Homework has become fun for some grade-three children who “save as” their essays on child-proof computers loaned to them for the scholastic year as part of a pilot educational project.
Their work can then be accessed directly by their teacher as all classroom laptops, which can be taken home, are linked to a central system, so there is no excuse of forgetting one’s homework.
The children are glad to have been chosen as the “guinea pigs” for this project in two classrooms at St Albert The Great College, in Valletta and Birkirkara primary school.
“I like it that our teacher gives us homework and it’s like we are playing games,” a seven-year-old student at St Albert said.
His friend agreed: “It’s good that it is not heavy and that the ‘Miss’ (teacher) can control it... if she does not like a website we’re viewing she can take it off her white list.”
White list? For those who may not know, this is the opposite of a black list and, in this case, includes websites children can access.
Such technical jargon has become commonplace among the students, explains Lorraine Schembri, service manager who oversaw the training of teachers for the pilot spearheaded by international computer giant, Intel, that supplied the Netbooks.
Forestals supported Intel and helped by providing internet connections so the pilot project was of no cost to the government. At the end of the year, the education authorities will be evaluating students’ progress and could decide to implement this teaching system on a national scale.
What are the advantages of such a system?
John Davies, vice president of Intel’s World Ahead programme that promotes access to technology, believes it is an essential skill in this day and age.
“It’s the 21st century and people need 21st century skills. Over the past two or three years the number of manufacturing jobs has dropped dramatically and many firms moved to Asia. Western jobs are driven around innovation, creativity, collaboration and skills consistent with the 21st century.
“The big employers have been the Googles, Yahoos, eBays and Amazons where they have created their own business in the last 10 years... We want the kids to be ready for that and have those skills,” he said, adding Intel invested over €70 million a year in philanthropic educational programmes.
Mr Davies was in Malta on a two-day visit when he met the project stakeholder and visited the two schools to get feedback from the children.
The students told him what they liked and what they would like to see improved. They liked the fact that the laptop’s top swivelled all the way round and they could draw on it with a pen-like item. They also enjoyed taking photos and short videos, which they could use for school projects.
However, they would like the screen to be bigger, the sound louder and the pen to “write faster”.
Mr Davies explained that the laptops were made for children and, apart from keeping the cost as low as possible, were made to be drop-proof and spill-proof. The laptops were also theft-proof and become inactive if they were not returned to the central base, at school, within a certain time limit.