Tablet Computer Use: Foreign Academics Warn Of Unready Teachers, Too Young Students

[Nigel1500]

The Australian government implemented similar roll outs of notebooks. My wonderful Thai stepson, whilst at school, typed in a search for porn. This triggered an automatic alert to the teacher and I was contacted and requested to attend the school and stepson was reprimanded. You can only hope the Thai education department will implement similar technology as well as lock down the tablet configuration so that the students cannot load games.

My brother told me about this ... according to my niece, they spent most of the lesson getting everyone's notebook started and looking at the same thing ... and then they ran out of battery ... and the classroom only had 3 or 4 powerpoints ... plenty of notes and memos were sent home to remind parents to charge devices overnight, but apparently the kids are playing games on them instead ...

Here we are poking fun at the Thai roll-out and the same problems are happening in other countries.

[Nigel1500]

When I was living in Australia I tried for seven years to get my Thai stepson to engage with reading. Initially was going OK but then moved to another school that had other Thai kids. No matter what approach I tried just completely lost interest in reading & eventually failed his final year exam & now if a minimum salary job; yes in a Thai restaurant. Sorry to say in Oz the overseas born Asian students who excel and come in the top percentile are usually Chinese and Vietnamese - very rare for a Thai. As had been said many times there needs to be a fundamental overhaul of the Thai education culture that at the moment seems to be years away.

Unfortunately schooling in Australia isn't much better. In fact, some public schools barely manage the simple task of child-minding. Luckily I had the luxury of completing highschool in Japan, otherwise I'd be filling pot-holes somewhere.

Don't give up on your stepson. Things might change as he matures.

[Slip]

This is old news already. What's the point? A final attempt to throw the tablet program in the garbage and "prove that PTP was wrong to offer?" This topic has been discussed ad nauseam in this and I am sure other forums since its inception.

Thailand never allowed student to use calculators; as it inhibit Thai student ability to calculate.

Tablet is worst that calculator. It also inhibit Thai student the ability to read books.

You're having a Giraffe.

If that was the case then how come most shop assistants can't even subtract 90 baht from a100 baht without a) using a calculator and checking it about 4 times?

They could.

But it is stated in the stupid "operation procedure" of a major hypermarket retailers forcing them (their Thai staffs) to do that (quadruplet checking with calculators) or be sack for non-conformance.

No doubt the operation procedure was brought over from the retailer home country, due to experience gain in Britain, without taking into consideration like; Thai staff are good with mental calculations.

This is not the case as far as I have seen here in LOS. Major retailers use their expensive scan/till systems software. It's the mom and pop stores who use calculators- and they all do, everytime.

[Bagwan]

Bill Gates' Message on Life

For recent high school and college graduates, here is a list of 11 things they did not learn in school.

In his book, Bill Gates talks about how feel-good, politically-correct teachings created a full generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

RULE 1......Life is not fair; get used to it.

RULE 2......The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3......You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.

RULE 4......If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

RULE 5......Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

RULE 6......If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

RULE 7......Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try "delousing" the closet in your own room.

RULE 8......Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9......Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summer off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

RULE 10.....Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

RULE 11.....Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

[Kananga]

Go back to korea thai children are not your business

Said like a true local. Now if only Thai children could produce the same educational standards as Korean kids you may have a point. However from what I have seen anyone sorry enough to be in the local Thai education system needs all the advice they can get.

[mrtoad]

This is old news already. What's the point? A final attempt to throw the tablet program in the garbage and "prove that PTP was wrong to offer?" This topic has been discussed ad nauseam in this and I am sure other forums since its inception.

Thailand never allowed student to use calculators; as it inhibit Thai student ability to calculate.

Tablet is worst that calculator. It also inhibit Thai student the ability to read books.

You're having a Giraffe.

If that was the case then how come most shop assistants can't even subtract 90 baht from a100 baht without a) using a calculator and checking it about 4 times?

They could.

But it is stated in the stupid "operation procedure" of a major hypermarket retailers forcing them (their Thai staffs) to do that (quadruplet checking with calculators) or be sack for non-conformance.

No doubt the operation procedure was brought over from the retailer home country, due to experience gain in Britain, without taking into consideration like; Thai staff are good with mental calculations.

No, it certainly isn't the case with Britishnretailers, and from what I can remember staff can count back the change. Never seen it'd one here though.

[thaicbr]

Technologically, Android was developed by Google as a mobile phone operating system. Sure, it's built on Linux, but it's really a phone system that has only recently been a serious market player in the phone market and even more recently a player in the tablet market.

That said, it does have some potential for kids. Although I have never heard any Thai official mention it, Google Docs could be very useful for homework.

The bottom line is not just who will teach the teachers and who will teach the kids but just as much, who will teach the tablets.

They are P1 (6 year old) you would hope they don't have homework that can be done on a tab

Does google docs transfer to windows word?

sent from my Wellcom A90+

Edited July 30, 2012 by thaicbr

[Moruya]

Technologically, Android was developed by Google as a mobile phone operating system. Sure, it's built on Linux, but it's really a phone system that has only recently been a serious market player in the phone market and even more recently a player in the tablet market.

That said, it does have some potential for kids. Although I have never heard any Thai official mention it, Google Docs could be very useful for homework.

The bottom line is not just who will teach the teachers and who will teach the kids but just as much, who will teach the tablets.

They are P1 (6 year old) you would hope they don't have homework that can be done on a tab

Does google docs transfer to windows word?

sent from my Wellcom A90+

They could do drawings or sketch out letters of the alphabet.

Google docs does allow the MS Office formats to be viewed and edited although some complex features my not work

[thaicbr]

Technologically, Android was developed by Google as a mobile phone operating system. Sure, it's built on Linux, but it's really a phone system that has only recently been a serious market player in the phone market and even more recently a player in the tablet market.

That said, it does have some potential for kids. Although I have never heard any Thai official mention it, Google Docs could be very useful for homework.

The bottom line is not just who will teach the teachers and who will teach the kids but just as much, who will teach the tablets.

They are P1 (6 year old) you would hope they don't have homework that can be done on a tab

Does google docs transfer to windows word?

sent from my Wellcom A90+

They could do drawings or sketch out letters of the alphabet.

Google docs does allow the MS Office formats to be viewed and edited although some complex features my not work

They can do that easier and probably have more fun with crayons and paper. But I do get your point.

sent from my Wellcom A90+

[Thai at Heart]

Go back to korea thai children are not your business

I presume they will be, producing thousands of high school kids and graduates every year so that Korea is ranked in the top 5 highest academically performing countries in the world.

[Lannig]

They could do drawings or sketch out letters of the alphabet.

Writing Thai alphabet letters on an el-cheapo touchscreen? good luck. I could barely write ABC on one of them, and I'm quite used to touchscreens.

The only thing they would gain is being even more confused when holding a pen for this, since it behaves in a radically different way.

Even drawings... try sketching something on a cheap chinese 7" tablet.

[foolforlove]

Go back to korea thai children are not your business

I presume they will be, producing thousands of high school kids and graduates every year so that Korea is ranked in the top 5 highest academically performing countries in the world.

I hope that comment was meant as a joke? Because it won't be too difficult. South Korea is already ranked #6 worldwide as far as having an educated population:

6. South Korea

> Pct. population with postsecondary education: 39%

> Avg. annual growth rate (1999 – 2009): 5.3% (5th highest)

> GDP per capita: $29,101 (13th lowest)

> Pop. change (2000 – 2009): 3.70% (14th lowest)

Korea is another standout country for its recent increase in the percentage of its population that has a tertiary education. Graduates increased 5.3% between 1999 and 2009, the fifth-highest among OECD countries. Like the UK, this rate is greater than the country’s recent population growth. Korea is also one of only two countries — the other being Finland — in which the most popular fields of study are not social sciences, business and law. In Korea, new students choose to study education, humanities and arts at the greatest rates. Only 59.6% of expenditures on educational institutions come from public funds — the second-lowest rate.

[meand]

Thai translation of world renowned = someone we really, REALLY should not listen to

[Thai at Heart]

Go back to korea thai children are not your business

I presume they will be, producing thousands of high school kids and graduates every year so that Korea is ranked in the top 5 highest academically performing countries in the world.

I hope that comment was meant as a joke? Because it won't be too difficult. South Korea is already ranked #6 worldwide as far as having an educated population:

6. South Korea

> Pct. population with postsecondary education: 39%

> Avg. annual growth rate (1999 – 2009): 5.3% (5th highest)

> GDP per capita: $29,101 (13th lowest)

> Pop. change (2000 – 2009): 3.70% (14th lowest)

Korea is another standout country for its recent increase in the percentage of its population that has a tertiary education. Graduates increased 5.3% between 1999 and 2009, the fifth-highest among OECD countries. Like the UK, this rate is greater than the country’s recent population growth. Korea is also one of only two countries — the other being Finland — in which the most popular fields of study are not social sciences, business and law. In Korea, new students choose to study education, humanities and arts at the greatest rates. Only 59.6% of expenditures on educational institutions come from public funds — the second-lowest rate.

What I could find said they were ranked 3rd, but I hedged my bets by saying top 5. Whoooooops.

My best mate is half korean, and to see the obsession that Korea has with education is sometimes a little overwhelming, but if you want to drag a country up in 50 years to the level they are at, that is what it takes. They have a truly astonishing respect for education.

Its ok though, of course, Thailand is perfectly satisfied with its place in the world. We don't need no education.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Thai at Heart

[Slip]

Technologically, Android was developed by Google as a mobile phone operating system. Sure, it's built on Linux, but it's really a phone system that has only recently been a serious market player in the phone market and even more recently a player in the tablet market.

That said, it does have some potential for kids. Although I have never heard any Thai official mention it, Google Docs could be very useful for homework.

The bottom line is not just who will teach the teachers and who will teach the kids but just as much, who will teach the tablets.

They are P1 (6 year old) you would hope they don't have homework that can be done on a tab

Does google docs transfer to windows word?

sent from my Wellcom A90+

They could do drawings or sketch out letters of the alphabet.

Google docs does allow the MS Office formats to be viewed and edited although some complex features my not work

They can do that easier and probably have more fun with crayons and paper. But I do get your point.

sent from my Wellcom A90+

Not to mention learning fine motor skills?

Good luck with those pads kids.

[Dap]

Go back to korea thai children are not your business

That was tongue-in-cheek, wasn't it?

[cloudhopper]

Thai staff are good with mental calculations.

Except for the calculations involving numbers. In ten years here I have yet to see anyone multiplying or dividing a number by 10 without using a calculator.

[Thaddeus]

Thai staff are good with mental calculations.

Except for the calculations involving numbers. In ten years here I have yet to see anyone multiplying or dividing a number by 10 without using a calculator.

While not true of all Thais, try paying a 485B bill with 505B, most times the eyebrows start doing bunny hops.

[newermonkey]

Oh comeon, does anyone beleive the tablet idea was anything about education?

No it was:

1) Kick backs on the perchacing.

2) An election carrot.

Within one year all the tablets will be:

1) Stolen from the kids by older kids or thair farthers for more boose.

2) broken.

3) Abandoned because of lack of usefullness, and slow operation (they are very slow and cant even play the simplest of games "they are not iPads or Gallaxies you know")

[newermonkey]

The tablet is nothing more that an instrument to store and retrieve information. If the information is useful then it will benefit the user when it comes time to retrieve it. It comes down to nothing more than" Useful information in,..Useful information out. Crap in, Crap out." What needs to be addressed is who is teaching the students how to best use these tablets in order to maximize their learning experiences. If the teachers have no proper training on the tablets uses, then the students would be no better off than if they were using a piece of slate on chalk.

I wonder how many teachers will be taking lessons from the kid's.

That is not meant as a joke. It is a serious consideration.

Just think about it a whole generation of first grade teachers learning to play games on a pad.

There is no sense in trying to help the schools get a better learning system. They are not interested in one.

I would love to see the degree of thinking ability of a four year graduate who never got the pad until the third grade as compared to the level of thinking ability for the students getting a pad now.

I would think the ones receiving them today the first thing they would do is reach for a pad to get the answer rather than think. Where as the student who did not receive one would be able to say he lives next door to me.

If I know what teachers here are like. when the tablets arrive, they wont say:

"lets get a system set up and a structured way of using these devices with modum operatio"

No they will look at the devices and say "Aly Wa!" ห่า !!!