The first
of 11 Dutch ‘Steve Jobs schools’ was opened yesterday in Sneek/the Netherlands..
In this
elementary school the Ipad is textbook, notebook, agenda and plaything at the
same time. The pupils are learning typing instead of writing and they decide
themselves where and when they study.
The zombies
on the Ipad screen come menacingly closer. If the answer to the calculation not
fast enough is typed, you're the Marylou.
At the
right answer the zombie changes in a cheerful smiling stick man.
The
children like it. "Zombie counting is much more fun than writing in a
boring notebook".
A group of
girls demonstrates the apps connected in their subject matter.
The little
fingers go flying and agile across the screen. Last year they were still with
books and notebooks for their nose at school. Now they sit in Sneek in a brand
new building with the name "Master Steve Jobs School".
Which
previously feared to find a surreal, sterile Apple Lab, will be disappointed. The
cosy building has the decor of an ordinary primary school.
The books
are just a side issue. The Ipad is the device.
The teacher
is called here a 'talent coach' and the school is a 'community '.
The
students are not following central classroom lessons, but work independently in
groups which are classified by age and social development. With the Ipad, they
have access to the digital learning environment. They get short instructions
and after it they go for their work individually. They organize their time themselves and can
therefore do much at home.
Initiator
Maurice de Hond believes that the traditional education is not following the
actual development: “Many schools are preparing the children for yesterday. We
prepare them for the world after 2030. The profit lies in the integrated
approach”.
His concept
of ‘Education for a New Age’ (E4NA) gets much commotion.
The German
memory researcher Manfred Spitzer calls it a form of child abuse. But the
reaction of the school: "We teach children to use the Ipad on a sensible way. There
is a generation that missed the IT development".
The
students are not following central classroom lessons, but work independently in
groups which are classified by age and social development. With the Ipad, they
have access to the digital learning environment. They get short instructions
and after it they go for their work individually. They organize their time themselves and can
therefore do much at home.
The Minister of Education sees above all the benefits of this teaching method, but he ordered additional monitoring of the Inspectorate of Education.
Pupils must
not suffer as a result of experimentation.
From an article in Algemeen Dagblad, Thursday August 22 , 2013
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