Note to President Obama: Want to Fix the Schools? Look to Portugal!
President Obama already knows that the nation's schools are failing a large number of young Americans. One-third of all students drop out before finishing high school. It's a terrible record, and it's even worse in inner city public schools, where only half of blacks and Hispanics graduate from school. This is not a legacy that would make anyone proud: More young Americans on a proportionate basis drop out of school today than at any other time in our history.
This problem is undoubtedly complicated, but one of the reasons why many American youth are unmotivated and not learning well is that they're bored in school. They're grown up in a fast paced, challenging digital world, with the Internet, mobile devices, video games and other gadgets. They watch less television than their parents did and TV is typically a background activity. They are a generation doesn't like to be broadcast to and they love to interact, multi-task and collaborate. Yet, when they get into the classroom, they're faced with stale textbooks and lectures from teachers who are still using a nineteenth century innovation, chalk and blackboard.
American classrooms need to enter the 21st century. Thousands of teachers agree. Earlier this year, several important educational groups urged the president and Congress to spend nearly $10 billion to improve technology in the classroom, and ensure teachers know how to use computers most effectively.
To show the way, I suggest the president take a look at a modest country across the Atlantic that's turning into the world leader in rethinking education for the 21st century.
That country is Portugal. Its economy in early 2005 was sagging, and it was running out of the usual economic fixes. It also scored some of the lowest educational achievement results in western Europe.
So Prime Minister Jose Socrates took a courageous step. He decided to invest heavily in a "technological shock" to jolt his country into the 21st century. This meant, among other things, that he'd make sure everyone in the workforce could handle a computer and use the Internet effectively.
This could transform Portuguese society by giving people immediate access to world. It would open up huge opportunities that could make Portugal a richer and more competitive place. But it wouldn't happen unless people had a computer in their hands.
In 2005, only 31% of the Portuguese households had access to the Internet. To improve this penetration, the logical place to start was in school, where there was only one computer for five kids. The aim was to have one computer for every two students by 2010.
So Portugal launched the biggest program in the world to equip every child in the country with a laptop and access to the web and the world of collaborative learning. To pay for it, Portugal tapped into both government funds and money from mobile operators who were granted 3G licenses. That subsidized the sale of one million ultra-cheap laptops to teachers, school children, and adult learners.
Here's how it works: If you're a teacher or a student, you can buy a laptop for 150 euros (U.S. $207). You also get a discounted rate for broadband Internet access, wired or wireless. Low income students get an even bigger discount, and connected laptops are free or virtually free for the poorest kids. For the youngest students in Grades 1 to 4, the laptop/Internet access deal is even cheaper -- 50 euros for those who can pay; free for those who can't.
That's only the start: 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. The impact on the classroom is tremendous, as I saw this spring when I toured a classroom of seven-year-olds in a public school in Lisbon. It was the most exciting, noisy, collaborative classroom I have seen in the world.
The teacher directed the kids to an astronomy blog with a beautiful color image of a rotating solar system on the screen. "Now," said the teacher, "Who knows what the equinox is?"
Nobody knew.
"Alright, why don't you find out?"
The chattering began, as the children clustered together to figure out what an equinox was. Then one group lept up and waved their hands. They found it! They then proceeded to explain the idea to their classmates.
This, I thought, was the exact opposite of everything that is wrong with the classroom system in the United States.
The children in this Portuguese classroom were loving learning about astronomy. They were collaborating. They were working at their own pace. They barely noticed the technology, the much-vaunted laptop. It was like air to them. But it changed the relationship they had with their teacher. Instead of fidgeting in their chairs while the teacher lectures and scrawls some notes on the blackboard, they were the explorers, the discoverers, and the teacher was their helpful guide.
Yet too often, in the U.S. school system, teachers still rely on an Industrial Model of education. They deliver a lecture, the same one to all students. It's a one-way lecture. The teacher is the expert; the students are expected to absorb what the teacher says and repeat. And students are supposed to learn alone.
Teachers often feel that this is the only way to teach a large classroom of kids, and yet the classroom in Portugal shows that giving kids laptops can free the teacher to introduce a new way of learning that's more natural for kids who have grown up digital at home.
First, it allows teachers to step off the stage and start listening and conversing instead of just lecturing. Second, the teacher can encourage students to discover for themselves, and learn a process of discovery and critical thinking instead of just memorizing the teacher's information. Third, the teacher can encourage students to collaborate among themselves and with others outside the school. Finally, the teacher can tailor the style of education to their students' individual learning styles.
It's not easy to change the model of teaching. In fact, this is the hard part. It's far easier to spend money, as Portugal did, to put Internet into the classroom and equip the kids with laptops. ( By now, half of high school students now have them, as do four in 10 middle school students.)
Yet Portugal has been careful to invest in teacher training to capitalize on the possibilities of the laptops in schools. They're also thinking of creating a new online platform to allow teachers to work together to create new lessons and course materials that take advantage of the interactive technology. Through this collaboration, the Portuguese school system will create exciting new online materials to educate children. Lots of ideas are already making their way into Portuguese classrooms, says Mario Franco, chair of the Foundation for Mobile Communication, which is managing the e-school program. There are 50 different educational programs and games inside the laptops the youngest children use. The laptops are even equipped with a control to encourage kids to finish their homework and score high marks. If they do, they get more time to play.
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. One key problem is that simply providing computers in schools is not enough. Teachers facing a classroom of kids with laptops need to learn that they are no longer the expert in their domain; the Internet is.
Yet Portugal is on a campaign to reinvent learning for the 21st century. The technology is only one part of that campaign. The real work is creating a new model of learning.
I believe this could help the U.S. revive students' interest in school and perhaps keep them in school long enough to graduate, and even go to college. It would be a substantial investment. It's estimated that the total cost of giving a computer to each student, including connection to networks, training, and maintenance, is over $1,000 per year.
Yet after seeing the promise of the exciting classrooms in Portugal, I'm convinced it is worth it. Your child should be so fortunate.
Don Tapscott's is the author of 13 books about new technologies in business and society, most recently Grown Up Digital. He is Chair of the nGenera Insight think tank, and an Adjunct Professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Twitter @dtapscott.
Follow Don Tapscott on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dtapscott
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Great article! Technological is not a magical solution, but you certainly cannot engage 21st century students with 19th century tools... Looking forward to hear more on this Portuguese programme. Well done!
See Jeff Goldstein's Profile
Hi Don-
I guess I'm not aboard. The title "Want to Fix the Schools? Look to Portugal!" coupled with "American classrooms need to enter the 21st century." sums it up - throw technology at the problem and we'll solve it.
I firmly believe technology is a tool, nothing more. Educational success starts with teachers and parents. Yes they need the right tools, but a box of great woodworking tools without the carpenter is useless. And a good carpenter is an artist.
You're boiling the education crisis down to - we simply need more tools in the tool box. That's naive.
The success in the Portuguese classroom with the astronomy lesson, that you contrast to the US "Industrial Model", had nothing to do with technology - it was about the TEACHER. If you have a great teacher that facilitates exploration in the classroom, recognizes learning needs to be owned by the student, and has skills to engage the audience, then you get phenomenal learning. If they use a computer as a tool, fine (I would-it's powerful), but technology isn't a prerequisite.
Teaching is an art, and teachers are artists. We need to elevate the profession, provide pre-service teachers far better training on inquiry-based learning, reward great teachers, help good teachers become great, and remove bad teachers from classrooms they don't deserve. I've written about this-
See: The Art of Teaching: bit.ly/Zn0
A Letter to President Obama on the science eduction crisis: bit.ly/hdY
Jeff
Teachers in this country are rigorously trained, required to have a college education, mentored from the day they step into the job, and expected to engage in continuous professional development for as long as they teach. Granted, they're underpaid for their efforts, but most will tell you that money has nothing to do with their devotion to their work. In other words, the solution to the core problem isn't throwing more money at teachers any more than it is filling the classrooms with whiz-bang technologies.
Nearly every American classroom today is peopled by students who are undisciplined, unruly, aggressive, combative, fatigued, drugged, pregnant, howling with hormonal surges they don't understand and can't control, diverted by any number of handheld technological marvels, unsupported by parents, and with little or no desire to commit an ounce of energy to the learning process. And anyone who has ever taught will tell you that it doesn't take but two or three reticent learners to diminish the motivations of an entire class. When you don't have but two or three students in a classroom who want to be there, what do you do?
See Jeff Goldstein's Profile
Hi Devinkay-
My expertise is science education, a critical area if the US is to compete in 21st century science and technology markets. See:
http://blo
In science education, elementary grades are most critical. It's where comfortability with science is established, and fundamental content is laid down. But elementary teachers are mostly generalist
While I agree the majority of teachers are rigorously trained (FYI- depth of training varies greatly across schools of education), this isn't necessarily a recipe for success. The situation in science education is a good example. My view - training for elementary teachers in the US isn't adequate for science.
Yes there are students that make learning difficult, yes there are parents that don't instill a love of and importance in learning in their children, yes there's a systemic drive to teach to the test helping to destroy learning, and yes there are vast differences between learning in inner city and often rural America versus suburbia. Education is supposed to be for ALL Americans. This is a *big problem*. My central point - technology isn't the silver bullet.
Finally, I didn't advocate more money for teacher training. But YOU point out, relative to other professions, teachers don't command salaries worthy of their job - getting the next generation ready to take the helm of the human race.
Jeff
I believe the solution lies in a major shift in the way we deliver education. We need to stop trying to ram it down the throats of unwilling participants. Instead, we should make it available only to those who prove ready and desirous of its benefits. For the masses who currently suck the very life out of the academic environment I propose a nationwide labor program where they can learn basic skills while serving their community.
Understand, this would NOT be punitive. Rather, it would provide a structured environment for socialization that could be exchanged at any point for academic pursuit, based of course on readiness and commitment. Young people too scattered by the ravages of puberty, too lost in the siren song of technological toys, too burdened by the misfortunes of broken homes, could work on community farms, clean up streets, or perform basic necessary tasks for businesses. When they are ready to learn, a vital, focused, calm and effective classroom will be there for them, led by the same well-skilled and dedicated teachers who are struggling today.
The other part of this formula would be to get rid of the artificial K-12 step system and allow students to acquire their education based solely on competency progression, wholly regardless of age. A truly seamless lifelong-learning system.
Just because you looked up equinox on the internet doesn't mean you understand it or could answer basic questions about it. The internet and interactive learning are only the start, a way to peek interest, then real learning has to happen. "Real learning" to me means understanding and being able to explain in the student's own words the difference between equinox and solstice, put them in historical context (when did people first recognize those times, various celebrations that took place), explain what happens in the natural world at those times, why it matters today, the earth's orbit around the sun, the tilt of the earth, how did scientists first discover those mathematical facts, etc.
In other words, guide students to a well-rounded education, not just to pretty pictures and videos online.
But when you learn how to look up equinox, you learn how to find what you need to know. Then you can interpret what you find, compare different sources and make your own sense out of it. That kind of critical thinking is very important and the school is the right place to develop it.
Learning online is vastly superior to learning by rote. Portugal was once a major power. It will be interesting to watch as their online citizenry take the lead again.
Learning by rote made me hate school all the more, and changed me from an A student to a C student while I was in Jr. High and High School... I couldn't take that my teachers told me what to think, and didn't allow me to question them or bring up more updated information than what was thrown in my face.
Children don't need laptops! They need nature and time spent with adults who truly care about them. They need teachers who are supported by parents and who don't have to buy supplies out of their own pockets. They need music and movement and foreign languages so their brain develop in more than one way. They need a sense of community and generosity and responsibility.
Research the Waldorf education to see one really healthy way to educate kids. And there's not a single computer until high school.
So parents of young children shouldn't have computers then either is what you're saying, even if in a world where technology is NECESSARY to the parents' jobs and personal lives.
As any teacher in a big American city can tell you, nearly all children in inner city schools have access to their own or friends' computers, Play Stations, iPods, etc. They already know how to use technology, better than the adults. (And it's not like using a computer is that hard - three year olds can do it.) What they don't know is how to read and write.
American schoolkids are overstimulated, from the time they hit the door until they go to bed - much too late - at night. Learning and behavior would likely improve if displays and visual stimuli were REMOVED from classrooms. There should be at least one blank wall that a child can gaze at and exercise his or her imagination. Bright colors and "interactive" learning may be exciting to adults, but they can overwhelm developing brains. It's no wonder that we have an epidemic of ADHD.
I've never been to Portugal and I wouldn't presume to pass judgment on their educational system. But I'm always leery of experts exhorting us to emulate methods used in countries with tiny populations. Especially so in this case, as the new methods have yet to prove effective. They do sell computers, though.
Ohmigawd, yet another "education expert" article!
The JARGON "collaborative learning" is garbage.
Everyone learns INDIVIDUALLY. Collaborations, which introduce a social aspect, can be
a DISTRACTION to focused learning and involvement in
a topic.
A computer also harbors a multitude of DISTRACTIONS that steer students
away from from concentration.
What, your student cannot read well or at all?
Computers encourage NON-READERS.
As a university professor grading the results of "collaborative learning"
distractions one can only say that those RESULTS ARE NOT PRETTY.
To learn, students need to CONCENTRATE without bunches of distractions.
Interesting but totally unrealistic. The 1950s are over. The challenge in education today is to deal with social.cul
If you are a "unversity professor" bashing the concept of collaborative learning, whatever it is called, you must never have experienced and effective SEMINAR. That is my definition of high order collaborative learning. A well moderated social networking session can simulate some of the dynamics of a seminar discussion, not all, but some.
Seminar-style learning presupposes a particular level of maturity and commitment on the part of the participants. When you have a roomful of hyperactive students who invariably approach collaborative exercises as opportunities to socialize, the lion's share of a teacher's time is taken up simply trying to keep them on task. More often than not it's a frustrating mess where little in the way of effective learning actually occurs for the amount of time invested.
I still use the method from time to time, as a way of varying the learning environment. I don't, however, get very good results. What I do most often seem to get is a muddled middle ground of mediocrity, where my best students are drawn toward the bottom while my struggling students accomplish less than they do when alone and better focused.
Good thing the Dems have Obama to get stuff done. Look at what he has accomplished in months, that Reid and Pelosi just talked about for years. Finally some competence for action in the Dem party.
I sincerely hope that "becoming a world leader in rethinking education for the 21st century" doesn't mean having mathematic exercises in the 9th grade that I used to do in my 2nd or 3rd year in elementary school.. Oh wait, that has already happened!
The level of knowledge in Portuguese education has never been so low as in the past decade. There are countless measures trying to show the opposite, but that's the truth. Having the chance to use new technologies in the classroom is extremely good, but only when the students also have the possibility to develop other abilities like reading properly, writing without spelling errors or having a minimal mathematical reasoning. Unfortunately, most of them don't.
I am portuguese and i dont know this country you are talking about.
Wikipedia entry on Portuguese education:
"Education has been a subject of controversy in Portugal due to a number of erratic policies and the state of flux it has experienced by several long periods, particularly since the carnation revolution coup of 1974 to the Bologna process of 2007.
There has been also concerns related to the large dropout rates (mostly in the secondary and higher education systems), and the high multi generational functional illiteracy (48%[11] functional illiterates in Portugal, among the adult population; all over U.S.A. 30 million (14% of adults)[12] are functionally illiterate) and illiteracy rates (7.5% = ~ 800,000 illiterates) - a quite mediocre statistical record when compared with other developed countries of Europe, North America and Eastern Asia."
I have been educated by the portuguese school system, and i know many active teachers and they could tell you this technological progresses are nothing but a cosmetic operation to hide that since 1974 every government has been using its students as guinea pigs for different teaching politics that they try to implement not listening to anyone, ending with little or no sucess.
Let's not talk about the protests against the prime minister and his education minister, wich have seen thousands of teachers protesting on the streets.
Schools that are not near any big city troughout the country are old and/or were closed
Please use a country that really deserves the praise.
Handing out over 1 million laptops to teachers and students can be a lot of things, but it certainly cannot be a "cosmetic operation"!
Without these programmes, children whose families could afford to buy a PC had access to it, the others didn't. In 2004, only 26% of the Portuguese households had Internet access and 12% had broadband. By the end of 2008, 46% of the households have Internet and 39% have broadband! Is it cosmetic?
Most importantly, these tools are being given to who need them most, students and teachers. At the same time, schools are being equipped with faster connections and wireless LANs. Every kid can now have a laptop, not just the ones whose families could afford it...
Quoting the article, "technology is only one part of that campaign", "the real work is creating a new model of learning". The opportunity lies in what teachers and students can do now with the technology they have, they can reinvent learning. And I trust that they will go beyond our wildest dreams!
This article is flawed, as it is based on observation of classroom (possibly hand-picked) in the capital.
Most teachers around the country haven't got a clue about what to do with the laptops. Most students are told to leave the laptops at home.
The 3G services are monopolies where students that are not fully subsidized are locked into contracts with expensive monthly payments.
Most of the laptops sold have Windows (XP or Vista) perpetuating Microsoft's grasp on the country. The Intel Classmate PC (Magalhães or Magellan) sold to younger students does have Linux (Caixa Mágica), which most students are taught not to boot into.
While Mr Socrates was handing out laptops he was also closing hospitals, maternities and schools in the poorer parts of the country.
Speaking of the portuguese educational system in general, Mr Socrates' government is increasing the "success rate" by making it less challenging to finish high-school. Final exams are getting softer every year, to the point of being ridiculous. High-school equivalence is given to anyone who attends a few months of night classes.
Introducing new technology in classrooms is a good thing, even essential. However, the way it's being done in Portugal is completely wrong.
It is frightening to see how misinformed Don is; Socrates is Portugal's prime-minister (Cavaco Silva is the President) and the miracle programme is fraught with serious problems. Please, Mr Obama...wh
Obviously, you are portuguese, considering the criticism.
You see the bad, not caring if the are benefits in the long-term.
The man gave the first step to start a revolution in the education system but, alas, the naysayers speak. I didn't vote for him, but I still support his efforts.
Give time for the system to be absorbed by each institution and rid our children from the old carcasses that sit on the desk and use ONLY pen, pencil and paper and dismiss any evolution.
This programme WAS and IS a very good effort in improving our education. Some of the other policies, well, those are not in debate here.
computers have little to do with disaffectedness in students. Learning and advocation programs are what create interface and substantiate the learn process. Things like MESA in the 90's and Project classes of the 70's impart and acknowledge the basis of learning and what it means for the children who will own its fruition.
(Part 1)
Talk of 'naysayers' vs. 'yeasayers' does not lead us far; it is often the sole argument of those who lack arguments and it distracts us from what is concrete.
Facts that are objectivelly wrong in this text:
1. (now corrected, without any note) Socrates is not Portugal's President. He is Portugal's prime-minister.
2. "Just about every classroom in the public system now has an interactive smart board" - as removed from truth as possible. This happens - today, June 2009 - in only a very, very, very small number of 'pilot' schools (those that a good PR would show foreign visitors).
3. Given that way the whole initiative was prepared - i.e. without any previous (serious) teacher preparation and without any careful planning of the inclusion of laptops in the teaching/learning strategies - this line is also untrue: "giving kids laptops can free the teacher to introduce a new way of learning". It does not. In most cases laptops stay at home and when children take them to school they use them mostly to play games during break times.
4. For the same reasons, this is also untrue: "Portugal has been careful to invest in teacher training to capitalize on the possibilities of the laptops in schools".
(continues
Other problems with this text:
- the deal with MO has not worked as expected because many people went for the 'no access' option. In essence, they acquired a computer at a competitive price, and did not subscribe to the service that would bring in MO's expected income. Talk of government compensation has already been heard.
- some of the software - educational, please note! - that came with the cheaper laptop was poorly translated into Portuguese; as a result, severe errors were soon discovered and the Education ministry had to remove it.
All this - and these are facts which Don could have easily picked up because they are undisputed and very public - creates a different picture altogether; a picture of a 'throwing money at the problem' strategy rather than that of a carefully thought out plan.
If anything, the Portuguese case proves precisely the opposite of what Don is saying; it proves that throwing tech at people is not the solution.
Educating people is.
The issue for politicians is that solving that problem takes more than 4 years and does not give them as much TV air time as going from school to school distributing computers to children (in some cases, to take them back right after TV camera lights went off - which is also a true fact, which Don could have confirmed very easily).
Sorry, Don, but if you want to pass out such strong advice you must really get your facts rights in advance.
As a teacher, I use every technology available to teach. My job would be so much easier if every child had a laptop, or at least access to the internet at the drop of a hand.
As a dreamer, the ideal classroom (the one of the future in the books I read as a child), is a virtual classroom, where the teacher is a moderator that directs each student towards the answer to their questions. That would be the bee's knees.
One step at a time.
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