The Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Education Today - What do you want?
Watch this video. Now think of the implications it has on education today. What do you suggest schools in Singapore should teach / do to better prepare Singaporeans for the future?
Humans nowadays are getting more IT savvy. I believe 9 in 10 household should have a computer and perhaps 7 out of 10 are computer literate. In the past, homeworks are restricted to worksheets, books. But now, it has moved to computer presentaion, internet research etc. AN evidence from the video is that there are 31 billion searches in google every month currently, but only 2.7 billion in 2006! Only 2-3 years apart!
This is a perfect example of how fast technology is advancing and how rapid the world is moving on. In the video, it said 'The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010, did not exist in 2004' and 'We are living in exponential times'.
Hence, we should also keep up with the times also. To be in the know than be a 'hill-billy'. Therefore, education nowadays should be more futuristic, more forward-looking while retaining the traditional values of hard work and diligence. This is to prepare the students for the future. Like what the video mentioned 'for students starting a 4 year technical degree, half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study'.
The current emphasis on the Singaporean curriculum is critical thinking, which trains students in analysis and problem-solving skills. But in my opinion, the emphasis on the curriculum in future would be creatve and predictive thinking, where students would learn to be more futuristic, more creative and innovate something that was never seen before. It is like what the video mentioned : preapring students for jobs that DON'T YET EXIST using technologies that HAVEN'T BEEN INVENTED in order to solve problems we DON'T EVEN KNOW are problems yet.
I am not surprised if holograms are to be used in class in future, nor if students are not required to be present physically to attend lessons.
Well here is the kicker: Will technologies that humans create, advance to a state where humans will be rendered obsolete? After all, technologies were built from the basic fundamentals such as 1+1=2.
basiclly i agree with what william stated, that we are living in exponential times. the exponential growth of modern technology has caused great changes to cultures and the way we learn. technology, perhaps, has already become intricately intertwined with our daily lives, as compared to our primitive ancestors whose lives were intertwined with nature and not technology. with such exponential growth of technology, its implications on education are both positive and negative. positive being that it is able to bring up the education standards around the world, boosting the need for creativity, as economy relies on the level of technology , which development relies on the creative thinking of man. one can say that through technology, comes a greater competition amongst people who are still schooling. the competition has already started when we first enter school.
in addition, technology has caused major reforms in education systems and teaching materials, such as the way students are taught now, is a far cry from what was done just several years back. back then it was jus a blackboard with an overhead projector, now, classes without computers or projectors installed are considered to be a relic of the past. this is prove that the advancement in technology can and will cause major reforms to the educations system in the future.
However, the implications of the exponential growth of the technology, has caused several negative implications. for example, with growth of technology, competitiveness in school increases amongst peers, resulting in stress on the students. it will also has caused students to deprove in their studies relative to the students of the past, as a growth in technology results in more interesting games being developed, stealing the student's attention from their studies, while studies remain the same to most students, very mundane.
like what the video had mentioned, what the students are taught in school is to be prepared for the future technologies invented, technologies that are expected to be invented. this is a risky manuveur which i am generally unsupportive of. in the advent of modern technology, i believe that education should change flexibly, but not to a extent at which it risks the students future. our current educaiton system can be said to be rather well, as it integrates modern technology to what is taught with the traditional old things. this ensures that in the future, the future graduates will be able to find jobs with the knowledge that they are equipped with in school.
i suggest that in the face of an exponential growth of the technology, education should be able to change flexibly, such that it is able to equip skills for the students for future technologies, but yet be able to teach them skills which are used in all industries such that when the reach their tertiary education level, they will be able to have a wider range of choices to select from. ong yong siang.
ccwilliams, I agree with you about the need to impart creative and predictive skills. And envisioning and imagining the future are activities which we could have in our classroom. And MonsterMania, I also support your view that there is still a place for the traditional approach to education. They are, after all, tried and tested. However, we have to remember that we need to reflect on our teaching and learning constantly in order to improve. By the way, it would be good if you take note of the use of punctuation and capitalization.
Based on the information given in the video, I agree that Creativity indeed will be an important value to boost in Singapore's students. But to be more specific, I'd say it is Adaptability, arguably a function of creativity, that seems most important in the rapidly and constantly changing world depicted in the video. Students must learn to be able to deal with the new developments occuring around the world if they wish to survive as a working member of society. A student may find himself in a job that is rendered obsolete within 3 years of his/her employment. What then? Without the ability to adapt well to change, chaos and confusion will cloud the mind. Students must be able to ask and answer for themselves questions like 'What now?' and 'What next?'.
On creativity. Our students need to be creative because we not only need to prepare to mould ourselves around the changing world, but to prepare to mould the world itself. The ability to deal with what life constantly throws at you would be useful, but not when you consider technological development. Its all very well if Singaporeans can jump over their obstacles, but it is he who imagines the aeroplane and flies over them who triumphs. Creative thinking is needed if we wish to contribute to the change that shapes the human world.
(A side-thought: Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if we focused more on happiness than intelligence, technology and development?)
Personally, I believe that it is not how they teach students. It is what. Critical thinking is useless without strategical employment. GP implemented at J1 is far too late. Poly students dont get to experience it. And by GP, I dont mean arguing stuff like "blogospheres" or totally boring stuff. Now is the age of reason and information. In such an age, we all should be exploring new alternatives. We should be demolishing old taboos.
The aim of GP is to learn to reason effectively, and to apply it in all areas of life. Thus, the first thing we should do is rather, to debate on EXTREMELY controversial issues. Cloning and space travel? That is far too old. More controversial topics like religion should be contested upon. The ultimate of reason itself, is where everything that does not have an absolute value itself can be debated on itself.
A topic that could be given for students to reason upon could be that the reality of the world is questioned in itself. Thought experiments questioned explicitly in classes. Descartes' "Cognito Ergo Sum". The existence of absolute sin. And eventually, we can even question ourselves, at any and every moment. And eventually, there is no taboo in the society left to tackle. Taboo develops when people see something they dont understand, and thus, they fear to explicitly tackle it. Now, we are smart and knowledgeable. We have now the right to tackle such taboos openly.
We can see that the world is changing and moving at lightning speed. Informations, technology are changing every single second.
We need to be able to adapt to this ever changing world. The education system should not only let students memorize contents, but also teach us life skills.
By teaching us certain skills, we will be able to apply it for life. Contents on the other hand, may and will be changing every now and then.
One of the most essential skills to survive in such a fast paced environment is being flexible and having an open mind.
We cannot be too rigid. We must be able to accept changes. If our education system only focus solely on content based subjects, and does not offer any opportunities for students to have critical thinking, we will just produce students that are conservative and confined by the contents they learn.
They will not be able to think out of the box and only think of general ideas which anyone and everyone can think of. Hence, i think our education system should allow students to create new ideas for ongoing problems.
For example, in Singapore, we always see inconsiderate commuters in public transport. No matter how many priority seats or reminders given, they just don't work.
By using old problems, we can 'force' students to think of new and effective measures than the previous ones.
Only then, students can apply their knowledge in real life, and not only in examinations. In my opinion, the education system should not let us study and study, but also build up on our character and quick thinking skills.
I suggest schools to not constrict students in their ideas. Don't dismiss a student's idea so easily, always allow them to be creative and imaginative. An idea may sound crazy but it is always possible. If our ideas are always dismissed, we will have this mindset that we should just follow the norm, if we try to think of something different, people will just think we are trying to be funny.
To sum it up, schools should provide a platform for students to express their ideas and apply them in real life.
The video is very informative. I gain a lot of knowledge about what is going on in the world. The world is rapidly changing everyday. We have to keep changing to keep up with the pace of the changing world. That also apply to our education system and method. The educators will have to think ahead and anticipate what is going to happen in future, so that they can prepare their students for the future. Our modern technology is also improving at an amazing speed. This shows that we humans are getting smarter and smarter. Besides that, it also means that we have to keep improvong ourselves, if not one day we will be taken our by COMPUTERS. The COMPUTERS may end up controlling us instead of we controlling them. Students should be given more opportunities to express thier views and create inventions that is relevant to our society. By doing that, they can better adapt to any changes in future as they are equip with the skill to change with time. On top of that, there are many people from other parts of the world that are better than us. We will have to work hard to be on par or even better than them. Our education system should train students to be resislent and be able to overcome setbacks. Only then, they will be able to survive in this competitive world. In conclusion, all of us will have to have an open mind, be flexible to changes and stay resislent.
These pieces of information about how fast the world is developing actually starts a ping in mind mind that says,"Are we going too fast?" According to the clip, there'll be no point in going to school in about a century's time, we'll probably need "memory injections" to keep up. To keep up...I seriously doubt that information can continue to multiply at such an immense rate for such a long duration of time. But it's still a possibility not to be ruled out. Another possibility is that sooner or later man will start to slow down due to lack of resources and start being lost in the mass of past inventions and information which are now much too costly to develop further. Development is good for a civilization, but everything has to be done in moderation and development is no exception. We are making something which will become more than ourselves, we are creating things which are above us. No matter how creative or powerful we may get, the speed of nature shall still stay unchanged. Which means that we will soon be physically unable to adapt to such an information-clogged society, not to mention an ever-refreshing-old-information one. When our physical finally catches up with us, what shall we do? When we've finally found that we've been digging our own grave the whole time, can our development be "undeveloped"? Somethings cannot be changed, at least not the effects. From our nowadays society, it can be easily seen that physical science has advanced much more than humanity itself. This brings out another question: When we have found a new power or discovery, can we make sure our political, moral and spiritual aspects have risen to an extent in which we would not create problems and even harm ourselves with these new breakthroughs? Even if, let us say, that we can manage to continue our development and continue our digging into the well of truth, what will we benefit? Consider this: Why are humans now planning to make a move to other planets? For scientific reasons? Entertainment? Nope. The real capacity of planets to our leaders nowadays is simply a place to migrate to. However, why do we have the need to move, or in other words, where does our demand for a new planet come from. If you really think hard about it, it is really because of having to develop the space technologies in the first place. So, we are actually doing roundabouts in our development, creating the problem solver while creating the problem at the same time. There's another question though. The "solutions" which create the problems in the first place, are they an absolute cure? Sadly, no. From the space analogy I just gave, it can be inferred that usually the "solutions" are usually not directed at the root of the problem, rather trying to use more "creative" ways to solve the problems. But the thing is, the problem usually isn't even solved. For instance, even if we all move to Mars or some planet, what would become of Earth? It'll still be left in the dilapidated state which we left it in. Nothing is going to change. Thus we will become a parasitic race, devouring resources just to run away from the problems we made while we were trying to find the solution in the first place. What good is that? To sum it up, humans are starting to defy nature. Past and present evidence tells us that no one survives when going against nature. You do the math.
Sorry again to double post(if only we could edit our old posts). Ming Hui is very correct regarding the computers. Seriously, I do not know if it is the Sci-fi I've watched and read or a could-be hunch, but I always have that feeling thinking if we continue developing computer technology at such ginormous speeds, very soon AI will be superior as compared to us. And that is when we would all start to notice somethings not right. But as it has always been with us, the humans, it'll most probably be too late.
From all this information, i can say that the education system, at least in Singapore, would become more and more competitive and more and more difficult to catch up with. What do i mean by that. Well, because of the hundreds of people being born around the world every 5minutes and 16seconds, especially in India, there will be a greater competition for jobs. What would only require an O'level certificate today may require maybe a bachelor's in the future. Plus, with the rapid increase in information, who knows what future generations might be learning next. Maybe humans would make contact with aliens and governments would start to get everyone to learn the alien language. So my point is that anything could happen. Things change too fast to have a textbook that does not change at all until the new syllabus comes out. Students in the future could be pressured by huge amounts of information, they could be utterly stressed out when processing these huge amounts of information. As students ourselves, we are already complaining about how stressful studying is. Then, what would happen in the future when twice the amount of information is crammed into the stack of papers known as our textbooks. Scientists in the future might focus a lot on how to compress huge volumes of books into that grey organ in our head. Maybe they could implant a hard disk-like memory bank to help us store all the information. Who knows, anything could happen.
What schools should do, and are probably trying to do, is to nurture the "self-gathering" of information in students. Which means the students will naturally do research on something that they want to know. Of course this has to be coupled with what we all call "interest". Think about it. Who would bother to find out something that they are not interested in. Therefore, interests should also be cultivated, for example by making the subject interesting. But then again, that is the most difficult part. Different people have different styles of learning, and also different interests. So the students themselves would have to cultivate their own interests in the subjects that they take, which goes towards the principle of self-motivation. Another thing is being able to adapt to change. A person who does well in class may not be the one who succeed in the future, it is the person who is the most adaptable to change who will. I personally do not think adaptability to change can be taught. I believe that as the student goes through the trials and tribulations of life, it will naturally "grow" in him/her. In short, it comes with experience. So maybe schools could have more projects to simulate difficulties so that students have more chances to try to adapt to the situations and maybe get more experience from it. All in all, just stay relevant and anticipate change. It may look simple, however it is albeit deceptive.
John, it's okay to double post, triple post.... What's important is that you do not feel restraint in any way while expressing your views here. I'm really glad to 'hear' all your opinion. I should invite the curriculum specialists from MOE to view your suggestions. Perhaps then, education would be more relevant to you.
I feel that it is amazing how technology can advance so fast. Every day, the world is changing. Many new ideas are being unfolded. Thus, like some others here, I also feel that the education system should towards a direction that encourages us to think, and not memorize facts from textbooks as the information from textbooks would soon become irrelevant. Another point which I would like to mention is how great the part technology play in our lives is today. The video shows us that with the use of internet, it is possible for us to reach out to a large number of people, up to 50 million, in just a few years. I believe that the convenience technology brings can be put to good use when used for educational purposes. An example would be the online net-working tool, facebook, which has recently been used to spread AIDS education. However, the internet has also been used to spread negative ideologies like terrorism. Cyber bully and other types of cyber crimes have also surfaced because of misuse. Another disadvantage of technology is the belief that technology is pulling people apart. While the video shows us how amazing technology is advancing, it also goes to show how much time people are spending on using and inventing the technological products. With all these time spent, how much is left for human to human interactions? -Jazlyn Yee 0919
Yes Jazlyn, technology is a double edged sword. Yes, Brendon, I'm taking note of the idea of simulation to provide a more experiential learning for students. It may help cultivate a more resilient individual that Hui Ming hopes. And John, is there any positive impact?
As a result of improving technology,learning nowadays can be more effective and efficient mostly because of the saving of time when gathering infomation, and to consolidate and to digest them.This would lead to an improvement in the education levels of people nowadays,since they could now learn more at a higher pace.This would bring about a fierce competition between students because everyone could now learn the same things at about the same rate,thus it would become more harder to distinguish the good students and the weak students.Furthermore,what one learns at present times would be considered out-of-date in 2-3 years' time,thus forcing people to constantly learn and pick up new skills.The good side of this would be that education would now be a life-long activity that one has to carry out. I believe that schools should now focus on teaching computer skills as computers are slowly but surely replacing the traditional way of doing things,such as perparing for a persentation and so on.This would ensure that students would be much more well-prepared for their working lives.Schools should also place more emphasis on the learning and understanding of key concepts and not just letting students learn and memorise things blindly without understanding what is actually the key behind certain ideas. To sum things up,learning is much more easier now than before,but the main thing is to learn and apply things correctly and not only just that,but people must also constantly upgrade themselves and learn new skills to be more adapted for unforeseen circumstances. -Ong Wei Hong,0924
As a reullt of continuous improvements in technology, the world is constantly changing. This means that whatever knowledge that we have acquired in school may no longer be applicable in the future. So I think that the education system in SIngapore should be one that focuses more on imparting life skills instead of content, as the content will be constantly changing. Furthermore, interests in learning should be aroused among students, as the continuous improvements in technology means that learning has become a life-long thing, and that if one is to stop learning at any point, one would definitely lose out and not be able to cope with the fast-paced world. Only when interests is aroused do people constantly upgrade themselves, making themselves knowledgeable.
Humans nowadays are getting more IT savvy. I believe 9 in 10 household should have a computer and perhaps 7 out of 10 are computer literate. In the past, homeworks are restricted to worksheets, books. But now, it has moved to computer presentaion, internet research etc. AN evidence from the video is that there are 31 billion searches in google every month currently, but only 2.7 billion in 2006! Only 2-3 years apart!
ReplyDeleteThis is a perfect example of how fast technology is advancing and how rapid the world is moving on. In the video, it said 'The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010, did not exist in 2004' and 'We are living in exponential times'.
Hence, we should also keep up with the times also. To be in the know than be a 'hill-billy'.
Therefore, education nowadays should be more futuristic, more forward-looking while retaining the traditional values of hard work and diligence. This is to prepare the students for the future. Like what the video mentioned 'for students starting a 4 year technical degree, half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study'.
The current emphasis on the Singaporean curriculum is critical thinking, which trains students in analysis and problem-solving skills. But in my opinion, the emphasis on the curriculum in future would be creatve and predictive thinking, where students would learn to be more futuristic, more creative and innovate something that was never seen before. It is like what the video mentioned : preapring students for jobs that DON'T YET EXIST using technologies that HAVEN'T BEEN INVENTED in order to solve problems we DON'T EVEN KNOW are problems yet.
I am not surprised if holograms are to be used in class in future, nor if students are not required to be present physically to attend lessons.
Well here is the kicker: Will technologies that humans create, advance to a state where humans will be rendered obsolete? After all, technologies were built from the basic fundamentals such as 1+1=2.
basiclly i agree with what william stated, that we are living in exponential times. the exponential growth of modern technology has caused great changes to cultures and the way we learn.
ReplyDeletetechnology, perhaps, has already become intricately intertwined with our daily lives, as compared to our primitive ancestors whose lives were intertwined with nature and not technology.
with such exponential growth of technology, its implications on education are both positive and negative. positive being that it is able to bring up the education standards around the world, boosting the need for creativity, as economy relies on the level of technology , which development relies on the creative thinking of man. one can say that through technology, comes a greater competition amongst people who are still schooling. the competition has already started when we first enter school.
in addition, technology has caused major reforms in education systems and teaching materials, such as the way students are taught now, is a far cry from what was done just several years back. back then it was jus a blackboard with an overhead projector, now, classes without computers or projectors installed are considered to be a relic of the past. this is prove that the advancement in technology can and will cause major reforms to the educations system in the future.
However, the implications of the exponential growth of the technology, has caused several negative implications. for example, with growth of technology, competitiveness in school increases amongst peers, resulting in stress on the students. it will also has caused students to deprove in their studies relative to the students of the past, as a growth in technology results in more interesting games being developed, stealing the student's attention from their studies, while studies remain the same to most students, very mundane.
like what the video had mentioned, what the students are taught in school is to be prepared for the future technologies invented, technologies that are expected to be invented. this is a risky manuveur which i am generally unsupportive of. in the advent of modern technology, i believe that education should change flexibly, but not to a extent at which it risks the students future. our current educaiton system can be said to be rather well, as it integrates modern technology to what is taught with the traditional old things. this ensures that in the future, the future graduates will be able to find jobs with the knowledge that they are equipped with in school.
i suggest that in the face of an exponential growth of the technology, education should be able to change flexibly, such that it is able to equip skills for the students for future technologies, but yet be able to teach them skills which are used in all industries such that when the reach their tertiary education level, they will be able to have a wider range of choices to select from.
ong yong siang.
ccwilliams, I agree with you about the need to impart creative and predictive skills. And envisioning and imagining the future are activities which we could have in our classroom. And MonsterMania, I also support your view that there is still a place for the traditional approach to education. They are, after all, tried and tested. However, we have to remember that we need to reflect on our teaching and learning constantly in order to improve. By the way, it would be good if you take note of the use of punctuation and capitalization.
ReplyDeleteBased on the information given in the video, I agree that Creativity indeed will be an important value to boost in Singapore's students.
ReplyDeleteBut to be more specific, I'd say it is Adaptability, arguably a function of creativity, that seems most important in the rapidly and constantly changing world depicted in the video. Students must learn to be able to deal with the new developments occuring around the world if they wish to survive as a working member of society. A student may find himself in a job that is rendered obsolete within 3 years of his/her employment. What then? Without the ability to adapt well to change, chaos and confusion will cloud the mind. Students must be able to ask and answer for themselves questions like 'What now?' and 'What next?'.
On creativity. Our students need to be creative because we not only need to prepare to mould ourselves around the changing world, but to prepare to mould the world itself. The ability to deal with what life constantly throws at you would be useful, but not when you consider technological development. Its all very well if Singaporeans can jump over their obstacles, but it is he who imagines the aeroplane and flies over them who triumphs. Creative thinking is needed if we wish to contribute to the change that shapes the human world.
(A side-thought: Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if we focused more on happiness than intelligence, technology and development?)
-Alexander, 0927
Personally, I believe that it is not how they teach students. It is what. Critical thinking is useless without strategical employment. GP implemented at J1 is far too late. Poly students dont get to experience it. And by GP, I dont mean arguing stuff like "blogospheres" or totally boring stuff. Now is the age of reason and information. In such an age, we all should be exploring new alternatives. We should be demolishing old taboos.
ReplyDeleteThe aim of GP is to learn to reason effectively, and to apply it in all areas of life. Thus, the first thing we should do is rather, to debate on EXTREMELY controversial issues. Cloning and space travel? That is far too old. More controversial topics like religion should be contested upon. The ultimate of reason itself, is where everything that does not have an absolute value itself can be debated on itself.
A topic that could be given for students to reason upon could be that the reality of the world is questioned in itself. Thought experiments questioned explicitly in classes. Descartes' "Cognito Ergo Sum". The existence of absolute sin. And eventually, we can even question ourselves, at any and every moment. And eventually, there is no taboo in the society left to tackle. Taboo develops when people see something they dont understand, and thus, they fear to explicitly tackle it. Now, we are smart and knowledgeable. We have now the right to tackle such taboos openly.
We can see that the world is changing and moving at lightning speed. Informations, technology are changing every single second.
ReplyDeleteWe need to be able to adapt to this ever changing world. The education system should not only let students memorize contents, but also teach us life skills.
By teaching us certain skills, we will be able to apply it for life. Contents on the other hand, may and will be changing every now and then.
One of the most essential skills to survive in such a fast paced environment is being flexible and having an open mind.
We cannot be too rigid. We must be able to accept changes. If our education system only focus solely on content based subjects, and does not offer any opportunities for students to have critical thinking, we will just produce students that are conservative and confined by the contents they learn.
They will not be able to think out of the box and only think of general ideas which anyone and everyone can think of. Hence, i think our education system should allow students to create new ideas for ongoing problems.
For example, in Singapore, we always see inconsiderate commuters in public transport. No matter how many priority seats or reminders given, they just don't work.
By using old problems, we can 'force' students to think of new and effective measures than the previous ones.
Only then, students can apply their knowledge in real life, and not only in examinations. In my opinion, the education system should not let us study and study, but also build up on our character and quick thinking skills.
I suggest schools to not constrict students in their ideas. Don't dismiss a student's idea so easily, always allow them to be creative and imaginative. An idea may sound crazy but it is always possible. If our ideas are always dismissed, we will have this mindset that we should just follow the norm, if we try to think of something different, people will just think we are trying to be funny.
To sum it up, schools should provide a platform for students to express their ideas and apply them in real life.
By:
Angie 0919
The video is very informative. I gain a lot of knowledge about what is going on in the world. The world is rapidly changing everyday. We have to keep changing to keep up with the pace of the changing world. That also apply to our education system and method. The educators will have to think ahead and anticipate what is going to happen in future, so that they can prepare their students for the future.
ReplyDeleteOur modern technology is also improving at an amazing speed. This shows that we humans are getting smarter and smarter. Besides that, it also means that we have to keep improvong ourselves, if not one day we will be taken our by COMPUTERS. The COMPUTERS may end up controlling us instead of we controlling them.
Students should be given more opportunities to express thier views and create inventions that is relevant to our society. By doing that, they can better adapt to any changes in future as they are equip with the skill to change with time.
On top of that, there are many people from other parts of the world that are better than us. We will have to work hard to be on par or even better than them. Our education system should train students to be resislent and be able to overcome setbacks. Only then, they will be able to survive in this competitive world.
In conclusion, all of us will have to have an open mind, be flexible to changes and stay resislent.
Hui Ming 0919
These pieces of information about how fast the world is developing actually starts a ping in mind mind that says,"Are we going too fast?" According to the clip, there'll be no point in going to school in about a century's time, we'll probably need "memory injections" to keep up. To keep up...I seriously doubt that information can continue to multiply at such an immense rate for such a long duration of time. But it's still a possibility not to be ruled out.
ReplyDeleteAnother possibility is that sooner or later man will start to slow down due to lack of resources and start being lost in the mass of past inventions and information which are now much too costly to develop further. Development is good for a civilization, but everything has to be done in moderation and development is no exception. We are making something which will become more than ourselves, we are creating things which are above us. No matter how creative or powerful we may get, the speed of nature shall still stay unchanged. Which means that we will soon be physically unable to adapt to such an information-clogged society, not to mention an ever-refreshing-old-information one. When our physical finally catches up with us, what shall we do? When we've finally found that we've been digging our own grave the whole time, can our development be "undeveloped"? Somethings cannot be changed, at least not the effects. From our nowadays society, it can be easily seen that physical science has advanced much more than humanity itself. This brings out another question: When we have found a new power or discovery, can we make sure our political, moral and spiritual aspects have risen to an extent in which we would not create problems and even harm ourselves with these new breakthroughs?
Even if, let us say, that we can manage to continue our development and continue our digging into the well of truth, what will we benefit? Consider this: Why are humans now planning to make a move to other planets? For scientific reasons? Entertainment? Nope. The real capacity of planets to our leaders nowadays is simply a place to migrate to. However, why do we have the need to move, or in other words, where does our demand for a new planet come from. If you really think hard about it, it is really because of having to develop the space technologies in the first place. So, we are actually doing roundabouts in our development, creating the problem solver while creating the problem at the same time. There's another question though. The "solutions" which create the problems in the first place, are they an absolute cure? Sadly, no. From the space analogy I just gave, it can be inferred that usually the "solutions" are usually not directed at the root of the problem, rather trying to use more "creative" ways to solve the problems. But the thing is, the problem usually isn't even solved. For instance, even if we all move to Mars or some planet, what would become of Earth? It'll still be left in the dilapidated state which we left it in. Nothing is going to change. Thus we will become a parasitic race, devouring resources just to run away from the problems we made while we were trying to find the solution in the first place. What good is that?
To sum it up, humans are starting to defy nature. Past and present evidence tells us that no one survives when going against nature. You do the math.
John Zhou Kun 0927
Sorry again to double post(if only we could edit our old posts). Ming Hui is very correct regarding the computers. Seriously, I do not know if it is the Sci-fi I've watched and read or a could-be hunch, but I always have that feeling thinking if we continue developing computer technology at such ginormous speeds, very soon AI will be superior as compared to us. And that is when we would all start to notice somethings not right. But as it has always been with us, the humans, it'll most probably be too late.
ReplyDeleteJohn 0927
From all this information, i can say that the education system, at least in Singapore, would become more and more competitive and more and more difficult to catch up with. What do i mean by that. Well, because of the hundreds of people being born around the world every 5minutes and 16seconds, especially in India, there will be a greater competition for jobs. What would only require an O'level certificate today may require maybe a bachelor's in the future. Plus, with the rapid increase in information, who knows what future generations might be learning next. Maybe humans would make contact with aliens and governments would start to get everyone to learn the alien language. So my point is that anything could happen. Things change too fast to have a textbook that does not change at all until the new syllabus comes out. Students in the future could be pressured by huge amounts of information, they could be utterly stressed out when processing these huge amounts of information. As students ourselves, we are already complaining about how stressful studying is. Then, what would happen in the future when twice the amount of information is crammed into the stack of papers known as our textbooks.
ReplyDeleteScientists in the future might focus a lot on how to compress huge volumes of books into that grey organ in our head. Maybe they could implant a hard disk-like memory bank to help us store all the information. Who knows, anything could happen.
What schools should do, and are probably trying to do, is to nurture the "self-gathering" of information in students. Which means the students will naturally do research on something that they want to know. Of course this has to be coupled with what we all call "interest". Think about it. Who would bother to find out something that they are not interested in. Therefore, interests should also be cultivated, for example by making the subject interesting. But then again, that is the most difficult part. Different people have different styles of learning, and also different interests. So the students themselves would have to cultivate their own interests in the subjects that they take, which goes towards the principle of self-motivation.
Another thing is being able to adapt to change. A person who does well in class may not be the one who succeed in the future, it is the person who is the most adaptable to change who will. I personally do not think adaptability to change can be taught. I believe that as the student goes through the trials and tribulations of life, it will naturally "grow" in him/her. In short, it comes with experience. So maybe schools could have more projects to simulate difficulties so that students have more chances to try to adapt to the situations and maybe get more experience from it.
All in all, just stay relevant and anticipate change. It may look simple, however it is albeit deceptive.
ohh ohh...forgot to put my name
ReplyDeleteBrendon
0924
John, it's okay to double post, triple post.... What's important is that you do not feel restraint in any way while expressing your views here. I'm really glad to 'hear' all your opinion. I should invite the curriculum specialists from MOE to view your suggestions. Perhaps then, education would be more relevant to you.
ReplyDeleteI feel that it is amazing how technology can advance so fast. Every day, the world is changing. Many new ideas are being unfolded. Thus, like some others here, I also feel that the education system should towards a direction that encourages us to think, and not memorize facts from textbooks as the information from textbooks would soon become irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteAnother point which I would like to mention is how great the part technology play in our lives is today. The video shows us that with the use of internet, it is possible for us to reach out to a large number of people, up to 50 million, in just a few years. I believe that the convenience technology brings can be put to good use when used for educational purposes. An example would be the online net-working tool, facebook, which has recently been used to spread AIDS education. However, the internet has also been used to spread negative ideologies like terrorism. Cyber bully and other types of cyber crimes have also surfaced because of misuse. Another disadvantage of technology is the belief that technology is pulling people apart. While the video shows us how amazing technology is advancing, it also goes to show how much time people are spending on using and inventing the technological products. With all these time spent, how much is left for human to human interactions?
-Jazlyn Yee 0919
Yes Jazlyn, technology is a double edged sword. Yes, Brendon, I'm taking note of the idea of simulation to provide a more experiential learning for students. It may help cultivate a more resilient individual that Hui Ming hopes. And John, is there any positive impact?
ReplyDeleteAs a result of improving technology,learning nowadays can be more effective and efficient mostly because of the saving of time when gathering infomation, and to consolidate and to digest them.This would lead to an improvement in the education levels of people nowadays,since they could now learn more at a higher pace.This would bring about a fierce competition between students because everyone could now learn the same things at about the same rate,thus it would become more harder to distinguish the good students and the weak students.Furthermore,what one learns at present times would be considered out-of-date in 2-3 years' time,thus forcing people to constantly learn and pick up new skills.The good side of this would be that education would now be a life-long activity that one has to carry out. I believe that schools should now focus on teaching computer skills as computers are slowly but surely replacing the traditional way of doing things,such as perparing for a persentation and so on.This would ensure that students would be much more well-prepared for their working lives.Schools should also place more emphasis on the learning and understanding of key concepts and not just letting students learn and memorise things blindly without understanding what is actually the key behind certain ideas. To sum things up,learning is much more easier now than before,but the main thing is to learn and apply things correctly and not only just that,but people must also constantly upgrade themselves and learn new skills to be more adapted for unforeseen circumstances. -Ong Wei Hong,0924
ReplyDeleteAs a reullt of continuous improvements in technology, the world is constantly changing. This means that whatever knowledge that we have acquired in school may no longer be applicable in the future. So I think that the education system in SIngapore should be one that focuses more on imparting life skills instead of content, as the content will be constantly changing.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, interests in learning should be aroused among students, as the continuous improvements in technology means that learning has become a life-long thing, and that if one is to stop learning at any point, one would definitely lose out and not be able to cope with the fast-paced world. Only when interests is aroused do people constantly upgrade themselves, making themselves knowledgeable.