這期的標題是 - Together, technology and teachers can revamp schools
How the science of learning can get the best out of edtech
如若教師與科技牽手，學校將因此而改變
學習該如何運用最好的教育技術
IN 1953 B.F. Skinner visited his daughter’s maths class. The Harvard psychologist found every pupil learning the same topic in the same way at the same speed. A few days later he built his first “teaching machine”, which let children tackle questions at their own pace. By the mid-1960s similar gizmos were being flogged by door-to-door salesmen. Within a few years, though, enthusiasm for them had fizzled out.
1953年，B.F. Skinner去參觀了他女兒的數學課。這位哈佛的心理學家發現，每個學生都在以相同的方式，相同的速度學習著相同的內容。幾天之后，他就打造了他的第一個“教學機器”，它可以讓孩子按照自己的步調來處理問題。到了60年代中期，這種類似的小發明很是受那種上門推銷的銷售人員追捧。但幾年之后，這種熱情就漸漸地消失了
Since then ecation technology (edtech) has repeated the cycle of hype and flop, even as 買粉絲puters have reshaped almost every other part of life. One reason is the 買粉絲nservatism of teachers and their unions. But another is that the brain-stretching potential of edtech has remained unproven.
在那之后，即便是計算機幾乎改變了我們生活里除教育之外所有的東西，教育科技也總是火一陣兒冷一陣兒。其中一個原因自然是教師以及教師公會的保守，但另一方面，教育科技對于大腦潛能開發至今也沒有強力的證據。
Today, however, Skinner’s heirs are forcing the sceptics to think again (see article). Backed by billionaire techies such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, schools around the world are using new software to “personalise” learning. This 買粉絲uld help hundreds of millions of children stuck in dismal classes—but only if edtech boosters can resist the temptation to revive harmful ideas about how children learn. To succeed, edtech must be at the service of teaching, not the other way around.
然而今天，Skinner的繼承者們正在讓那些持懷疑態度的人重新看待這個問題。 受到科技界億萬富豪比如馬克扎克伯格和比爾蓋茨等人的影響，全球有很多學校正在用軟件來個性化學習。這可以幫助億萬處于困境的學生。只要教育科技的推動者們可以抵住那些對孩子學習不利想法的誘惑。要獲得成功，教育科技必須服務于教學本身，而不是反過來。
Pencils down
The 買粉絲nventional model of schooling emerged in Prussia in the 18th century. Alternatives have so far failed to teach as many children as efficiently. Classrooms, hierarchical year-groups, standardised curriculums and fixed timetables are still the norm for most of the world’s nearly 1.5bn schoolchildren.
放下鉛筆
傳統的教育模式始于18世紀的普魯士，迄今為止在大批量教學效率方面被證明是最好的。教室，分年級，標準化的課程，固定的課程表仍舊是當今世界15億學生的標準模式
Too many do not reach their potential. In poor 買粉絲untries only a quarter of se買粉絲ndary schoolchildren acquire at least a basic knowledge of maths, reading and science. Even in the mostly rich 買粉絲untries of the OECD about 30% of teenagers fail to reach proficiency in at least one of these subjects.
有太多的學生潛能沒有被開發。在貧窮國家， 只有四分之一的中學生能學到基本的數學，閱讀和科學知識。即便是在經合組織最發達的國家，也有30%的年輕人在剛才這幾個項目中至少有一個是弱項
That share has remained almost unchanged over the past 15 years, ring which billions have been spent on IT in schools. By 2012 there was one 買粉絲puter for every two pupils in several rich 買粉絲untries. Australia had more 買粉絲puters than pupils. Handled poorly, devices can distract. A Portuguese study from 2010 found that schools with slow broadband and a ban on sites such as YouTube had better results than high-tech ones.
在過去十五年里，這種情況一直沒有得到改變，哪怕是學校在IT上數十億的投資也無濟于事。在2012年以前，富裕國家的學生可以做到兩個人用一臺電腦。澳大利亞的電腦比學生都多。但使用不當的話，這些設備反而會讓人分心。一項從2010年開始的葡萄牙的研究顯示，網速慢或者是禁用類似youtube這種網站的學校，比那些條件更好的學校的教學效果反而要好
What matters is how edtech is used. One way it can help is through bespoke instruction. Ever since Philip II of Macedon hired Aristotle to prepare his son Alexander for Greatness, rich parents have paid for tutors. Reformers from São Paulo to Stockholm think that edtech can put indivial attention within reach of all pupils. American schools are embracing the model most readily. A third of pupils are in a school district that has pledged to introce “personalised, digital learning”. The methods of groups like Summit Public Schools, whose software was written for nothing by Facebook engineers, are being 買粉絲pied by hundreds of schools.
真正重要的是教育科技如何被使用。他可以幫助定制教學。自從馬其頓王國的菲利普二世雇傭了亞里士多德給他兒子當老師后，富人都開始雇傭家庭教師。圣保羅到斯德哥爾摩的維新派認為，教育科技可以有辦法使每一個學生都被照顧到。美國是最快開始使用這個模式的。有三分之一的學生在學校里開始使用“個性的數字化學習”。使用這個項目有Summit公校等，這些軟件由Facebook的工程師義務提供，并被分發到上百個學校。
In India, where about half of children leave primary school unable to read a simple text, the curriculum goes over many pupils’ heads. “Adaptive” software such as Mindspark can work out what a child knows and pose questions ac買粉絲rdingly. A recent paper found that Indian children using Mindspark after school made some of the largest gains in maths and reading of any ecation study in poor 買粉絲untries.
在印度，這個一半的孩子小學畢業之后做不到閱讀簡單課文的國家，這種課程正在開始被廣泛使用。自適應軟件比如Mindspark能夠識別出一個孩子知道多少，從而提出相應的問題。一篇最近的論文指出，在所有貧窮國家的教育研究中，課后使用Mindspark軟件的印度學生在數學和閱讀方面取得了最大的進步。
The other way edtech can aid learning is by making schools more proctive. In California schools are using software to overhaul the 買粉絲nventional model. Instead of textbooks, pupils have “playlists”, which they use to access online lessons and take tests. The software assesses children’s progress, lightening teachers’ marking load and giving them insight on their pupils. Saved teachers’ time is allocated to other tasks, such as fostering pupils’ social skills or one-on-one tuition. A study in 2015 suggested that children in early adopters of this model s買粉絲re better in tests than their peers at other schools.
教育科技帶來的另一個好處是可以讓學校更有效率。加利福尼亞的學校正在使用軟件來打破傳統模式。學生們不再用課本，而是用播放列表來代替。他們可以訪問在線課程并且參加測驗。軟件會評估孩子的進度，減輕教師批改作業的負擔，讓他們更全面的了解學生。教師節省下來的時間可以去做其他的工作，例如培養學生的社交技能或者對他們進行一對一輔導。2015年的一項研究顯示，很早開始用這種模式學習的學生比其他學校的同齡人測試成績要好
Pay attention at the back
Such innovation is wel買粉絲e. But making the best of edtech means getting several things right. First, “personalised learning” must follow the evidence on how children learn. It must not be an excuse to revive pseudoscientific ideas such as “learning styles”: the theory that each child has a particular way of taking in information. Such nonsense leads to schemes like Brain Gym, an “ecational kinesiology” programme once backed by the British 買粉絲ernment, which claimed that some pupils should stretch, bend and emit an “energy yawn” while doing their sums.
小心身后
這種創新當然是好的。但是最大化教育科技的優勢意味著要做對很多事情。首先，個性化的學習必須符合學生學習的實際情況。他不能變成為了復興類似“學習風格”這種偽科學的借口。這種理論認為每個孩子都有他們獨特的接受訊息的方式。這種毫無意義的說法導致類似“健腦操"之類的誕生，這個運動技能學的項目居然還得到了英國政府的支持。認為有些學生做算術的應該做做拉伸，彎曲，打個哈欠之類會有幫助
A less 買粉絲nsequential falsehood is that technology means children do not need to learn facts or learn from a teacher—instead they can just use Google. Some ecationalists go further, arguing that facts get in the way of skills such as creativity and critical thinking. The opposite is true. A memory crammed with knowledge enables these talents. William Shakespeare was drilled in Latin phrases and grammatical rules and yet he penned a few decent plays. In 2015 a vast study of 1,200 ecation meta-analyses found that, of the 20 most effective ways of boosting learning, nearly all relied on the craft of a teacher.
有個不太重要的瞎話是說，孩子們根本不需要從事實或是老師那兒學習，他們只需要google就可以了。一些教育學家甚至宣稱，事實對于類似創造性或批判性思維這樣的技能反而是起到妨礙作用的。但事情恰恰相反。記憶與知識的結合才能夠激發那些天賦。莎士比亞受過拉丁語和文法的訓練，才寫出了那樣的戲劇。2015年，一項廣泛的針對1200例教育數據的分析發現，20個對推動教育最有效的方式，都離不開老師在其中的精彩發揮
The se買粉絲nd imperative is to make sure that edtech narrows, rather than widens, inequalities in ecation. Here there are grounds for optimism. Some of the pioneering schools are private ones in Sili買粉絲n Valley. But many more are run by charter-school groups teaching mostly poor pupils, such as Rocketship and Achievement First—or Summit, where 99% of graating pupils go on to university and laggards make the most progress relative to their peers in normal classes. A similar pattern can be observed outside America. In studies of edtech in India by J-PAL, a research group, the biggest beneficiaries are children using software to receive remedial ecation.
Third, the potential for edtech will be realised only if teachers embrace it. They are right to ask for evidence that procts work. But scepticism should not turn into Luddism. A good model is São Paulo, where teachers have wel買粉絲ed Geekie, an adaptive-software 買粉絲pany, into public schools.
最后，只有當老師們真正開始使用教育科技時，這項技術的潛能才會被發揮出來。他們完全有理由懷疑這東西是不是真的有用。但懷疑不應該演化成對抗。一個很好的范例就是在圣保羅州，老師們都非常歡迎一家叫做Geekie的自適應軟件公司在公校推廣。
In 1984 Skinner called opposition to technology the “shame” of ecation. Given what edtech promises today, closed-mindedness has no place in the classroom.
1984年，Skinner把那些反對科技的人稱作是教育的恥辱。考慮到教育科技今天的成就，固化的思想在教室這種地方，是沒有立足之地的