Thursday, June 25, 2009

Look to Portugal on Schools

According to Don Tapscott, an author of thirteen books on the positive influence of technology, the United States should look to Portugal for a model to reform the education system. In 2005, Portugal was struggling economically, and its students were struggling with some of the lowest test scores in Europe. At that point Prime Minister Jose Socrates invested heavily in technology and tech skills to bring the people of Portugal more in line with the advancement of the 21st Century.

Some interesting comments on equipping kids with laptops and allowing them to regularly access the information they need in class, as opposed to lecturing them on it, and requiring they remember it for later.

3 comments:

Daughter of Eve said...

Honestly, Uncle Michael, you could start something. I mean, you love to debate and you can persuade people; you could do something powerful. You could start a pro-life blog, or something on Facebook, or, or...Well, you know more ideas than I, but you could really use your skills and talents to do a lot! Not that this blog isn't good, I'm just saying you could do even more. :)

Your Little Niece,
Queen Lucy

Dennis Fermoyle said...

Queen Lucy is a tough act to follow! Oh well, I'll give it a try.

As impressive as this article makes things sound, I'm just not sold on it. Two things make me say that. First of all, our school has been really pushing technology the last few years, and I see no improvement in our students. The second thing is that when I've read about schools that have turned things around for kids (SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF) technology has not been a factor.

mmazenko said...

I'm generally with you, Dennis. Though I am intrigued by, and cautiously in support of, the expanded access to technological resources by students in class.