Flipped Schools

smitty777 · Oct 10, 2013

We all know education is not the best here. Do you all think this idea will work in the D.R.? It worked in poor areas of Michigan. Many academics think the biggest problem is poor students have little to no support for homework assignments at home.
The idea is to have online lectures the student can watch over and over on their pc's or tablets(If no internet they can download today's lecture over free public wifi). Then go to school for a few hours to do their homework. This way when the student gets lost on his/her homework, there is a teacher nearby to assist.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/turning-education-upside-down/

the gorgon · Oct 10, 2013

smitty777 said:
We all know education is not the best here. Do you all think this idea will work in the D.R.? It worked in poor areas of Michigan. Many academics think the biggest problem is poor students have little to no support for homework assignments at home.
The idea is to have online lectures the student can watch over and over on their pc's or tablets(If no internet they can download today's lecture over free public wifi). Then go to school for a few hours to do their homework. This way when the student gets lost on his/her homework, there is a teacher nearby to assist.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/turning-education-upside-down/

how many poor students here do you think have tablets and internet?

Rattus_Rattus · Oct 10, 2013

Or a quiet home in the barrio?

ctrob · Oct 10, 2013

No, if a kid is not taught the importance of education from parents it's not going to matter if they're doing homework or watching a lecture while at home. Flipping the days activities isn't going to change anything, the core of the problem remains.

The importance of education has to be stressed by parents, gov't, community and teachers. I don't see technology solving that.

AlterEgo · Oct 10, 2013

In the campo where our house is, our neighbors are lucky to have electricity, never mind the internet. Few and far between have a laptop [only the ones with close family in the US], few inverters. There is a tiny internet cafe, but usually empty - no extra cash around for that.

the gorgon · Oct 10, 2013

AlterEgo said:
In the campo where our house is, our neighbors are lucky to have electricity, never mind the internet. Few and far between have a laptop [only the ones with close family in the US], few inverters. There is a tiny internet cafe, but usually empty - no extra cash around for that.

i spent 6 weeks doing a study of internet use in a variety of barrios in the DR. what i discovered was that 93% of the people i saw using the internet, of varying ages, were using it to go on facebook, youtube, to go in to chat rooms, or listen to reggaeton. very few people were using to for any educational purposes. so, it is not the availability of the resource that was important in this case; it was how it was utilized.

the big difference was Samana. i went into several internet cafes there, and all the kids were huddled around the screens, doing schoolwork. i had no answer for that. i was compelled to wonder if the history of Samana, with the influx of African Americans meant anything. did they bring a culture of industry and preparation with them, which they have managed to pass down through generations?

ctrob · Oct 10, 2013

the gorgon said:
the big difference was Samana. i went into several internet cafes there, and all the kids were huddled around the screens, doing schoolwork. i had no answer for that. i was compelled to wonder if the history of Samana, with the influx of African Americans meant anything. did they bring a culture of industry and preparation with them, which they have managed to pass down through generations?

Interesting, somebody influenced those kids. Once a kid is taught the joy of learning, you got them. It's like that kid you see walking around while reading a book, bumping into things cause they just can't put it down.

How many parents in poor neighborhoods read to their kids? How many kids in poor neighborhoods have Library cards?
That needs to change first.

the gorgon · Oct 10, 2013

ctrob said:
Interesting, somebody influenced those kids. Once a kid is taught the joy of learning, you got them. It's like that kid you see walking around while reading a book, bumping into things cause they just can't put it down.

How many parents in poor neighborhoods read to their kids? How many kids in poor neighborhoods have Library cards?
That needs to change first.

ctrob, i was amazed. it was not like the cafes in POP, Nagua, Imbert, or any of the other places i surveyed, where the kids were all hooting and hollering, playing shoot-em-up video games, and bopping to the latest Dembow. these kids were huddled in groups in front of the monitors, quiet as mice, with a notebook and pencil in hand, taking notes. i thought i had landed in a different country.

the gorgon · Oct 10, 2013

before the government goes peeing tons of money down a hole, trying to improve education, they better get some serious sociological studies done, to find out why it is in the state it is in. no amount of money can fix this. education is a cultural thing. some cultures value it, while others do not. many years ago, there was a program on TV called Cribs. it was one that took the viewer to the homes of all the rich ballplayers , and rap artists, and other superstar athletes. these homes had all the latest, most fantastic toys and gizmos that one could imagine.

my friend asked me; did you see one book in any of those mansions?

Mauricio · Oct 10, 2013

For me there are two main reasons for the mediocre (at best) education in most of the private schools in DR:
1. Quality if the teachers. Many have no clue how to motivate children, their creativity doesn't go further than: cut this and this from a magazine and paste it in your notebook.
2. Quality of the material used in many middle / low class private schools. The material edited in DR is of a very poor quality. Reading through the books of my children I really wonder if there is anyone involved who knows something about education. And then they proudly write on the first page of the book, between brackets (dominicano) if the editor is a Dominican.

pelaut · Oct 10, 2013

Some people use ethnicity to resolve all inconsistencies. In the case of kids using the inet either for learning or for social interaction, the difference is the teacher. Teachers that WANT to teach and parents that value learning make all the difference.

Unfortunately, the guild-ing and regulation of teaching as a "profession" (hoo-hah!) often precludes lovers of both teaching and learning.

the gorgon · Oct 10, 2013

are there Teacher Training Colleges in this country?

the gorgon · Oct 10, 2013

pelaut said:
Some people use ethnicity to resolve all inconsistencies. In the case of kids using the inet for learning or for social interaction, the difference is the teacher. Teachers that WANT to teach and parents that value learning make all the difference.
Unfortunately guild-ing and regulation of teaching as a "profession" (hoo-hah!) often precludes lovers of both teaching and learning.

so i guess that of all the samples that i took, the only village which had teachers that wanted to teach was Samana? what do you think would account for that?

pelaut · Oct 10, 2013

the gorgon said:
so i guess that of all the samples that i took, the only village which had teachers that wanted to teach was Samana? what do you think would account for that?

No. ONE teacher only could account for what you saw. A conclusion that it was Saman?, or an aggregate of teachers would be unwarrented and extremely poor analysis.

the gorgon · Oct 10, 2013

pelaut said:
No. ONE teacher only could account for what you saw. A conclusion that it was Saman?, or an aggregate of teachers would be unwarrented and extremely poor analysis.

so why don't you give us your erudite and profound analysis to explain why the phenomenon that i saw was present in only one town? you say that one single teacher could be the genesis of that enthusiasm. i guess that flies in the face of the suggestion by others that the home environment is critical for the development of enthusiasm for education, then?

bob saunders · Oct 10, 2013

the gorgon said:
are there Teacher Training Colleges in this country?

Yes. At the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and the Institute for Teacher Training Salom? Ure?a (ISFODOSU). My wife has degrees from both as well as Canada. Both of these offer full degree programs plus post Grad courses. However most teachers take their training at the equivalent of community colleges where they get a degree in basic education. Most of them are clueless and not motivated to be teachers. It's just better pay than many jobs and a pension because it's government.
I don't know for sure but PUMMC in Santiago used to have a Pedagogy course.

bob saunders · Oct 10, 2013

the gorgon said:
so why don't you give us your erudite and profound analysis to explain why the phenomenon that i saw was present in only one town? you say that one single teacher could be the genesis of that enthusiasm. i guess that flies in the face of the suggestion by others that the home environment is critical for the development of enthusiasm for education, then?

I think it takes both involved parents and motivated teachers that challenge and motivate their students. I have witnessed both the goofballs at the internet cafes and the serious groups of students. I witnessed a situation similar to your experience in Samana in Moca with Catholic high school kids. I however was not doing a study nor do I frequent internet cafes. I would agree that most kids use the internet for non-school related activities.

AlterEgo · Oct 10, 2013

ctrob said:
How many parents in poor neighborhoods read to their kids? How many kids in poor neighborhoods have Library cards?
That needs to change first.

I hate harping on my 'neighborhood', but we have NO library. I'd bet half the adults can't read or write or own a book of any kind. As the schools improve, this may change, but I'm afraid it will take a generation or two before anything positive happens.

Once you get out of the cities, it's a different world in DR.

the gorgon · Oct 10, 2013

bob saunders said:
I think it takes both involved parents and motivated teachers that challenge and motivate their students. I have witnessed both the goofballs at the internet cafes and the serious groups of students. I witnessed a situation similar to your experience in Samana in Moca with Catholic high school kids. I however was not doing a study nor do I frequent internet cafes. I would agree that most kids use the internet for non-school related activities.

i did the internet cafe study on a lark. every so often, i get these urges to test ideas by doing a more in depth study. so, people say Dominican road manners are atrocious, and that will motivate me to do a simple study, like sitting for a few hours near a stop sign, and documenting how many motorists ignore it, and how many actually stop. that is what drove me to study internet cafes in towns in the North Coast area. the only town in which people seemed to use the internet as a means to an education was Samana. that is not to say there are not others. i am saying that i saw far more people in Samana using the internet for educative purposes. i will admit that i have not conducted the exercise in San Juan de las Matas, nor Bayahibe.

the gorgon · Oct 10, 2013

AlterEgo said:
I hate harping on my 'neighborhood', but we have NO library. I'd bet half the adults can't read or write or own a book of any kind. As the schools improve, this may change, but I'm afraid it will take a generation or two before anything positive happens.

Once you get out of the cities, it's a different world in DR.

AE, i read a document from the World Bank which stated that there are 800,000 registered library books in the COUNTRY. no, not Santo Domingo. nor Santiago. nor La Romana. the entire country!!

my high school library had over 10,000 books, and it had only 350 students...

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