Education in the DR - Page 3

M.A.R. · #21 09-19-2008, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaTeacher

my husband teaches in a public high school in santiago. we just shelled out 2500 pesos from our own money to buy some novels for his students because... well, there "is no money" for books.

last year, we spent over 10Gs on his students because there were only 40 books delivered for his 100 12th graders. i'm thinking even old, outdated books would be better than what he's got. nothing

and trilingual? right.
because they also just started a bilingual pilot program in his school... and the teacher doesn't speak enough english to teach past the verb "to be". pretty typical public school english program... only now they're wasting an hour a day on it instead of focusing on things that might actually work... like reading or writing... or math

i hope it works out.
but, money for the public schools is a joke. we're still waiting for the supposed "raise" from the "evaluacion de disempeno" that was supposed to be added on in june (and by june, i mean march)

Writing to your Diputado won't work, have you tried that? Hound them with letters about your missing books, they have the money, maybe if all the teachers would do this they will wake up and release the grip on the funds.

PICHARDO · #22 09-19-2008, 02:18 PM

A kid can operate a computer even before he can read! Now that’s a fact...

The PC should be looked at as the notebook was at their introduction, as a means or tool to employ on the education of our children.

The PC is now making its way towards the undeveloped world at staggering steps, so much that countries where the authoritarian govs try to filter what the people can do, now are trampling each other since the first PC was powered on...

The DR is the best laboratory to try this technology in a failed education system, just b/c of that same issue. The PC revolution just started as even countries hard on traditions as Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, now Romaji is the norm everywhere there's electronic media.

Education for the sake of education is not real evolution, but a statistic to libel others as "superiors". The PC will give all children in the DR an equal footing and the tools to go beyond the boundaries our system provides today.

The role of teacher is one that is quickly being replaced by the same tools that today make the workplace an evolutionary platform. Editors from traditional printed news media are being replaced by youngsters that can better understand the no-limits of the electronic media. These are people that hold diplomas and what not, from places like Yale and Cambridge, yet serves them little today...

Billion dollar fighter planes are being flown by people not able to buy a pack of beer at the corner store (yet)... Aircraft carriers with the population of a small town are being operated by youngsters sitting at monitor and command centers...

The internet is the world of the people under legal age; we are just passersby’s...

Tell me one instruction that a single teacher can't provide 1,000,000.00 students over the internet that the same teacher provides face to face in a less than 20 students classroom?

So you're telling me that every single "University" today that's offering and giving classes over the internet to students enrolled, is actually committing a huge fraud?

The education is fit for a college degree but not for basic, intermediate and superior education?

When the DR rolls out the on-line education system, it will become the first country to so at national level for a public education system...

Our kids are in the rear of the line today, given the actual educational system; tomorrow our kids will be given the tools to develop and come to the front of the line with merit...

We owe them the best we can muster for past failures...
A dream? Ask Microsoft Dominicana is they are in the biz of dreams or reality...

Trilingual impossible? I speak 4 languages and never set foot inside a language school to learn them...

We'll push a busy agenda with countries that will be interested in holding exchange programs with our students and theirs...

We aim to hire top teachers right in their home countries, to impart to our students the best they can muster... Ask yourself if that option was available to you as a teacher, wouldn't you take it under serious consideration????

One single teacher can impart the lessons to countless students, and then have a high number of teacher assistants in our country to aid students with their classes as well.

The teacher lesson is recordable and can be repeated countless times...

LaTeacher · #23 09-19-2008, 02:37 PM

i'm still not sold, pichardo. implementing a project like this is a country with no infrastructure is a little silly, don't you think?

who's going to enforce the kids doing the work and not paying the guy down the street to "help them"? how are they going to learn to read? i mean, even kids who homeschool on the internet in the states need tutors to get the basics down. and... if their parents are unable to use computers, how will they learn? the answer, they won't.

there are so many flaws in the educational system - not just here, everywhere - that need to be repaired before the system can "modernize". computers take so much more AWAY from the student than they actually give them.

they are not the same as notebooks! not even close.

who's going to choose what teachers "teach" on the internet classes? surely friends of the politicians will receive the job even if they are horrible. back again to the "evaluacion de disempeno" that is currently being done in the public schools (you know, the one we haven't seen yet) they supposedly are evaluating teachers to give them a raise based on their teaching ability, but what it burns down to is how many students failed (not how many were passed) and whether the grade books are in order. no personal evaluation.
and more...
who's going to "socialize" the kids? who's going to give them the human touch that is SO necessary? it's bad enough that parents are working all day, that parents are too tired (or too illiterate) to help with homework. sometimes the teacher is all they have.

what about that? school is about a lot more than education. it's about teaching kids how to behave in society, how to work for a goal and be contributing members of their community.

PICHARDO · #24 09-19-2008, 02:38 PM

I can have a PC teach a child to speak better and faster than a human teacher ever could!!!!

I can have a PC teach an elementary school kid, mathematics more advanced with the aid of visual stimulators much faster than a teacher in the flesh could...

Both the above scenarios are true and proven beyond reasonable doubt...

But a PC is not to be used as the substitute for a teacher, but a powerful tool that can make the teacher's work easier...

Human interaction is as important if not more than the actual data being presented...

The laptops will have absolutely no value to a thief, nor provide a buyer market for it...
The electricity needed to run the laptops will be there, as planned... Believe me!
The software will be customized to each and every student's developmental stage, regardless of age (like today we do).
Student groups that will be required to certain steps of classes will allow the kids to gain social and individual development.
Parents will take more interactive roles within the educational system after they're vested for safety reasons. Each member parent will provide tutoring for kids in a cyclical manner; whilst having the backup of the PTA for them on hand.

There are many aspects to the new educational system that will be deployed in the DR...

Don't be a nag!!!

LaTeacher · #25 09-19-2008, 02:40 PM

ps. college and post-grad degrees online are different. people completing them are already socialized, they already know how to behave, how to work to complete their goals. the education they received in classrooms prepared them for the work on the computer. i have two masters, one online and one inthe classroom and numerous post-grad programs... the ones that served me best were in the classroom, communicating with classmates in an open and PERSONAL dialogue.

i also speak (5) languages. i was blessed with the ability to travel and immerse in the culture to learn them. no computer involved, just pure, old-fashioned human contact.

LaTeacher · #26 09-19-2008, 02:42 PM

i'm not nagging. i'm just speaking my opinion. if i'm not mistaken you have a vested interest in the company advancing this new program?

maybe you should go into some of the poorer neighborhoods and campos and observe the parenting ideas about education and see if you'll really have the support of parents.

Chirimoya · #27 09-19-2008, 02:49 PM

or visit a lo-tech approach being promoted by Plan International in the south west of the Dominican Republic - "Comunidad Educativa" where parents, teachers and students work together to improve educational quality in state schools.

The older children are trained to mentor younger ones, they help them learn to read and write, and even teach literacy classes for adults, while teachers are given training in using a methodology called Quantum Learning.

It does not depend on expensive hardware but it is changing people's approach to education and motivating teachers, students and parents alike.