Sweden Brings More Books and Handwriting Practice Back To Its Tech-Heavy Schools (apnews.com) 26
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: As young children went back to school across Sweden last month, many of their teachers were putting a new emphasis on printed books, quiet reading time and handwriting practice and devoting less time to tablets, independent online research and keyboarding skills. The return to more traditional ways of learning is a response to politicians and experts questioning whether the country's hyper-digitalized approach to education, including the introduction of tablets in nursery schools, had led to a decline in basic skills. Swedish Minister for Schools Lotta Edholm, who took office 11 months ago as part of a new center-right coalition government, was one of the biggest critics of the all-out embrace of technology. "Sweden's students need more textbooks," Edholm said in March. "Physical books are important for student learning."
The minister announced last month in a statement that the government wants to reverse the decision by the National Agency for Education to make digital devices mandatory in preschools. It plans to go further and to completely end digital learning for children under age 6, the ministry also told The Associated Press. [...] "There's clear scientific evidence that digital tools impair rather than enhance student learning," Sweden's Karolinska Institute said in a statement last month on the country's national digitalization strategy in education. "We believe the focus should return to acquiring knowledge through printed textbooks and teacher expertise, rather than acquiring knowledge primarily from freely available digital sources that have not been vetted for accuracy," said the institute, a highly respected medical school focused on research. To counter Sweden's decline in 4th grade reading performance, the Swedish government announced an investment worth 685 million kronor (60 million euros or $64.7 million) in book purchases for the country's schools this year. Another 500 million kronor will be spent annually in 2024 and 2025 to speed up the return of textbooks to schools. "The Swedish government does have a valid point when saying that there is no evidence for technology improving learning, but I think that's because there is no straightforward evidence of what works with technology," said Neil Selwyn, a professor of education at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. "Technology is just one part of a really complex network of factors in education."
The minister announced last month in a statement that the government wants to reverse the decision by the National Agency for Education to make digital devices mandatory in preschools. It plans to go further and to completely end digital learning for children under age 6, the ministry also told The Associated Press. [...] "There's clear scientific evidence that digital tools impair rather than enhance student learning," Sweden's Karolinska Institute said in a statement last month on the country's national digitalization strategy in education. "We believe the focus should return to acquiring knowledge through printed textbooks and teacher expertise, rather than acquiring knowledge primarily from freely available digital sources that have not been vetted for accuracy," said the institute, a highly respected medical school focused on research. To counter Sweden's decline in 4th grade reading performance, the Swedish government announced an investment worth 685 million kronor (60 million euros or $64.7 million) in book purchases for the country's schools this year. Another 500 million kronor will be spent annually in 2024 and 2025 to speed up the return of textbooks to schools. "The Swedish government does have a valid point when saying that there is no evidence for technology improving learning, but I think that's because there is no straightforward evidence of what works with technology," said Neil Selwyn, a professor of education at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. "Technology is just one part of a really complex network of factors in education."
Meanwhile, in the U.S. (Score:1)
People of a certain political persuasion are doing everything they can to make American children even more stupid [cnn.com].
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From the party that screeched over defunding the police. https://www.commondreams.org/n... [commondreams.org]
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To be fair there are a lot of what was called "the resistance left" that freaked out about every single little thing the guy did that it was easy to become numb to anything new.
But on the flipside there is "TDSS" where any criticism no matter how valid can be written off by his supporters as "TDS" so they never have to acknowledge any of the mans shortcomings (of which there are many).
Re:Meanwhile, in the U.S. (Score:5, Insightful)
I have no idea how TDS became a label for the left when folks are building golden statues of the guy, donating heaps of money, buying his swag, and excusing his every problem.
You mean something such as this [imgur.com]?
Let's be honest, this [imgur.com] is one of many reasons Republicans don't want kids to be educated. But of course, there's always this doozy [theintercept.com].
Of course what's really funny is when Republicans like to claim they come from Jefferson who had a few things to say [azquotes.com] about educating [azquotes.com] the masses [azquotes.com].
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Of course what's really funny is when Republicans like to claim they come from Jefferson who had a few things to say [azquotes.com] about educating [azquotes.com] the masses [azquotes.com].
There seem to be far too many people on both sides of the deep political divide who either can't tell the difference, or don't care about the difference, between education and propagandistic indoctrination.
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Ah, but the founding fathers weren't actually people! They were anthropomorphized symbols of Freedom and Liberty and the Right to deny Freedom and Liberty to those you disagree with.
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Meanwhile neo-fascists Jake Tapper and Rachel Maddow demand Elon Musk be brought up on treason charges for not actively ensuring his private property can be used for offensive Ukranian operations. Seems like Freeman might have been on to something.
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True, some of my Trumpie friends seemed absolutely giddy about spending many hours in line just to hear a post-election "rally" where he rambles in a fugue state stream of consciousness. They'll have a bit of a letdown when Jesus comes back and doesn't vow revenge on librals and has no hats to hand out.
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I have no idea how TDS became a label for the left when folks are building golden statues of the guy, donating heaps of money, buying his swag, and excusing his every problem.
The thing is, no-one uses it any more.
It's become something you only see from the Trump cultists who live in a very special bubble. The word/saying never gained popular acceptance.
Usage, being the ultimate arbiter of language has given it a completely different meaning to the one the cultists imply. It's now like "woke" or "PC Gone Mad" as a sign to the audience that the person using it off their trolley and can be safely ignored.
About time (Score:3, Insightful)
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tablets in nursery schools? (Score:4)
You have got to be kidding me.
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People have been saying this for centuries. When workbooks were invented they were decried as lazy, because the teacher should be writing everything on the blackboard and walking the class through it.
Before that the move from Latin to English for kids lucky enough to go to school was decried. If they can't read Latin how will they ever learn science and philosophy, which is all written in that language?
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You have got to be kidding me.
This is Sweden we're talking about. They don't underfund their schools and try to maintain a large underclass that struggle to afford luxuries.
Even in the UK, most kids will have been using phones/tablets since they were toddlers. There's a great many educational apps out there for young kids these days.
Handwriting and Books for All (Score:2)
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Good on the Swedes! ...
I agree. I'm in Ontario, Canada and happen to live next door to a couple of teachers who have three young children. I was shocked recently to hear from the father that digital devices and internet access are necessary for grade-school kids to learn their lessons and complete their assignments. And parents are expected to sign papers accepting resp... - er, make that liability - for digital devices that schools attempt to send home with kids.
But some parents refuse to sign, because they know their kids are
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Good on the Swedes! Many US schools have eliminated handwriting and only teach block lettering.
When they talk about "hand writing" they mean putting pen to paper as opposed to typing. Not teaching cursive.
I learned the old style cursive (The simplified Victorian modern cursive was introduced a few years after I started school) and since leaving school I've used it... wait, carry the 1... Exactly 0 times. I've forgotten most of it.
Almost all of the remaining paper forms I fill out require block letters, which in the UK is different to normal handwriting. Block letters are sans-serif Latin charac
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It is not like it is necessary skill for anything beyond note taking. I never have submitted a hand written purchase request, review, or any paperwork of the sort.
there is no straightforward evidence of what works (Score:3)
I'll say here what I said to that teacher:
Technology in the classroom is supposed to enhance or benefit the student's learning. If the technology is instead distracting or hindering the student's learning, then the technology should be removed from the classroom. Until such a time that it can be made to enhance or benefit the student's learning again.
That being said, that teacher's case is one I see quite often around where I live. Most of the schools think that simply turning a textbook into a browser based PDF, and a workbook in to a web form is effective classroom technology use. Instead of what it really is: A set of extra unnecessary bills for the taxpayers. They also think that only showing student's Word / Excel / Powerpoint / Chrome is an effective all encompassing technology curriculum assuming they actually offer a technology curriculum in the first place. As many will forgo teaching about technology entirely the second their core (reading / writing / math) scores drop in hopes of reusing that time to boost the core scores back up. The short and sweet of it is, many schools around me simply don't have a good plan for integrating technology into the classroom effectively.
What would make for a good effective integration of technology into classrooms? An example I love to give is using something like Google Sketchup to create 3D artwork as part of a larger assignment. For example, a history class studying the US civil war could use Sketchup to create a mockup battlefield from the war. (To go along side a presentation.) Or a math class could use it to re-enforce the idea of the rule of triangles by calculating distance measurements from a given point and creating a model based on them. Granted it's a small example, but again I think the best use of technology is to enhance / benefit the student's learning. Not be a replacement for it.
Memory ... (Score:1)
You memorize stuff you wrote by hand 10 times better than just typing it on a keyboard.
Secondly - I hear that often, as I learn languages with "obscure" scripts - if you can not handwrite Thai, or Japanese, then you never get fluent in it.
I have a mixed American/Thai keyboard on this laptop. Basically only bought it for having the mixed keyboard. Surprisingly, noticed only a week later at home, this Acer has a mate screen. Cute!
Anyway, as non native, it takes ages to type a single word on this keyboard. The