One Tablet Per Child Program Begins In Thailand 90
societyofrobots writes "Thailand has now put the first 50,000 of a planned 800,000 tablets into the hands of elementary students. Each tablet costs only $80/unit, runs Android ICS, and was manufactured in China. Opponents claim it to be a very expensive populist policy to 'buy votes', while proponents argue it could bypass the root causes of poor education in the country: outdated books and unskilled teachers."
Good. (Score:1, Insightful)
Teach them, young, to be CONSUMERS of content; not creators of it!
Teachers are the problem. (Score:4, Insightful)
Unskilled Teachers? (Score:3, Insightful)
If the issue is unskilled teachers, I don't think tablets can make miracles.
Rather, invest in long-distance video conferencing gear!
instant access to "free" information... (Score:4, Insightful)
...that's what the children will have, for better or worse.
wikipedia does quite nicely replace either outdated/beat-up textbooks or overcomes a text book shortage.
even if the teachers are not replaced, those who can and want to learn, can do so with the tablets :D
Re:Teachers are the problem. (Score:5, Insightful)
How much tools do they really need for elementary school anyway?
We had chalkboards, and 20 year old books (usually had to share them, also)... I thought the schooling quality was fine on average. Some teachers weren't as good as others.
It's all about the teachers and curriculum, everything else is just fluff. Extras can be nice, but they aren't going to make bad teachers and bad mandatory material magically effective and interesting/fun/whatever.