A silent revolution happening in Gżira

Imagine how different education would be if every single child at school had his or her own personal netbook. Every child would have the ultimate tool that would enhance his or her education and be geared up to compete in a rapidly evolving, global information economy.

The tool with which to unlock children’s enormous potential is the netbook- Nicholas Sammut

The specifications of netbooks, are less than that of a normal computer but, at an incredibly cheap price, they provide full computing functionality.

Netbooks are perfect devices to provide children with a window on the world as well as a programmable tool for exploring it. They provide children with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.

Such a device uniquely fosters the concept of allowing children to ‘think how to think’. This tool provides children with unlimited ideas and knowledge which is only limited by their creative and problem-solving potential.

It is time to rethink the old top-down classroom paradigm, and replace it with a dynamic learning model that leverages the children themselves, turning them into ‘teachers’ as well as ‘learners’.

The tool with which to unlock their enormous potential is the netbook. Put a ultra-low-cost, powerful, rugged and versatile netbook in their hands, and the children will do the rest.

The ownership of the netbook is a basic right of the child and is coupled with new duties and responsibilities, such as protecting, caring for, and sharing this equipment.

A netbook can be transformed into a mobile school: a portable learning and teaching environment. A connected netbook is more than a tool. It is a new human environment of a digital kind.

A key asset is the free use of the netbooks at home, where the child (and the family) will increase significantly the time of practice normally available at the standard computer lab in the school.

Sub-netbooks can be used by children of ages six to 12, covering the years of the elementary school – but nothing precludes its use earlier or later in life. Children do not need to write or read in order to play with the sub-netbooks and we know that playing is the basis of human learning. Moreover, those digital activities will help the acquisition of the writing and reading skills.

Every year, a new cohort will be incorporated into the programme. Accordingly, the assessment of the 1:1 netbooks programme should be intrinsic to each cohort, and every student will keep an individual portfolio or journal with the trace of his or her learning paths in the most diverse disciplines at school.

In particular, small children with learning, motor or sensory disabilities may use the computer as a prosthesis to read, write, calculate, and communicate.

The commitment is to obtain ‘digital saturation’ initially in the whole grade and then in the whole school. In the case of Stella Maris College, we have chosen to introduce it at Grade 5 level and then expand. As with vaccination, a digital saturation implies the continuous intervention on the successive cohorts at the proper ages.

The connectivity will be as ubiquitous as the formal or informal learning environment permits. The programme proposes a new kind of school, an ‘expanded school’ which grows well beyond the walls of the classroom.

The child with a sub-netbook is not just a passive consumer of knowledge, but an active participant in a learning community. As the children grow and pursue new ideas, the software, content, resources, and tools should be able to grow with them.

The very global nature of the program demands that growth be driven locally, in large part by the children themselves. Each child with a sub-netbook can leverage the learning of every other child. They teach each other, share ideas, and through the social nature of the interface, support each other’s intellectual growth. Children are learners and teachers.

There is no inherent external dependency in being able to localise software into their language, fix the software to remove bugs, and re-purpose the software to fit their needs. Nor is there any restriction with regard to redistribution; the program cannot know and should not control how the tools we create will be re-purposed in the future.

A world of great software and content is necessary to make this project succeed, both open and proprietary. Children need to be able to choose from all of it. In our context of learning where knowledge must be appropriated in order to be used, it is most appropriate for knowledge to be free.

Furthermore, every child has something to contribute; we need a free and open framework that supports and encourages the very basic human need to express.

The netbook gives learners opportunities they have not had before. Tools such as a web browser, rich media player and e-book reader bring into reach domains of knowledge that are otherwise difficult or impossible for children to access.

The netbooks helps children build upon their active interest in the world around them to engage with powerful ideas. Tools for writing, composing, simulating, ex­press­ing, constructing, designing, modelling, imagining, creating, critiquing, debugging, and collaborating enable children to become positive, contributing members of their communities.

The netbooks take learners beyond instruction. They are actively engaged in a process of learning through doing. Children also learn by teaching, actively assisting other learners.

The netbooks not only deliver the world to children, but also bring the best practices of children and their teachers to the world. Each school represents a learning hub; a node in a globally shared resource for learning.

The netbooks will not substitute writing. Writing skills will be retained as separate exercises and the netbook will only be used for 30 per cent of the time in class. Students will, however, learn the skills to use a computer efficiently, such as typing.

Paradigm shift that Malta’s educational system needs

Starting from the premise that use should be made of what people already know in order to make connections to new knowledge, the approach focuses on thinking, expressing, and communicating with technology. The netbooks is a ‘thing to think with’; the primary activity of the children is one of creative expression, in whatever form that might take.

Thus, most activities will focus on the creation of some type of object, be it a drawing, a song, a story, a game, or a programme. In another shift in the language used to describe the user experience, objects are referred to rather than files as the primary stuff of creative expression.

As most software developers would agree, the best way to learn how to write a programme is to write one, or perhaps teach someone else how to do so; studying the syntax of the language might be useful, but it doesn’t teach one how to code.

This principle of ‘learn through doing’ is applied to all types of creation; for example, emphasis is put on composing music over downloading music. We will also encourage the children to engage in the process of collaborative critique of their expressions.

One does not think of community pencils; children have their own. They are tools with which to think, sufficiently inexpensive to be used for work and play, drawing, writing, and mathematics. A computer can be the same, but far more powerful.

Furthermore, there are many reasons why it is important for a child to own something, like a football, doll, or book, not the least of which being that these belongings will be well maintained through love and care.

This is not just a matter of giving a netbook to each child. It is more about giving them a tool that enhances their learning through visuals and interaction.

It is more about opening them up to opportunities of creativity and innovation in their formation.

This project is the paradigm shift that Malta’s educational system needs.

Thanks to Bro. David Mizzi, Noel Abela, the teachers, learning support assistants, parents, and Grade 5 students, as well as Smart Technologies, Microsoft and Go, without whose support this project would not have been possible.

Dr Sammut is a volunteer consultant working on this project.