Blog
Most of the secondary school students in Kenya are not allowed to have gadgets such as smartphones, tablets and laptops in schools despite the obvious educational benefits that can be derived from such internet enabled gadgets. It is sad that most of the secondary schools’ management treat such gadgets as unwanted contrabands. It is generally agreeable that students and teachers alike can benefit from the limitless amounts of information on the World Wide Web for teaching and learning purposes. It is therefore hard to comprehend how much exposure and opportunities the students in high schools are missing.
Consider an important educational tool like the Youtube that has both graphics and audio-visual effects and therefore the ability to create real life experiences and add fun to learning. Such a tool can assist learners to grasp difficult concepts even without the presence of a teacher. By repeatedly using multimedia tutorials from different presenters, the likelihood of grasping the so called difficult concepts is very high. It is high time that secondary schools management allow students these Internet-enabled gadgets to school and endeavor to provide free Wifi hotspots within the school compound to make learning more fun and effective. Apart from participating in self learning, I wouldn’t be surprised if such students start discovering new innovative solutions to some of our problems at a tender age.
While students in the developed world are increasingly being required to create web sites, do coding and carry out multimedia presentations to demonstrate their mastery of problem solving skills, our own are heavily relying on the few recommended textbooks with the aim of memorizing for purposes of passing examinations. No wonder the just concluded KSCE examination results (December 2017) showed that most students gave brief answers probably for lack of deeper understanding of issues. This is denying them exposure from the rest of the world and curiosity to discover new things. While other students are drawing from the expertise of other individuals around the world, our own are restricted to our local teachers who probably also have little outside exposure. It would be interesting for instance to find out how many of our students are participating in network based collaborations with other students around the world.
I believe that leveraging on technology can help poor schools compete effectively with even the most endowed ones. This would help bridge the gap between the rich and poor schools. Today, there are many opportunities being offered by technology. For instance, the open society is helping poor countries to access free e-books, tutorials, notes and free software applications that the developing countries like Kenya can take advantage of. For instance, Kenya is struggling with the problem of terrorism in some parts of the country where non-local teachers are always a target. Suppose the government or the private sector invests in e-learning Moodle, a free platform where students are taught online by teachers based elsewhere. To take advantage of these new and emerging technologies, schools must be ready to change their mindsets towards perceived negativities of Internet enabled gadgets.
Comments