

Fixing education - arijo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-tapscott/note-to-president-obama-w_b_220198.html

======
tokenadult
"It's too early to assess the impact on learning in Portuguese schools.
Studies of the impact of computers in schools elsewhere have been
inconclusive, or mixed."

Well, all right then, it's too early to advocate the things Portugal is doing
just now as a model for fixing United States schools.

~~~
arijo
"Portugal has invested 400 million euros to makes sure each classroom has
access to the Internet. Just about every classroom in the public system now
has an interactive smart board, instead of the old fashioned blackboard.

This means that nearly nine out of 10 students in Grades 1 to 4 have a laptop
on their desk. "

Maybe too early to see the results, but would you advocate that having 9 out
of 10 students in grades 1 to 4 with a laptop on their desk is not a model for
other countries to follow?

~~~
tokenadult
_would you advocate that having 9 out of 10 students in grades 1 to 4 with a
laptop on their desk is not a model for other countries to follow?_

Yes, because results of studies in the United States suggest that more
computer use by schoolchildren results in lower rather than higher academic
achievement. Computers are important, wonderful tools, and you and I are using
computers right now to communicate about this interesting submission to HN,
but children have a lot of development to go through for which computers have
no demonstrated ability to help. On an issue like improving education,
research matters, and there isn't a strong body of research to show that
increased computer use does much to improve primary education.

~~~
arijo
"and there isn't a strong body of research to show that increased computer use
does much to improve primary education"

Maybe beacause primary education students do not have computers in the
classroom in all countries but Portugal?

~~~
tokenadult
Not so, there has been much study of this issue, including studies with
experimental rather than observational designs,

<http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html>

in a variety of countries.

