The only thing Britain has going for it is that it is starting from a higher level.
The fact that children have to repeat a year if they fail only works with those children who are prepared to knuckle down and work. No wonder then that so many leave to take up manual work to earn the family some much needed money and many of them regret it in later life.
Those Brits who are old enough will remember the Secondary modern Schools which at least encouraged the less academically gifted child into gainful employment as plumbers, electricians, hairdressers, etc. Britain is on its way back to that under another name and it is something Uruguay needs to consider.
after Winter
Sep 19th, 2013 - 08:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0in early Spring
flower buds
that have not yet blossomed
are not failures
Keyboard and Internet knowledge,
skills that nobody can steal from Uruguayan children because now they are safe inside minds,
are lifetime tools,
to be used whenever motivation, curiosity,
rouse academic flowers to blossom.
“Ceibal incorpora los tutoriales de Khan Academy en español”
http://www.ceibal.org.uy
Ceibal notebooks are too small and slow to be really useful, maybe the Magallanes model is almost fine but it's very rare.
Sep 19th, 2013 - 10:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0They doesn't hurt the students, but they do not magically help them either.
Perhaps the main issue here is the magical view of the world of the current government's officials. They seems to believe that once the government expend the right resources, people “pop!” became what they expect. No need of preconditions, training, or working hard, it just should happens.
So, the teacher were unprepared, the educational program inadequate and no one do any follow up of the result. But they didn't paid attention to that, their focus was to keep telling the press they have that many Ceibalitas around.
It's more a failure of the administrators than anything else.
Who uses a computer to improve ones math skills when it's designed to do the job for you?
Sep 19th, 2013 - 10:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0No, the Plan Ceibal has given every kid, rich and poor, an introduction to a reality that they will have to be part of in the future.
Excellent tool, but maths?
10 Stevie
Sep 20th, 2013 - 05:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If they have the correct software in then (which they do not) these simple machines can be very good at teaching mathematics, not just arithmetic.
Geometry and algebra are readily available BUT the children need encouragement and the mother is the key. I have little doubt that all Uruguayo mothers want the best for their children: the things they didn't have, but being unable to teach them because they did not bother at school IS a real problem.
“Until third grade [about age 9], a child learns to read.
Sep 22nd, 2013 - 06:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0After third grade, a child reads to learn.”
“In California they plan how many jail cells they will build in the future by how many children are not reading on grade level by third grade .”
“Indiana’s former governor has stated that determining the number of new prisons to build is based, in part, on the number of second graders not reading at second-grade level.”
Source:
http://www.doc.nv.gov/sites/doc/files/pdf/education/Education_Services_Spring_2012_Newsletter.pdf
How can Reading Specialist skills be leveraged and scaled, so that reading challenges can be diagnosed and treated as soon as possible, while children are learning to read?
For example of current methods, see...
“Reading Diagnosis for Teachers: An Instructional Approach”
http://www.doc.nv.gov/sites/doc/files/pdf/education/Education_Services_Spring_2012_Newsletter.pdf
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