Keisha McNeil
October 29, 2010
12:00 pm
In London, BrightSpark Education is the first type of internet service being offered to students in three of Britain's schools. The purpose of BrightSpark is for British students to learn and have an interactive online Math torturing program available to them through computer. BrightSpark employs and trains over one hundred teachers in India for these services. The feedback about the program from students, the schools, and parents who children are involved in the program are coming back with good results, but the program is facing problems with those who are not in or involved with the program. Some of the teachers fear of losing their jobs because the government are pushing through for spending cuts which are all ready in progress from the education system. Other teachers are concerned that the tutors lack the cultural empathy and understanding of the students social environment that could influence bad study habits and performance among these students. There is also another concern from teachers in Britain, that just wanted to know are these teachers qualified and is the program going to take away the interaction students have with their teachers in school.
I do understand the concerns the teachers have about there jobs, but on the other hand the teachers need to look at the benefits the students will be gaining from the program. Such as, one-on-one interaction, these students can have with the tutors because for some students it is hard to learn in a large classroom setting. It also offers the students to learn from a different style of teaching instead of the more traditional way. The program also can be an advantage to the students by opening up their minds to other foreign cultures. The program is an excellent way for students to become part of the world we are living in today, where computers are the way of the future. The teachers in Britain should not look at the program as a way of replacing teachers but as a way to improve the society of their country because the children are the future of the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/technology/25iht-teach25.html?pagewanted=1&ref=education
2 comments:
Teachers in Britain are expected to feel unhappy about the interactive online math tutoring as long as they know that they could lose their jobs. It should be students and their parents that should make decision whether the program is helpful not the teachers. I personally like to see similar program in our school.
Why can't they use teachers and the online program? It is harder to learn online than by another person teaching you, but both have benefits.
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