Play time is up, now debate: Is It Time to Stop Teaching Kids Handwriting?

Is It Time to Stop Teaching Kids Handwriting?

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Can Finnish students read the above cursive writing? Probably not – and that’s primarily because the word is in English. Even if they could read English, though, Finnish kids will soon have difficulty comprehending this word, as Finland has declared that it will phase out handwriting lessons over the next two school years.

At  BBC: 

       Typing takes over as handwriting lessons end

Learning joined-up writing, often in fountain pen in the UK, is almost a rite of passage for primary school students.  

But Finland is moving into the digital age by ditching the ink in favour of keyboards, the Savon Sanomat newspaper reports.

Finnish students will no longer be taught handwriting at school,
with typing lessons taking its place, it's reported

TASK1. 

List four other ideas to support either option.

PROS:

• Computer literacy is an essential part of modern schooling
• limited classroom time
• who learn to type fast can communicate their thoughts
• there are other ways for students to develop dexterity and motor skills
•  
• 
  

CONS:

• learning cursive instills dexterity and motor skills
• more efficient way for people to write lengthier messages.
• it  comes at the cost of teaching handwriting
• it seems to favor tradition
•  
•  

TASK2. Time for debate: 

Inappropriately dubbed


 “end-of-an era  Crimes”

Salman Khan -innovation in education

Innovation in Education (August 2010). Get the word out

Spreading the word about the Khan Academy is one of the best ways to help us. Each month we serve over 1,000,000 students, but there's no reason it shouldn't be 20 million. Please take a moment to share this site with your friends and community.  

presents www.khanacademy.org 

Pangaea : Pangaea (5:08 min ) - the idea of Pangaea and some of the evidence behind it

Let's bring India back down towards Antarctica.

Subtitles Download  

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

K

Check it at universalsubtitles (with downloadable transcripts) 

Bill Gates' favorite teacher

(news) FORTUNE -- Sal Khan, you can count Bill Gates as your newest fan. Gates is a voracious consumer of online education. This past spring a colleague at his small think tank, bgC3, e-mailed him about the nonprofitkhanacademy.org, a vast digital trove of free mini-lectures all narrated by Khan, an ebullient, articulate Harvard MBA and former hedge fund manager. Gates replied within minutes. "This guy is amazing," he wrote. "It is awesome how much he has done with very little in the way of resources." Gates and his 11-year-old son, Rory, began soaking up videos, from algebra to biology. Then, several weeks ago, at the Aspen Ideas Festival in front of 2,000 people, Gates gave the 33-year-old Khan a shout-out that any entrepreneur would kill for. Ruminating on what he called the "mind-blowing misallocation" of resources away from education, Gates touted the "unbelievable" 10- to 15-minute Khan Academy tutorials "I've been using with my kids." With admiration and surprise, the world's second-richest person noted that Khan "was a hedge fund guy making lots of money." Now, Gates said, "I'd say we've moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-many-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day his wife let him quit his job." Khan wasn't even there -- he learned of Gates' praise through a YouTube video. "It was really cool," Khan says

Aakash tablets at $35 in India

India has launched what it says is the world's cheapest touch-screen tablet computer, priced at just $35 (£23).  (as read in the BBC)

Also from Indian news   or peni.io

Costing a fraction of Apple's iPad, the subsidised Aakash is aimed at students. It supports web browsing and video conferencing, has a three-hour battery life and two USB ports, but questions remain over how it will perform. Officials hope the computer will give digital access to students in small towns and villages across India, which lags behind its rivals in connectivity.

At the launch in the Indian capital, Delhi, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal handed out 500 Aakash (meaning sky) tablets to students who will test them. He said the government planned to buy 100,000 of the tablets. It hopes to distribute 10 million of the devices to students over the next few years.

"The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide," Mr Sibal said.

The company says it will also offer a commercial version of the tablet, called UbiSlate. It is expected to hit the shelves later this year, retailing for about $60. The Aakash has been developed by UK-based company DataWind and Indian Institute of Technology (Rajasthan). It is due to be assembled in India, at DataWind's new production centre in the southern city of Hyderabad. "Our goal was to break the price barrier for computing and internet access," DataWind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli said. "We've created a product that will finally bring affordable computing and internet access to the masses."

Usability questions

Mr Sibal says the device will enhance learning in India. Experts say it does have the potential to make a huge difference to the country's education, particularly in rural areas where schools and students do not have access to libraries and up-to-date information.